Slow Backup (Storageworks vs80)

[chanson1973]

I have a IBM x345 running BE 9.1 with an Adaptec SCSI card attached to a HP Storage Works vs80. The theoretical speed of the drive is 360MB/min. If I am lucky I am getting about 180. I have read throught the numerous posts on port settings, network traffic, etc... Nothing seems to help. Agents are installed correctly. Using BE drivers.

Wondering if other users of the vs80 are haveing the same problem? What works for you.

Convinced myself that the backup speed is not related to SCSI card, network traffic or misconfigured BE. Ran a test backing up a remote SQL db. vs80 topped out at 174MB/min and a single SureStore DLT 80 backup the same DB at 390MB/min on the same bus.

 

[XRJoe]

Having similar problem. 3 out of the 6 backups each week will run just fine (little over 1 hour), the rest will take anywhere from 7 to 55 hours to complete. They don't seem to be any particular jobs either, sometimes could be Fri/Sat job, sometimes could be Wed job.

I don't think I've noticed slow write speeds, just takes 8 hours for the job to actually start to write.

 

[IanDW]

I had this when I first installed this backup drive. I solved it by upping the block and buffer size in the Drive Properites in BackupExec. I think the defaults were way to low.

 

[steveot]

Couple things you have to look at:

1) Create a backup to disk folder under the device tab. Run the same jobs to backup to disk. See what you get?
If its network, set all the NIC to 100/Full or 1000/FUll and the switch.
2) Is the server 2000/2003
3) In device manager is the device using OEM Drivers or Veritas Drivers
4) If using Veritas Drivers, switch to OEM
5) How fast to local backups run? Backup to disk and Tape Device?

If its 2003, try rolling the SCSI card drivers back to Microsoft SCSI drivers...I have seen some dramatic changes with combination to playing with scsi drivers and tape drivers.

First test is to run backup to disk jobs

 

[BackupGurus]

Chiming in with Steveot (Good advice!):

Backing up to a networked share will determine if it's host connectivity related or network related. I'd add that you should backup to/from the same servers for a fair comparison. If space is an issue for D2D backups create a small backup job and extrapolate the estimated backup time for your entire job. If it's the SCSI drivers or VS80 you'll see much better performance on a disk to disk backup.

If it's the network/server performance look into a SAN , try a dedicated backup network with dedicated NICs, or upgrade your servers for better performance.

The key is to first isolate the source of the problem as steveot pointed out.

Please keep in mind that a VS80 is a good drive but it's not in the same league as DLT or LTO so comparing it to a DLT 80 isn't quite fair....

VS80s don't have the duty cycle or performance of DLT and DLT is still worse than true enterprise backup such as Storagetek 9840s for duty cycle and performance....but then again I don't have 28k for a single drive either