slow mailbox backup BExec 9.0 and Exchng Svr 2003 1

[techdiva]

Exchange svr 2003 w/ Backup Exec 9.0 - usually takes about 4 hours each night, but about once a week (usually on Tuesday nights - but not always) the backup time for the Exchange mailboxes extends to 10 hours. Backups were running at 10:00 p.m. so moved them up to 9:00 p.m., and set Online defrag to run at 3:00 a.m., thus giving a 6 hour window between backup and online defrag. But it didn't help because last night, it happened AGAIN!! Checked virus scan activity and that wasn't the culprit either...
Is an upgrade to BE 9.1 in order? I'm fairly new at Exchange so ANY info is helpful!!!

 

[justin2000]

techdiva

this is not backup exec that is being slow, its your exchange server.

upgrading to 9.1 won't make a difference at all - something is happening on your server that is slowing things down.
Are you doing a full backup of the mailboxes every night or incrementals as well.

 

[techdiva]

Full backup every night (This is how it was set up when I got here The backup took 10:36 hrs again last night. Am combing the logs and noticed that AOFO is not being used so turned that on... do you think that would make a difference?

 

[justin2000]

techdiva

AOFO isn't used when doing mailbox backups - something else is doing it.
Are you by any chance doing a full mailbox scan with anti-virus software during backup?

 

[techdiva]

well, well, well.... Justin, you made me think
I had checked Symantec and didn't see any scheduled scans but then checked the Live Update config and found that updates were scheduled for 1:00 a.m./7 days and forced a scan if an update is downloaded. Went digging in the event logs and found that a live update/scan had occurred on the evenings that I had problems with the backups. throughput 15.00mb/min as oppossed to 98.00mb/min last night when there wasn't a live update event. I moved the live update/scan outside of the backup window to see if it helps... I think it will. Thank you so much!!