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How to increate rate of backup on 1 server decrease?
I am running backup exec 11d. I have a total of 6 servers gettings backed up. Recently the backups starting timing outs because the jobs are taking longer than they are suppose to take. The only thing I noticed was that all servers have had similar job rates as far as (MB/Min) except 1 server, which has showed a decrease going from 1000 MB/MIN rate to 500 MB/MIN. The only thing that recently changed, was that we decided to Virtualize that same server a few weeks ago. It was our Exchange server. Any help would be really appreciated. Thanks.
2 questions...
1) are you doing "brick-level" backups of exchange ?
2) are you backing up directly to Tape drive or are you using "backup-disk" folders ?
Advice,
Brick level backups of exchange are much slower than simply backing up the store.
The time it takes to back them up grows as users mail items grow. You gain the ability to restore individual e-mails with bricklevel however, so depending on how often you are asked to restore individual items, it may or may not be worth the extra weight on the BE job.
If you are using Tape, you can only backup with 1 job at a time. This can bottleneck the whole solution when the amount of data / backup time window, exceeds the rate of transfer from servers > to the tape drive . If you use B2d(backup to disk), you can run mutliple jobs simultaneously, thereby speeding up the entire process. You can then dump your b2d folders to the tape during the workday, without interfereing with any other processes/data that may be in use on those servers.
1) are you doing "brick-level" backups of exchange ?
2) are you backing up directly to Tape drive or are you using "backup-disk" folders ?
Advice,
Brick level backups of exchange are much slower than simply backing up the store.
The time it takes to back them up grows as users mail items grow. You gain the ability to restore individual e-mails with bricklevel however, so depending on how often you are asked to restore individual items, it may or may not be worth the extra weight on the BE job.
If you are using Tape, you can only backup with 1 job at a time. This can bottleneck the whole solution when the amount of data / backup time window, exceeds the rate of transfer from servers > to the tape drive . If you use B2d(backup to disk), you can run mutliple jobs simultaneously, thereby speeding up the entire process. You can then dump your b2d folders to the tape during the workday, without interfereing with any other processes/data that may be in use on those servers.
ASKER
Ok. Help diagnosing/resolving the issue.
OS: Windows Server 2003 R2
Exchange Server 2007 - 64 Bit Windows Server 2003
Running Vcenter 2.5 on Windows Server 2003
OS: Windows Server 2003 R2
Exchange Server 2007 - 64 Bit Windows Server 2003
Running Vcenter 2.5 on Windows Server 2003
ASKER
We backup to tape. Our Exchange Server Storage groups are the first to get get backups up. The 1st storage group gets backed up and then the 2nd storage starts after that backup. This was working fine up until roughly 2 weeks ago.
Did it "work fine" after it was P2V?
ASKER
In a sense. The rate has slowly been decreasing through time
...dumb question...
Do you have anti-virus running on the server ?
Does shutting it down temporarily change the transfer rate ?
Do you have anti-virus running on the server ?
Does shutting it down temporarily change the transfer rate ?
ASKER
Actually, yes, we had virus issues and installed the virus scanner a few weeks ago also on our exchange server. We thought it might be the anti virus but did I did not think that it would affect the transfer rate.
Antivirus on Exchange is very, very persnickety. Have you verified, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that your exclusions are set up for both on access (real time) and scheduled tasks?
DrUltima
DrUltima
ASKER
In what way would you suggest that I configure the antivirus scanner?
ASKER
I was thinking about excluding scanning the 2 storage groups. Or will this not affect the job rate?
You may either A) want to exlude certain directories from scanning... or B) shutdown realtime scanning (preferrably with a script), until the backup finishes.
I answered a Question a while ago about AV exclusions for Exchange 2003. Let me find it.... It will be similar.
DrUltima
DrUltima
persnickety,.... now there's a word you don't see everyday. lol
Every once in a while I can pull out a good one...
In typical fashion (for me), I cannot find the Question I answered sometime in 2009. :)
Here is MS link to best practice for AV exclusions for Exchange 2007:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb332342%28EXCHG.80%29.aspx
You really, really need to follow this (regardless of your AV vendor) or you will take a serious hit on performance.
DrUltima
In typical fashion (for me), I cannot find the Question I answered sometime in 2009. :)
Here is MS link to best practice for AV exclusions for Exchange 2007:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb332342%28EXCHG.80%29.aspx
You really, really need to follow this (regardless of your AV vendor) or you will take a serious hit on performance.
DrUltima
ASKER
I don't even know what "persnickety" means, I think I have an idea. LoL . Thanks I will try the exclusions, I appreciate the help.
ASKER
Hi, Looks like the scanner was not the problem. The decrease in Backup occured when Exchange was virtualized. The date matches exactly. The ESX box connected to Gigabit switch. How would you recommend I resolve this. Thanks.
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The VM has its own dedicated NIC. I says "VM DMZ" under network label. The other option is "VM Inside". I am currently looking at disk read rates and comparing. I am thinking Disk speeds?
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ASKER
ESXi Servers are running on Dell PowerEdge 1950.
SAS Drives of Hitachi: 73G, SAS, 15 K, HIT VIPER
DataStore: Sata Raid 5 1.36 TB capacity
Free: 172.72 GB
xuserx2000: I did not get a chance to look at the performance last night when the backup was occuring. I will try again today.
DrUltima: I am still trying to verify that their is one NIC assigned to Exchange VM.
SAS Drives of Hitachi: 73G, SAS, 15 K, HIT VIPER
DataStore: Sata Raid 5 1.36 TB capacity
Free: 172.72 GB
xuserx2000: I did not get a chance to look at the performance last night when the backup was occuring. I will try again today.
DrUltima: I am still trying to verify that their is one NIC assigned to Exchange VM.
Other helpful info:
OS of the Backup server and the Exchange Server
Version of Exchange
OS and application of the Host server for the VM (ESX, ESXi, Windows OS, VMWare, HyperV, etc.)
DrUltima