Slow Backups?

[reygers]

Hello!

I would like to know what speed one can expect using the 'network mode' when making backups?

Our scenario:
ESXi 4.1 Essentials
Datastore 1 (on ESXi Host) RAID1 413,5 GB
Datastore 2 (on ESXi Host) RAID1 926,75 GB
Veeam Backup & Replication 4.1.2
Linux-Server (Debian 5) for Backups
Gigabit Ethernet

We make backups from several VMs on datastore 1 and datastore 2 to our linux server. The processing rate of fullbackups of a VM (300GB) is between 7 MB/s and 15 MB/s. In my opinion it's quite slow. How are your processing rate values? What can we do to speed up processing rate?

[Vitaliy S.]

Hello,

The processing rates heavily depend on the source/target hardware as well as the number of empty blocks on the VMs being backed up.

Could you tell me where Veeam B&R server is installed? What is the CPU load on that very server when you run the backup job? Besides, if you've added Linux Server via Add Server option, could you please describe the hardware for that Linux box?

On top of that, vStorage API - Network mode is the slowest mode... so have you tried switching to Virtual Appliance mode? In this mode VM data is retrieved directly from storage through the ESXi I/O stack, which improves performance.

Thanks!

[reygers]

Hello Vitaly,

thanks for reply. Veeam B&R server is installed on a VM on the ESXi host. It's running on a Windows XP Pro with two cores. When backupjobs are running the cpu load is up to 50%. The linux server has one core and 4GB RAM.

Yes, I know that network mode is the slowest mode, but virtual mode doesn't work and Veeam Support (I'm still mailing with) is not able to answer me why.

[Vitaliy S.]

Hmm...could you please tell me your ticket number? Just in case you didn't see it, here is the list of some ideas why VA mode may fail:
http://www.veeam.com/forums/viewtopic.p ... 790#p17790

By the way, have you tried choosing local disk on the backup server as a destination target for your backup jobs? Does it make any difference for the processing rate?

[Gostev]

Yes, it looks like either network backup mode or the target storage speed are bottlenecks here. Try downloading a file (disk of shutdown VM) from source ESXi using vSphere Client's datastore browser and see what speed do you get. If the copy is also slow, then you have just found your bottleneck. If that the copy much faster than backup speed, try backing up locally to Veeam Backup VM and see if this improves the backup speed to confirm that the issue is indeed with backup target.

[reygers]

Thanks for your replys.

I've found the reason for the not working VA mode. The machine uses IDE not SCSI. I'll fix this and then try again and tell you the results ...