Very poor write performance with QUANTUM DXi

[SRMETAS]

Hi all,
After more than one week listening to VEEAM and QUANTUM Support pointing fingers to each other, i hope i can find help in this forum.

We have very poor performance (20-30MB/s) when copying local backups to the Quantum DXi repository.

I have a HP DL380 Gen10 Server with windows server 2016 installed and veeam B&r 9.5U3

There are 2 repository are configured
1. Local disk
2. CIFS share on a quantum dxi4701
All Servers and repositories are connected with 10GB/s network

We backup all servers to the local disk first. We have configured backupcopy jobs who copy the backups from local disk to the DXi.

I have carefully followed Quantum's "DXi-Series Configuration and Best Practices Guide for Veeam Backup & Replication" and tried many other KB's and fixes.

I even did connect the DXi directly to the Veeam backupserver to be sure our network and switches are not making troubles.

This is what I have found out so far:
When I copy a 40GB test file to the DXi CIFS or NFS share with windows explorer the average throughput is 20-30MB/s
If I copy the same to any other server in our network, it averages 350-600MB/s
If I copy the same file from a linux server to the DXi over NFS I have 200-250MB/s which I would be happy with.

Has someone here experienced similar issues when writing from a windows server to quantum DXi CIFS/NFS Shares?

Any help is welcome.
Thanks
Simon

[Gostev]

Hi, Simon. I think your test clearly shows where the issue is. Can you please post the Quantum support case ID - I want to forward this to our Alliance org to hopefully turn the finger pointing into something more productive. Thanks!

[SRMETAS]

Hi Anton, i have sent you a PM with the Support ID, thanks!

[Andreas Neufert]

Looks like the Quantum CIFS part is the issue here. You stated that even a Windows Copy is just 20-30MB/s-

You can enable a Veeam integration on the Quantum DXi which enable us to use the Quantum DXi as a Linux Repository.
It is described here: http://qsupport.quantum.com/kb/flare/Co ... _Guide.pdf
As it bypass the CIFS stack completely it should provide much faster processing.

But overall this is strange as regular file copy from Windows to the DXi should be pretty fast (and not only 20-30MB/s). I would work anyway with the Quantum Team on the issue as I guess that the root cause of this affect other processing speed as well.

[SRMETAS]

Hi Andreas, thanks.
Veeam intergration is only available if i upgrade to the latest firmware for the DXi, which means (according to Quantum) that all data will be deleted! And in addition i would have to put more memory into the dxi in order to make the veeam datamover running.
Anyway, i just finished a test with a Linux VM (12GB RAM 8CPU) which has a NFS share of the DXi mounted. I added this Linux VM as a Veeam repository and started a backupcopy job in veeam which results in an astonishing 350MB/s transfer rate.
I really would like to understand why i can reach more than 10x transfer rates with a linux box between?

[Andreas Neufert]

This is the question. As you reporduced it with Windows File Copies outside of Veeam we need to ask this question to Quantum.

I already escalated your support case through our contacts at Quantum.

[SRMETAS]

Thanks Andreas, have a nice weekend

[lightsout]

I used the Linux datamover on my DXi 4701, and that has really helped my performance. It does cost extra to get that license, but it did include the memory as well. But I would add, running from Server 2012R2, my performance was never as bad as you saw over our 10Gb network.

It does require to create a new storage area using the Veeam integration. So you either need to start over, or migrate the existing data. I did the 2nd option, and it was very easy to do.

What firmware version do you have on the 4701?

[cfee1219]

I have had exactly the same issue with backing up to DXi4701 CIFS share, and worse. Backups fail for no apparent reason, the shares randomly become inaccessible. I had an open ticket with Quantum Support for months, and the only answer they could come up with is that the DXi CIFS shares are so badly fragmented they simply don't behave. We have 19TB of disk space, of which 85% is free. I feel that fragmentation should not be an issue, and there is no way to defragment the drive space. In the end, it came down to the only alternative being to upgrade the memory on the DXi, upgrade the firmware and purchase the Veeam kit. The DXi 4701 is only three years old, but the firmware can not be upgraded without adding the memory, flattening the box and installing the new Linux OS from scratch. We are going ahead with the upgrade, but I'm keeping my fingers crossed that we're not throwing good money after bad.
One positive note in all of this - the Quantum Sales Rep that I've been working with has bent over backwards to get us reasonable pricing for the memory and upgrade. He also sourced for me a free "loaner" DXi which I can copy my existing data to during the upgrade process.

[lightsout]

I will say I did the upgrade and it did not require a reinstall and we didn't lose any data.

[klopfema]

Just wondering if this upgrade was successful and what kind of performance you are seeing now?

[lightsout]

Upgrade was fine, no issues at all.

Overall performance was improved, but the main thing was it increased the reliability as we had some weird random failures periodically.