CharlyD
asked on
LTO2 performance on Arcserve 11.5 and maximumSGList setting
Hi my situation:
Windows 2003 Standaard (SP1) - Arcserve 11.5 and LTO2 IBM Ultrium-TD2 (firmware 53y3) Powervault 136T and latest firmware....
what is the optimal Blocksize for the LTO2 drives. i think 256KB.
now i found this article on the microsoft site : http://support.microsoft.com/kb/907418/EN-US
it is about performance limitation after installing SP1 on windows 2003 server. it is about the tape.sys.
my question: does this fix have any effect on arcserve, because all devices are disabled in system manager even the media changer. and the fix is for Tape.sys (i think meant for NTBACKUP)
how can i tune my server for high(read better) backup performance. my average backup speednow is 500-1100Mb/Min, and when i calculate, native for LTO2 (IBM) = 35MB/sec = 2100MB/min
I had DLT 8000 with 6MB/Sec native, my backup speed on exactly the same server was 350 MB/Sec.
what can i do about is..
can i do some registry change like i did for DLT for this LTO2 issue.
what are your experiences......
(sorry for my bad english..)
Greetz charly
Windows 2003 Standaard (SP1) - Arcserve 11.5 and LTO2 IBM Ultrium-TD2 (firmware 53y3) Powervault 136T and latest firmware....
what is the optimal Blocksize for the LTO2 drives. i think 256KB.
now i found this article on the microsoft site : http://support.microsoft.com/kb/907418/EN-US
it is about performance limitation after installing SP1 on windows 2003 server. it is about the tape.sys.
my question: does this fix have any effect on arcserve, because all devices are disabled in system manager even the media changer. and the fix is for Tape.sys (i think meant for NTBACKUP)
how can i tune my server for high(read better) backup performance. my average backup speednow is 500-1100Mb/Min, and when i calculate, native for LTO2 (IBM) = 35MB/sec = 2100MB/min
I had DLT 8000 with 6MB/Sec native, my backup speed on exactly the same server was 350 MB/Sec.
what can i do about is..
can i do some registry change like i did for DLT for this LTO2 issue.
what are your experiences......
(sorry for my bad english..)
Greetz charly
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ASKER
but i did cstop
then i ran "simulate -ca"
i configured it and then.. cstart and go.. or??
then i ran "simulate -ca"
i configured it and then.. cstart and go.. or??
well actually just the Tape Engine needs to be stopped.
yes, start it up and run a backup of the same data.
yes, start it up and run a backup of the same data.
ASKER
hi what is the exact procedure can t get it to work...
SOLUTION
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after created an imaginary tape drive with simulate just start the tape engine and setup a job. You might have to go to the arcserve device manage window and format the fake tape in the fake drive before it will backup to it.
ASKER
but i still don t know which steps to do after each other, i have the most simple test config, server local disk and 39160 with 3 LTO2 drive and the lib. on a 2940UW.
ok 1. stop tape engine.
2. simulate -ca (in arcserve dir )
3. ...
4. ...
5. .
ok 1. stop tape engine.
2. simulate -ca (in arcserve dir )
3. ...
4. ...
5. .
stop tape engine.
simulate -ca
pick item 1. Add Simulated Devices
Number of Boards to simulate(Default to 1)?
enter for default
Tape size in data blocks( 16KB/block )? Default to infinite :
enter for default
Early warning position in blocks( 16KB/block )? Default to 0 :
enter for default
Write tape data to file? (y/n) Default to (NO)
enter for default
>>>Begin to setting up board 0
Number of Stand Alone SCSI Tapes on Board:0 (Default to 0)?
enter 1
Add Changer to board? (y/n) Default to (Yes)
enter n
then it will ask for confirmation and you are ready to test it. Device config will now show only the one simulated tape drive. format a tape in it and then run a backup to it. Backup should be of a good size say around 50gb at least, and remember small files = slow, large files = fast.
After the test backup, go back to simulate and select to remove the simulated drive. Now run Device Configuration to setup the library again.
Still like I said before I doubt the bottleneck is at the tape drive. That is unless you are doing three backups at the same time then the SCSI bus is probably getting saturated and it would be worth thinking about adding a second controller. General rule for high end tape drives is no more that two drives per bus.
simulate -ca
pick item 1. Add Simulated Devices
Number of Boards to simulate(Default to 1)?
enter for default
Tape size in data blocks( 16KB/block )? Default to infinite :
enter for default
Early warning position in blocks( 16KB/block )? Default to 0 :
enter for default
Write tape data to file? (y/n) Default to (NO)
enter for default
>>>Begin to setting up board 0
Number of Stand Alone SCSI Tapes on Board:0 (Default to 0)?
enter 1
Add Changer to board? (y/n) Default to (Yes)
enter n
then it will ask for confirmation and you are ready to test it. Device config will now show only the one simulated tape drive. format a tape in it and then run a backup to it. Backup should be of a good size say around 50gb at least, and remember small files = slow, large files = fast.
After the test backup, go back to simulate and select to remove the simulated drive. Now run Device Configuration to setup the library again.
Still like I said before I doubt the bottleneck is at the tape drive. That is unless you are doing three backups at the same time then the SCSI bus is probably getting saturated and it would be worth thinking about adding a second controller. General rule for high end tape drives is no more that two drives per bus.
ASKER
total directorys 398
total files 6.292
total skips 0
total size 2.246,08 MB
total media 2.267,37 MB
Elapsed time 5m 8s
Average Througput 441,69 MB/min
second test was much better
total directorys 1
total files 15
total size disk 14.919,87 MB
total size media 23.544,00 MB
Elapsed Time 14m 19s
Average troughput 1.644,51 MB/Min
this is the throughput i want but the top one is bad in my vision What can this be ??
they were both made on the local server the second ons is from a software (IDE) raid 5 the first one from a normal 4gb disk scsi
could it be the disk performance?? arcserve is also installed on the 4GB Scsi disk. ( Compaq ST34572W )
the raid 5 is build from 4x WD80 0JB-00CRA1 for the second (fast ) backup job
could is be the disk performance??
or were do i have to look.
total files 6.292
total skips 0
total size 2.246,08 MB
total media 2.267,37 MB
Elapsed time 5m 8s
Average Througput 441,69 MB/min
second test was much better
total directorys 1
total files 15
total size disk 14.919,87 MB
total size media 23.544,00 MB
Elapsed Time 14m 19s
Average troughput 1.644,51 MB/Min
this is the throughput i want but the top one is bad in my vision What can this be ??
they were both made on the local server the second ons is from a software (IDE) raid 5 the first one from a normal 4gb disk scsi
could it be the disk performance?? arcserve is also installed on the 4GB Scsi disk. ( Compaq ST34572W )
the raid 5 is build from 4x WD80 0JB-00CRA1 for the second (fast ) backup job
could is be the disk performance??
or were do i have to look.
top one is small files and so slower, next one show larger files and so higher throughput.
So instead of 1,100mb/m it got 1,600mb/m which is better.
so as mentioned three drives on the one controller can be too much, two drivers per will help.
Beyond that the bottleneck can be just about anyplace from the hard drives to the tape drives, could even be the PCI bus that is maxing out. That can be checked with the manufacturer of the system.
but this shows the greatest difference is caused by the data itself and there is no way around that, lots of small files is a lot of overhead which is going to slow things down.
Performance Monitor is a good tool to use and there are others. If you ck into the configuration specs for these great through put claims you find out the equipment used is almost outlandish it is such high end stuff. Now talking real world your thoughput is in the normal range.
But like I said one place to start is adding another controller, have one going to two drive and the other to one drive and the library. Next place to start is the other end. Check the firmware on all the hard drives for the RAID they should be on the same latest and greatest revision.
A second reason (beyond the small files) for the backup of the SCSI drive being slower is that it is also running ARCserve so it has to do both read the data and handle to overhead from ARCserve.
Now get back to simulate if you have not done it already and remove the simulated drive and then run Device config to setup the library again and get you normal backups done.
So instead of 1,100mb/m it got 1,600mb/m which is better.
so as mentioned three drives on the one controller can be too much, two drivers per will help.
Beyond that the bottleneck can be just about anyplace from the hard drives to the tape drives, could even be the PCI bus that is maxing out. That can be checked with the manufacturer of the system.
but this shows the greatest difference is caused by the data itself and there is no way around that, lots of small files is a lot of overhead which is going to slow things down.
Performance Monitor is a good tool to use and there are others. If you ck into the configuration specs for these great through put claims you find out the equipment used is almost outlandish it is such high end stuff. Now talking real world your thoughput is in the normal range.
But like I said one place to start is adding another controller, have one going to two drive and the other to one drive and the library. Next place to start is the other end. Check the firmware on all the hard drives for the RAID they should be on the same latest and greatest revision.
A second reason (beyond the small files) for the backup of the SCSI drive being slower is that it is also running ARCserve so it has to do both read the data and handle to overhead from ARCserve.
Now get back to simulate if you have not done it already and remove the simulated drive and then run Device config to setup the library again and get you normal backups done.
another thing came to mind.
The job log is handy for this type of thing because it gives clear relivant data, volume, # dir, # files, time, throughput.
I have found that taking the time to make a chart of this data realy helps to get a clear idea of just what is going on.
The job log is handy for this type of thing because it gives clear relivant data, volume, # dir, # files, time, throughput.
I have found that taking the time to make a chart of this data realy helps to get a clear idea of just what is going on.
tough to say, the suggestions I gave helped others with throughput problems but there are so many things that can effect it unless CharlyD comes updates I don't know if I helped her or not.
ASKER
The block size of your tape drives is larger than 64 kb. This is the default upper limit for Windows.
You can tweak it however in the registry of Windows to use a larger block size:
"With the new equipment with better performance, used in a SAN environment, one can configure the tape device with higher block size. In order to improve the backup performance, for LTO or STK 98840 drives, it's common to have block size equal to 256k.
However, on windows media agent hosts, there might be a limitation due to the HBA card. Some of them are not able to process more than 64k. The MaximumSGList parameter should be modified in the registry entry. This parameter is located in: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\
MaximumSGList = (DesiredBlockSize/4) + 3
Example with a Compaq HBA card.
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\
es\CPQKGPSA\Parameters\Dev
my card is a 39160 ....
answers needed..