vmware backup performance issuse

[walker_yang]

Recently i am always confused with performance for vmware backup. I have NBU master,backup host and ESXi Server in the same LAN. All the servers are connected through same switch. I choose the vStorage method and use the nbd method to backup vmware. Network is gigabit network, but the rate of each backup is only less than 10MB/s. i wanna know if it is normal. 

Otherwise, how about you in backing up vmware? thanks much.

[RiaanBadenhorst]

Hi,

You'll see better speed if you place the backup host in the same SAN zones as the vmfs datastores. Then you can change the backup transport to SAN in your policy.

Open diskpart from CLI on the backup host before you do the zoning though. From within diskpart run

automount disable

automount scrub

[walker_yang]

thanks for your reply.

i know that it will get better speed using SAN method. Based on my current conditons, not changing my backup method, can i improve the backup speed?

when backing up vmware using LAN method and nbd transport, what about your speed?

[RiaanBadenhorst]

Good to know you're aware of that. I don't have figures on hand.

How many jobs are running at the same time to the backup host?

[walker_yang]

i only have a job run, at the moment, i get the rate value from NetBackup Activity Monitor, it's less than 10MB/s.

Is it possible that the backup speed is more than 10MB/s, for example, 30MB/s or something?

[RiaanBadenhorst]

Hi,

Yes its possible, but unfortunately it depends entirely on your environment. This would include the disk that house the vmdk's, the network, as well as your storage destination (tape or disk) performance.

What speeds do you get from other backups running through the backup host/media server?

[pikachu]

Try to disable exclude whites spaces and disable mapped vm backup. How fast is the backup now?

Also what version of NBU are you running and do you have any vmware eeb rollup patches installed?

[walker_yang]

thanks for your reply.

my environment is following:

NBU master(media): 7.0.1, windows 2003 EE

backup host: 7.0.1, windows 2003 EE

ESXi server:4.1

vStorage method, and nbd

After lots of testing, i found that different network topology results in different performance value. All backup is using LAN method. There are two ways to back up vmware in my environment. One of is NBU master(media) and backup host is located in the same physical machine, other is NBU master(media) and backup host is located in different physical machines. For the former, the backup speed is about 40MB/s, and for the latter, it's about 10MB/s.

any ideas?

[RiaanBadenhorst]

And you have tape drives configured on both the master as well as the backup hosts? In other words you've got two separate storage units?

[walker_yang]

No tape drives configured on both the master and the backup host. All data on master and backup host are stored on the local disks.

during backup vmware(master and backup host are not located the same host), i got the following messages:

1、first of all, vmware would create a snapshot on ESX

2、backup host would read copy of the snapshot of VM, and then transfer these data to master, and then write master's storage unit

3、finally, vmware would release the snapshot resource. and backup is over.

for the step 2 above, i found that no data read from or write to the disk on the backup host. backup host's network receives all of these data from the

snapshot ,and then directly transfers these data to the master,  the total transfer data amount(about 30% in task manager) of backup host is about twice the

network data amount(about 16% in task manager) of master, Finally, the rate of writing todisk of master is about 10MB/s, 

i try other ways, i add a network card on backup host, it means that there are two NICs on backup host. Then i retry to start the backup.

the result is that the total transfer data amount is about 50%, and the network data amount of master is about 30%, the rate of writing todisk of master is

about 20MB/s,

why's that? who can explain vmware backup's theory  more detailed?

[RiaanBadenhorst]

Hi,

So your issue is that you're not sending the data to media server (NetBackup Server with a storage unit) directly. You're pulling the data from vCenter/ESX to the backup host across the LAN, and then sending it from the backup host to the media server (master) across the LAN again. This isn't very effective.

Either add a storage unit on the backup host (needs the netbackup server software to be installed), and then change your policy to use the new storage unit. Alternatively, configure the master as a backup host.

Finally, zone the vmfs datastore luns to the master. Change your transport method to SAN. You'll see much better performance.