Feature Request: Portable Edition/XML storage instead of SQL

[k00laid]

Just got done installing the latest build on my Surface Pro 3 (i5, 8GB, 256GB) and one thing I noticed right off the bat is a noticable decrease in performance of the overall system after installation without a backup running. Looking in task manager I noticed that SQL Server is the single highest consumer of memory with almost 400 MB in use. When I kicked off a backup the device becomes almost unusable with just standard applications actively running (Chrome, Remote Desktop Manager, Outlook, Jabber) with high CPU, Memory and Disk usage. Keep in mind there is no ability to tweak the power plan on a Surface Pro 3. It's one thing to have this type of hit on a server but on a end user device that just won't fly.

What I propose and may be a nice option anyway is to convert the backend storage to XML or something that doesn't require it to be running all the time, only during the backup job. I specifically mention XML because I wouldn't think the leap from that to a portable distribution that can be dropped on a USB drive for spot backups wouldn't be too far if configuration is stored in file.

[jonaz]

So here are some stats from my system:

sqlservr.exe process 281,688K (275MB) when backup is not running. CPU is 0-1%.
Veeam Endpoint Processes 86,756K (84.7MB) when backup is running. CPU Average is 1-3%.

So while VEB is running it is taking about 360MB and between 1-4% CPU. CPU is a Intel Core 2 Duo E7500 @ 2.93GHz. I have 16GB RAM. This version of SQL if very light compared to the Express and Standard versions. Also SQL is much more efficient than XML.

The Surface 3 is probably a better functioning pc (HDD, CPU) than my desktop and I do not have any performance issues. It would be interesting to see your metrics (Veeam and SQL Processes) while it is running, including HDD Usage, CPU Usage, Memory Usage, HDD Disk Queue Length. This is why I requested more metrics to be gathered by Veeam in the management shell, so that if there are problems, we can determine where the issue is.

[jonaz]

Have you tried to use the throttling setting? Does this help? I'm assuming that if you set this to throttle more, then your system should function better while the backup is running. If so, maybe there is a registry setting that can be changed to throttle more?

[k00laid]

The backup doesn't really seem to be the issue as much as the SQL server. With Surface Pros they hard code you into a "Balanced" power plan where everything is throttled.

[jonaz]

A quick search indicates that you can change the power plan on a Surface. From one article, you have to enable Hyper-V in Windows 8.1 to change how Power Options are handled. Once that is done, you should have Power Saver, Balanced, and High Performance. Here is how to turn it on:

http://photosofarkansas.com/2014/07/09/ ... onnection/

You can change the power plan using command line also - http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/libr ... 25711.aspx

What you might be able to do is:

Go to a desktop where you have a power plan that you want to use.
1. export that power plan using powercfg -EXPORT command
2. save it to a usb flash drive or something
3. Plugin that usb drive to your surface
4. import that power plan using powercfg -IMPORT command
5. set that power plan to the active plan using powercfg -SETACTIVE command

[Dima P.]

Have you tried to use the throttling setting?

Throttling in VEB does not handle the SQL processes.

Keep in mind there is no ability to tweak the power plan on a Surface Pro 3.

You can disable the predefined connected standby mode (http://superuser.com/questions/710913/h ... -windows-8) by adjusting the following registry key:

Code: Select all

HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\Power\  change the value CsEnabled from 1 to 0

If you could run a test with connection standby disabled and post here the results that would be great!