Arcserve 11.5 SLOW backup speed

[pptvictor]

Hi

Arcserve 11.5
Windows Small Business Server 2003 (Arcserve server + Exabyte VXA-2 tape drive)
Windows Advanced Server 2000 (arcserve client + BAOF)


We just upgraded from SBS2000 with Arcserve 11.1. Our nightly backup job backs up the small business server and the advanced server. We have no problems with speed with the small business server, but for some drives on the advanced server, the backup speed is VERY slow at the start (less than 0.10MB/Min). Gradually, the speed increases, over the time it takes to backup the drive. The speed never reaches maximum, even for a 50Gb drive. This only happens on some of the drives in the advanced server.

All drivers have been installed correctly, no hardware changes compared to pre-upgrade.

This is really frustrating... Last time it took 20+ Hours to back up 50GB.

Any suggestions are welcome...

Thanks in advance!

Victor.

 

[pptvictor]

I am currently running a test backup job and I have noticed that the backup stops at certain files. It is currently stopped on CRiadx09r.dll, which is a Crystal Reports runtime dll. Whilst the job is seemingly frozen, the tape drive shows no activity - as if there were no job running. It has been like this for about 30 minutes now.

I am not using crystal reports at the moment. I have run ListDlls.exe from Sysinternals.com, which lists all currently active dlls, and it shows that CRiadx09r is not in use.

This happens for quite a few files, none of which are in use.

Victor.

 

[davidmichel]

Start by running a check and then a defrag on the drive.

Try a Copy job for comparision via ARCserve and Windows.

Try moving the data off the drive and then back on.

 

[TheFanatic]

Arcserve backs up a drive with a bunch of small files a lot slower than it backs up a drive with a few huge files. After each file it catalogs the file. If there a bunch of little ones it has to stop a lot more than it does if it is backing up some gigantic databases or mail stores.

If those drives that are slow to backup are filled with small files (JPGs or docs) and the fast drives only have a few databases then there will be a huge difference when it comes to backup speeds.

 

[pptvictor]

Thanks for the replies guys,

It's not a problem with the drive, and it's nothing to do with fragmentation. It doesn't have anything to do with lots of small files.

I know this because one of the drives i am talking about (containing 50GB of data) used to back up in 1 hr 40 mins prior to upgrade. Now it takes anywhere up to 42 HOURS to back it up.

I raised the issue with CA tech support and they suggested upgrading to R11.5 SP1, which we promptly did. After the upgrade, the speed issue was fixed, but only temporarily. The backups are experiencing the slow speed issues once again.

thanks

Victor.

 

[ntinlin]

When did you last clean the heads on the drive?

I know it sounds simple / stupid but I had a very similar problem with an ATL L200 drive. Speed would be fine after a reboot but after a couple of backups it would be way back down again.
Cleaning cartridge had expired and user hadn't noticed. Replaced it and cleaned heads and she hasn't complained since.

Neill

 

[pptvictor]

Thanks for the reply Neill,

Simple/stupid is good - any suggestion is a good suggestion, but we do indeed clean the tape heads at least once a week - we certainly clean the heads more often than the tape drive asks us to.

It seems the backup is almost stopping on some files - rather small and insignificant files too. We have monitored so many backups and I can say that it usually always stops on the same files. No idea why... they are just documents, or logs. Arcserve stops on them for hours on end. During this time, the tape drive is not writing and looks to be in a ready state.

Victor.