Exchange Brick Level Poll/Question

[toetag]

Arcserve Ver 9.0(Build 2041) / Windows 2000 Server SP4

Our Exchange Bricklevels are rather slow. I've had to break my backups into 2 jobs (A-Z and M-Public Folders, and do them on seperate days).

I thought it was our OLD 100 mhz, 128 meg RAM server, so i've since purchased a Dual 3.3ghz, 1 gig RAM compaq ML350 with a brand new DLT 8000. (i have updated the DLT 8000 and the SmartArray 5X controller with the latest Firmware and Win2000 drivers)

I started a job last night at 5pm for the A-L boxes. It is now 11:07am and the job is still running and I have atleast 25 mailboxes to go.

On the old system i was getting about 16mb/minute. On the new server i am getting about 26mb/minute. So I do see some improvement but so little as to be almost unmentionable.

I understand that bricklevels inherently are slower than flat file backups. but to go from 500/mb min to 25 mb/min on a fast backup server, seems a bit ridiculous. I've been cruising the forums while i wait for CAI support to get back with me and i've seen similiar posts as mine.

Anyone have any suggestions on buffers, TCP reg hacks (wouldn't know where to change this), running nekkid holding a small poodle over my head and praying to the back up god to try and improve the brick level back up speed?

 

[davidmichel]

I have no suggestions, however version 11 has a new Exchange DB Agent that is supposed to take advantage of SIS the single install thing. So an e-mail sent to 20 users will only be backed up one time. It is supposed to be way faster. Also 11 does muliplexing, which is backing up, up to four sessions to the same tape. The Exchange Agent supports this and is supposed to be another way to greatly reduce the time needed to backup your Exchange installation.

 

[toetag]

That does sound promising! My only confusion is when I called to upgrade from ArcServe 2000 to the latest, i was told at that time (nearly a month ago) that Version 9 was the latest and greatest. I'm gonna have to go back and see what that is all about.


Also, note for anyone else looking at similar issues:

CA support contacted me last night and had me change a registry entry:

HKey_Local_Machine->System->CurrentControlSet->Services->lanmanserver->
Create a key called IRPStackSize
Data type : REG_DWORD
Value : 19(decimal)

Now this might be a canned reply from them. Past experience leads me to believe it might be, but i'll try anything to speed my backups. I've not had a chance to try this as at the time, i'm 15 hours into my M-Public Folder backups and still have 25 mailboxes to back up.

The other good news of note is that i've finally got my bossman to reduce the limits on mailboxes. it used to be 250 cut off. After 2 hours debate with him as to how reducing the mailboxes can 1) reduce back up times. 2) make maintenance and maintaining the server easier 3) all items that need to be, can be archived either a) offline in PST files stored on a backed up network share or b) stored in our document management system that hooks into outlook. After a 2 year fight, i'm going to limit my mailboxes to 50 megs. YEAH! the smell of victory finally.

 

[peeky1323]

I get 800MB/Min on flat files and 26MB/Min on Brick. I back up with 2 jobs too. One for all the servers and data excluding the bricks, then I do a seperate brick job using differencial backups. I am currently running ARCserve 2000 and will upgradign to 9 in the next few weeks. And by the sounds of it then to 10 later this year, and then 11 etc etc etc

 

[davidmichel]

toetag

Version 11 was just anounced this week, so before that the answer would be that 9.0 is the latest.

The IRPStackSize is kind of a canned answer. Thing is it can help in a lot of cases but not all, depending on the specific configuration. So a Level 1 tech may not understand the reason why it works and so could not tell you for sure if it will help or not but knows that there is a good chance it will help and so should be recommended.

 

[natashiakk]

There is a block setting in Exchange Agent configuration - default is 1 - go up to maximum 16 (I think...)
Try changing this setting to 5 or 6 and increase from there .. might help

 

[fritz4000]

In Version 11 you will need the Premium Exhcnage agent to take advantage of new features. The problem with brick level is that the backups are done through MAPI calls that are slow in nature. The premium exchange agent performs a folder level backup and will allow the restore of single documents. What is suppposed to speed the process up (besides Single Instance Storage) is that the mail is backed up not through MAPI calls. I am not sure exactly how it gets the emails, but it is supposed to be a quicker process than MAPI.

 

[backup02]

I changed the setting to 16 and improved my performance to 53 MB from 26. You will not get any higher than that. I am going through the same thing.

 

[stevemoore]

I am getting the same crap as you guys. We can get 250mb+ on bricks level one day and then 8mb the next! Restarting the RPC service fixes it some of the time, others you need a complete reinstall. My size is set to 1 though - worth upping?

 

[toetag]

i've upped it to 16 and i'm still sitting at 25-26kbs. I've finally got my boss to agree to a lower mailbox limit since my backups are now taking over 24 hours to run.

It's only taking me 4 years to get the boss to see that such a large limit has disastrous effects.

 

[stevemoore]

You shouldn't have to do that - we've supported massive mailbox sizes for years...until AS9.