Very slow B2D

[dennishdl]

We are currently using tapes for backups but wanted to explore moving over to disk for convenance and improved performance.  However doing a simple test has proved to be slow and unusable.  

Our current full backup is ~800GB and the backup ran for 27 hours and only backed up 635GB (375.00MB/min).  

Backup was to a Brand New 2TB WD SATA HDD using a ESATA connection. When the backup went that slow I immediately thought something was wrong with the disk.  We have since tried it with 5 other hard drives with very simailar performance.  OK, so then I thought - must be the ESATA enclosure.  Tried a brand new enclosure from a different manufacture with the same result. Never got over 400MB/min. Even tried the USB 2.0 connection, no go.    Last resort was to attach the disk internal to one of the onboard SATA ports - but still the same exact result.

The drives had all been fully formatted, partitions deleted, and defragged prior to the backup running.  There is no Antivirus scan running  or monitoring the drives at the time of backup.  Doing a standard write to the new WD 2TB disks of 900GB copied in ~11 hours.  

The tape backup currently writes our full backups (~800GB) in 13 hours roughly 1,500MB/Min.  

Searching online showed a lot of people with this problem but no real solutions.  I am open to trying anything if it helps result in a decent B2D.  

[DominikG]

Which data do you back up in this job?
I think the "problem" is not the size, but the file count.
If you got many files in that backup, this slows down the performance.
You can not only see the process as like copying, there is a lot more processing and side work, which BE does and which costs time of course.

NDMP backups to a filer would improve the backup speed a lot.

best regards

Dominik

[dennishdl]

These are full network backups, so everything ranging from document file to windows OS files to exchange data. I understand the overhead when making the backup is much higher, but used the standard copy of those same files as a comparison to help rule out hardware as being an issue. Still - the overhead should be apparent on both the Tape Backup and the B2D, not just the B2D. There is no reason the tape backup should be performing "better" than a direct ESATA attached HDD. Is there anything I could tweak to help the performance on the B2D?

[Dennis_Sting]

Hi,,
Have the same problem, Server 2003R2 , Backupexec 11D ver7170.
I have 2 B2D disks on a JMicron Esata controller.
Performance in Backupexec is slow 400Mb/min with software compression.
When testing disk in windows it manages 85Mb/sec in average and 105Mb/sec max.
Using Seagate 500Gb ES.2 disks formatted with NTFS with 4Gb lage files.
When backing up to tape it manages 1200-1500Mb/min

Best regards Dennis

[Johnbee]

sedf
http://symantec.com

[Dennis_Sting]

In my case id used the wrong driver for the JMicron Esata controller embedded on ASUS motherboard.
I where using a driver with WriteCache disabled, changed to "JMB36X_WinDrv_R1.17.49_WHQL_eSATA" and now Backupexec reports 1750Mb/min with software compression.

First i tested drive-speed with "HD Tune 2.55" and it reported 85Mb/sec in average, seems ok.
Then i tested by copying "1,68 GB (1 811 751 635 byte)  1183 files in 30 folders" and it took a staggering 4min 20s  /about  400Mb/min  //   6,6Mb/s.
That is not good!
With the new driver i copied the same files in 52s  /about  1938Mb/min  //   32,3Mb/s .

My advice, test speed on Esata by copying a large amount of files.

Kind regards //Dennis 

[CraigV]

Check this out, it might point you in the right direction:

http://seer.entsupport.symantec.com/docs/285756.htm

[dennishdl]

Dennis_Sting I have ASUS board as well that uses the same JMicron driver. I was running ver 1.17.47. Not sure if we were using the write cache disabled driver or not but i just installed the regular 1.17.49 driver just now. Because it needs a reboot I wont be able to test this until tonight, but either way I will post my results. I truly hope this solves the issue. Getting tired of dealing with tapes. Thanks!

[teiva-boy]

When creating partitions, use DISKPART.  NEVER use the windows disk manager.

Learn the align command, it is your friend.