Backup takes over 16 hours 1

[perfectchaoss]

Hi
I am Running SQL Server 2000 on Windows 2000. Backup started at 6:00PM and is still going at 10:00AM. My old backup was part of a "Database Maintenence plan" so i expected it to take some time. The new database maintenence plan is only a a complete backup to the tape drive. No other functions are performed (optimizations, integrety, backup trans log, etc.) Is this normal? The data files for the databases are about 25 Gigs. I am backing up both the system and User databases. Could this be a hardware issue? Or am I doing something wrong when setting up the backup.

Thanks,
Joe

 

[SQLBill]

You could be doing something wrong...it could be your hardware. That's a LONG time for 25 GB. I backup 72 GB in less than one hour.

How are you doing the backup?
- straight to disk or tape?
- over a network?
- are you doing SQL Server BACKUP commands or third-party product

What's your system like?

-SQLBill

 

[MDXer]

Have you tried backing up to disk and then putting that on tape? It could be combination of tape speed and db activity.

"Shoot Me! Shoot Me NOW!!!"
- Daffy Duck

 

[RobertT687]

My two cents worth. I'm backing up 20gb on SQL 6.5/NT4.0 in less than an hour. Backup is straight to disk then to tape in a later operation.

 

[Corran007]

Agreed something is wrong.

i back up sql2k/ win2k 40 gig in about 50 mins. granted its not the best box, but its acceptable to us. I use just standard sqlbackup to disk

 

[perfectchaoss]

Wow thanks for all the quick responce. I am backing up strait to the Local backup tape drive through SQL server.
The server is fairly new (a little over a year)it is a dell 4600 with duel 2.4Ghz/512k Xeon processors.
Im not sure what model the backup drive is, i will look into this further (it was a pretty standard Dell backup drive) it uses the LTO 100/200 Gig backup tapes.

The one thing I can think of that I did out of ordinary is use the SQL database Maintenence plan to setup my backup though enterprize manager. SQL server contains mutiple user databases and this was the easiest way to set up a backup for all of them.


thanks,

Joe

 

[MDXer]

With an LTO that is an extremely long time run time. I would suggest creating your backup plan outside the wizard and see how that performs. You may want to try the backup to disk and then back that up to tape this may seem like more work but it may prove to be the fastest in total processing time.

"Shoot Me! Shoot Me NOW!!!"
- Daffy Duck

 

[perfectchaoss]

OK i cancelled my tape drive backup and am backing up on the Hard drive. I will keep you posted.

Joe

 

[perfectchaoss]

Alright!!! went on lunch and came back and it is finished. Took less than an hour, now too backup that up on my tape...

thanks a lot guys,

Joe

 

[perfectchaoss]

Success!!! I am going to begin using veritas to backup onto tape after my backup on the hard drive (it only takes 1.5 hours. I still have no idea why SQL server takes so long.

 

[JayKusch]

perfectchaoss ...

what you have now done, is IMHO, the optimal way to do backups. Use native SQL to create the backups to disc and then use a third-party tool to roll it to tape for archival purposes.

The added benifit here is that in case you do need to restore a backup, it is FAR FASTER to restore from DISC that it is tape. So in saying that, you may, if space permits, keep a permenant share or even server for your backups.

Thanks

J. Kusch