clairebear
Programmer
Greetings
We’re running Arcserve2K Advanced Edition SP3 on a backup server (Win2K Advanced Server SP2). This is hooked up to an Overland MiniLibraryXpress SuperDLT tape library (we have the Arcserve2K Tape Library Option agent SP3 installed on the backup server also). A nightly backup job runs on this backup server to backup various other servers, including our file server (on Win2K Advanced Server) & apps server (on Win NT Server 4.0 SP6a) which have Arcserve2K Client Agent for Win NT/2K SP3 & Arcserve2K Backup Open File Agent (BAOF NT Engine, not the BAOF Console) installed on them. Our LAN & server NICs run at 100Mb.
Our Arcserve average backup throughput for the file server & apps server was running approx 73MB/min, which seemed a bit slow to me considering our grunty tapedrive hardware. Also, it meant the backup job ran quite late into the following morning. The backup throughput actually seemed to improve if the files on these 2 servers were not backed up via the Arcserve Client Agent (which, of course, then didn’t backup the open files).
Tried installing Bkup Open File patches QO01917, then QO06336, on our servers but both of these made the backup run like a dog with very short legs (approx 4MB/min throughput!!). So uninstalled those patches pretty quickly. Tried various other suggested tweaks including different combinations of “half duplex” or “full duplex” & “autodetect” & “100Mb” on the LAN switch ports & server NIC settings, but made no difference (we’ve left the switch port settings & NIC settings as “autodetect”. I know this isn’t advised for Arcserve2K, but didn’t seem to make any difference in our case).
Recently, tried installing QO14476 cumulative patch for Bkup Open File Agent on the apps server & file server & backup server. This made a HUGE difference! Backup throughput speed went from approx 73MB/min to 220MB/min! However, after a few days we discovered some problems with this patch. Multiple users were able to open, edit & save the same Excel 97 file concurrently on the apps server. Also, if a user opened a new blank document in Word 97, then tried to insert a Word 97 file (which resided on the file server or apps server) into this doc, the file would take almost a minute to open. As soon as the pre-QO14476 OFANT.sys file (OFANT.sys is the only file included in QO14476) was put back in place on these servers, these problems disappeared. We’ve tried this patch out on other servers here, & have had the same problem. I’ve tried different config settings of the BAOF on a server with the QO14476 patch installed, but doesn’t seem to make much difference.
Excuse my novel, but thought I'd best give lots of info.
Has anyone else come across these problems with QO14476? If so, did you find a solution? I’d love to re-install this patch because the throughput improvement is very impressive, but the side-effects are not so good.
Thanx
Claire
We’re running Arcserve2K Advanced Edition SP3 on a backup server (Win2K Advanced Server SP2). This is hooked up to an Overland MiniLibraryXpress SuperDLT tape library (we have the Arcserve2K Tape Library Option agent SP3 installed on the backup server also). A nightly backup job runs on this backup server to backup various other servers, including our file server (on Win2K Advanced Server) & apps server (on Win NT Server 4.0 SP6a) which have Arcserve2K Client Agent for Win NT/2K SP3 & Arcserve2K Backup Open File Agent (BAOF NT Engine, not the BAOF Console) installed on them. Our LAN & server NICs run at 100Mb.
Our Arcserve average backup throughput for the file server & apps server was running approx 73MB/min, which seemed a bit slow to me considering our grunty tapedrive hardware. Also, it meant the backup job ran quite late into the following morning. The backup throughput actually seemed to improve if the files on these 2 servers were not backed up via the Arcserve Client Agent (which, of course, then didn’t backup the open files).
Tried installing Bkup Open File patches QO01917, then QO06336, on our servers but both of these made the backup run like a dog with very short legs (approx 4MB/min throughput!!). So uninstalled those patches pretty quickly. Tried various other suggested tweaks including different combinations of “half duplex” or “full duplex” & “autodetect” & “100Mb” on the LAN switch ports & server NIC settings, but made no difference (we’ve left the switch port settings & NIC settings as “autodetect”. I know this isn’t advised for Arcserve2K, but didn’t seem to make any difference in our case).
Recently, tried installing QO14476 cumulative patch for Bkup Open File Agent on the apps server & file server & backup server. This made a HUGE difference! Backup throughput speed went from approx 73MB/min to 220MB/min! However, after a few days we discovered some problems with this patch. Multiple users were able to open, edit & save the same Excel 97 file concurrently on the apps server. Also, if a user opened a new blank document in Word 97, then tried to insert a Word 97 file (which resided on the file server or apps server) into this doc, the file would take almost a minute to open. As soon as the pre-QO14476 OFANT.sys file (OFANT.sys is the only file included in QO14476) was put back in place on these servers, these problems disappeared. We’ve tried this patch out on other servers here, & have had the same problem. I’ve tried different config settings of the BAOF on a server with the QO14476 patch installed, but doesn’t seem to make much difference.
Excuse my novel, but thought I'd best give lots of info.
Has anyone else come across these problems with QO14476? If so, did you find a solution? I’d love to re-install this patch because the throughput improvement is very impressive, but the side-effects are not so good.
Thanx
Claire