Merge takes too long.... help!!

[hilms]

Hi All

I am backing up around 1.2tb of data (100gb incremental) each day..... the incremental backups (each night) take around 45mins to complete.... however the merge takes 130+ hours!!

I have tried backing up to a NAS and also a USB 3.1 (USB C) HDD.......... however still the same issue.

The guys at Veeam think its an I/O limitation of the disks we use and suggest that local storage in a RAID configuration would be significantly faster.

Just wondered if you guys have any suggestions on how we can get the merge faster.... or suggestions on what hardware / config we need to get the most out of Veeam.

We are using Windows Server 2012 and Veeam Backup and Replication 9.5.

Thanks

[foggy]

Hello Hilmi, guys at Veeam are totally correct here. Merge operation is a heavy random I/O, which your storage just isn't good at. Try to switch to simple forward incremental mode (instead of using forever forward incremental or reverse incremental, which both require merge) with periodic active fulls - thus you will avoid synthetic activity and stick to sequential writes only.

[DaStivi]

merging is a real pain in the ass.... i would really recommend to upgrade to server 2016, and make an refs volume, mount the nas via iscsi...
the 130+ hours of merging will be 3minutes then

[hilms]

Thanks Guys..... really appreciate the advice