Slow Tapes backup when "archive incremental" is selected

[Eamonn Deering]

I have a Dell server 2008R2 with repos and a SAS Dell tape library Ultrium 5.

Veeam 9.5 SP1

VMware 2D Jobs:
All disk jobs are forever forward incremental. Repo would be holding 4 to 9TB's

Tape Job:
Files backups run's perfect at around 90-130MBs
A Tape backup using "Job" or "repository" and not selecting "archive incremental" run's perfect at around 90-130MBs

Looking at performance monitor I see 1 to 4 files open (usually the same VBK being access by different services).

If I enable "archive incremental" the job might run fast for a while but then drops below 25MBs making the job run for days..
Looking at performance monitor I see 10-30 files open (VBK and most of the VIB's). So looks like a Tape synthetic backup going to tape.
I have a local DAS SAS repo and an iSCSI 10GB Ethernet repo. both give the same very slow performance.

system has lasts firmware, tape drivers and have tried with and without native SCSI commands.
Is this normal behaviour?

I'm looking to backup the repo from the most resent full and all inc on day one of the week and then pick up the daily incremental every other day of the week. I also need the option to restore a single VM from the tape backup so using file mode won't work.

Without having to do a VBK backup every day of the week what options do I have?


Thanks
Eamonn

[Dima P.]

Hi Eamonn,

Perforce during incremental backup is below expected. Any difference in terms of media pool configuration? What is the bottleneck during incremental job run? Thanks.

[Eamonn Deering]

for site A 6TB backup 19% 1% 15% 40%
VBK backup run at 130MBs for the first 8 hours then dropped to 20mb - 50mb for 17 hours at which point I candled the job

Site B has a smaller setup, same server model with a Dell TL1000 library.
for site b 2.7TB backup 82% 5% 34% 46%
VBK backup run at 130MBs for the first 7 hours then dropped to 20mb - 50mb for 9 hours at which point I candled the job

I'm running a Veeam "defragment and compact" tonight followed by a tape backup.
I might also disable Veeam for a few days and run a windows defrag -w
Thanks for the reply.
I'll follow up in a few days.
Eamonn

[Eamonn Deering]

Just a quick update
The Backup to disk option “Defrag and Compact” did the trick. Backups completing in under 8 hours so all good.
So throughput in on power (if not better) than the old 3rd party tape software. The efficacies of Veeam will knock 60-70 hours a week off the tape back up.
Thanks
Eamonn

[Dima P.]

EamonnD,

The Backup to disk option “Defrag and Compact” did the trick. Backups completing in under 8 hours so all good.

Interesting. Thanks a lot for sharing the solution!