Backups running slow on server

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Guys

Backups started running slowly on one of our file servers, was happily backing up 200 GB in approx 5 hours, all of a sudden slowed right down and started taking 30 hours + to do the same amount of date.

First thing that was swapped was the tape drive, brand new been put in and all tapes replaced etc, no difference.

Next we wanted to try swapping the SCSI interface card, it was built in so we swopped out the whole system board and still no difference lol.

Bloody thing is still taking 30+ hours to back up.

Any ideas ?

 

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What backup software are you using?

I can backup about 220 GB in 7ish hours using Windows Backup to a file. Backing up the same amount to tape using Backup Exec takes about 5.5 hours.

 

IBM XSERIES 255

Windows server 2003

Quantum SDLT 320 tape drive

Ultra 160 SCSI adapter X 2

IBM serveRAID 6m controller

Veritas backup exec version 10.0


I'm thinking only thing left to swap really is the RAID card, could that be causing this issue ?seems unlikely

 

Its got 2GB RAM and just checked processor usage with the backup running and its only hitting 5% CPU usage at the most.

 

Where is that data that you are backing up stored? Locally?

 

Thanks for the quick replies Si

Yeah backing up local data, from C: and D: believe its 2 partitions on one drive.

 

Is the backup operating across several servers in the backup set?

1. Standard best practice: finish or cancel the backup job, reset the account password in the backup job, and reset the domain account used for the backup job in the ADUC [ if not localsystem] - then re-do the selections in BE 10.0...click apply and let it run again over night...

2. Note that if you are backing up a member server locally then shift the member server to a remote office with a slow WAN link it will attempt the backup over the WAN link - not pretty...

3. Disable any firewalls on the servers being backed up.

4. Any routing, subnet or other network changes made to the LAN?? - if yes re-select the servers being backup and click apply in BE.

HTH

supag33k

 

What else is the server doing whilst you are running the backup? Is the job assigned Highest priority?

My times were for pulling data across the network, but locally? Those times are bad.

Any hard disk bottlenecks?

 

Thanks for the idea supag33k and si.

Backup is only operating on one server. Have checked logon credentials and tested and all are correct etc.

No LAN changes here for a good while and also its only backing up local info.


Yeah they are terrible aren't they Si, and its holding up the other backups as can't send offsite, its a pain.

How would I check for a HD bottleneck mate ?

 

Actually the job is only assigned medium priority, but always has been, I may try changing this.

Its a file server so it will be being used overnight becuase we have 24/7 1st line support locally so that is their file server.

 

There are a couple of ways to look at the performance of the server, the first one is to take a look at task mgr and look at the Page file useage, if its high, and very little physical memory left then that could be the problem.

The way to check for disk bottle necks is to fire up Performance Logs and Alerts and configure it to monitor disk writes per sec (I can't remember off the top of my head what you need to do to specify this, but it isn't too hard).

If the graph shows lots of high values then there is a bottle neck!

 

Does the tape write at the correct speed? i've had a similiar problem where the backup took ages but was down to the write speed being slower than usual. Reinstalled tape drivers for Veritas followed by a reboot and this resolved the issue.

 

Thanks guys will try those ideas

 

Loaded up performance monitor.

The disk queue time, the green one, seems high to me.....maximum 3.464....average is 0.88...dunno if that is in seconds or ms or what.

What do u think Si ?

 

Okay so it is the disk sub-system...

1. If the data volume is a RAID 5 volume, has one of the physical drives failed?...you might need to reboot it to find this out.

2. Has offline folders been enable recently on the affected server?

3. Is the voume heavily fragmented?

4. Has the server been recently patched? and does the DELL site list any issues with recent patches and that class of server?
- you may need to install or update the driver for the Hard-drive system.

EDIT: 5. Has anyone set shadow copies for the volume recently??

HTH

supag33k

 

Supag33k, it is set to backup with shadow copies, is that the reason ?

what is shadow copies ?


Thanks mate

 

Shadow copy is a new feature in win2k3.
It allow the file being backing up even if are opens.
Your problem happened one time to me and the problem was the
disk nearly full.
I suppose a degraded raid volume would have the same simpthoms.

 

A full or degraded volume then....good call nicolinux..

Shadow copies explained...

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2003/techinfo/overview/scr.mspx

 

Sorry guys this one got put on the back burner on thursday, I turned shadow copies off for thurs nights backup and still same speed backups.

Hardware team are kicking off a full RAID defrag this weekend.

Will let you know the outcome.

Thanks very much for all the input and for taking the time to explain things, it is much appreciated.