Hi Guys,
I have the following issue when trying to use HP Data Protector to run a full backup of a windows server running in an ESX 3.0.2 Cluster.
Background info:
2 HP Proliant Blade BL20p with 2 FC cards QLA231x/2340
All virtual machines are running on SAN
1 of the Windows servers has its own SAN which is presented via ESX as a RAW disk.
Before the migration to Virtual the backup of the data on SAN lasted about 5 hours.
600GB full copy every night
After migrating to VI and updating the Data protector agent, presenting the Tape device to the VM via SCSI and editing the backup job to reflect the new settings everything seemed fine.
However the problem starts after the backup starts, at first the copying of data runs at about 50,000 kbps but after few mins it slows down to about 25,000 and continues to slow down until it runs at about 8,000 kbps.
This means that a backup that used to run in 5 hours takes about 15 hours to complete and as a result the rest of the jobs remain in the queue and the backup window is used up by one backup job.
For company policies an incremental or differential backup is not permitted, it has to be full everyday.
I have been checking the settings on the ESX and changing some of the settings to see if it is an issue with the vmHBAs or switches.
at the moment the SAN for VM storage has 4 paths (2HBAs and 2 Switches) 1 path preferred vmHBA 0:0:1:1 & 3 standby
The server that has the SAN presented is using a different path vmHBA 1:1:2:5
The disks on the server have High shares (2000) all of the other servers have normal (1000) shares.
I am unsure if the problem is because of the settings on the ESX or if data protector needs something changed as the connection between the backup device goes via an ESX server and not directly as with a physical server.
If anyone has any ideas or is running backups of SAN devices that are presented to a VM as a RAW disk I would greatly appreciate any tips or advice.
HP DP version is 5.5
ESX 3.0.2 VC 2.0.2
thanks in advance
Start Free Trial
