VBR - Physcial server - Win2k8 x64 or Win2k3 x64 :

[itdirector]

We are currently evaluation VBR essentials + on a physical Win2k3 x64 server & the standard SQL express 2005 that it installed. Any advantage to installing VBR on a Win2k8 x64 physical server? Any advantage to upgrading the database to SQL express 2008 on either Win2k3 or Win2k8.

Physical server: Dell R710 - 32GB - Dual x5550 - 4 Broadcom GB nics (nic teaming - 4GB link) - DAS H800 to MD1000

__________________________________________
Another question:
When backing up & replicating VM's on the vSphere host, the bottle neck always says source.
-average is around 39 to 45mb/s for the initial seeds
Is this low? We were thinking we would get close to 80 or 90mb/s (obviously, the subsequent backups are much faster)

Setup for above backup & replicate:
vSphere 5 : Dell R710 - 32GB - Dual 5675 - 8 1GB nics (nic teaming - all available to the management network)
Backing up a 1TB Exchange 2010 server VM that is on the a local DAS - H700 - 8 10RPM SAS disks
Backup is going the to the above VBR physical server's local DAS - H800 - 15 10RPM SAS disks
Replia is going to another vSphere server - same specs as the source vSphere R710 server.

During the backup or replica, the CPU/NIC/Memory/HD monitors show that all 3 servers are below 30% use.
__________________________________________________________

Thx

[dellock6]

I would go for the 2008 server, at least for it is a newer OS so it better optimize for memory consumption, and it seems to be faster than 2003 given the same hardware.
About the speed of the DAS storages, you missed to tell the raid level of the SAS disks to get a complete idea of the scenario.
Also, keep in mind that the source storage is also running the other VMs while you backup, a "pure" value about speed is aonly possible if you shut down all other VMs while you backup.

[Vitaliy S.]

We are currently evaluation VBR essentials + on a physical Win2k3 x64 server & the standard SQL express 2005 that it installed. Any advantage to installing VBR on a Win2k8 x64 physical server? Any advantage to upgrading the database to SQL express 2008 on either Win2k3 or Win2k8.

There is no advantage in using SQL Express 2008, so you can keep using SQL Express 2005 that is shipped with our installation bits. Also please have a look at our sticky F.A.Q. for more details on x86/x64 systems: >>> READ FIRST : [FAQ] FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS <<<

When backing up & replicating VM's on the vSphere host, the bottle neck always says source.

What does statistics say on the incremental run? Can you post the entire output so we could have a look?

[itdirector]

Here is a sample:


FULL JOB:

Monday, January 30, 2012 6:47:38 PM
Success 1 Start time 6:47:38 PM Total size 400.1 GB Backup size 10.9 GB
Warning 0 End time 6:58:56 PM Data read 24.9 GB Dedupe 1.0x
Error 0 Duration 0:11:17 Transferred 10.9 GB Compression 1.0x
Details
Name Status Start time End time Size Read Transferred Duration Details
FCAS Success 6:48:21 PM 6:58:50 PM 400.1 GB 24.9 GB 10.9 GB 0:10:28



Subsequent reverse incremental job:


Monday, January 30, 2012 7:01:05 PM
Success 1 Start time 7:01:05 PM Total size 400.1 GB Backup size 167.1 MB
Warning 0 End time 7:03:58 PM Data read 442.0 MB Dedupe 1.0x
Error 0 Duration 0:02:52 Transferred 167.1 MB Compression 1.0x
Details
Name Status Start time End time Size Read Transferred Duration Details
FCAS Success 7:01:46 PM 7:03:52 PM 400.1 GB 442.0 MB 167.1 MB 0:02:05

[foggy]

Vitaliy meant the bottleneck stats numbers available in the Realtime Statistics window.

Btw, what backup mode do you use to read the data from source storage?

[itdirector]

FULL backup or replica: 32 MB/s
Load: Source 99%> Proxy 54%> Network 0% > Target 1%
Primary Bottleneck : Source

Subsequent backups or replicas: 218 MB/s
Load: Source 99%> Proxy 54%> Network 0% > Target 1%
Primary Bottleneck : Source


Backup mode is Network on everything.

Source: vSphere 5 : Dell R710 - 32GB - Dual 5675 - 8 SAS 10K RPM H700 RAID 6 array - 8 1GB nics (nic teaming - all available to the management network) : No proxy
Backup VBR server + Proxy + Target for Backups : physical Win2k3 x64 server: Dell R710 - 32GB - Dual x5550 - 4 Broadcom GB nics (nic teaming - 4GB link) - DAS H800 to MD1000
Target for replication: Dell R710 - 32GB - Dual 5675 - 8 SAS 10K RPM H700 RAID 6 array - 8 1GB nics (nic teaming - all available to the management network) : No proxy

I feel like the Management network on the source Dell R710 vSphere5 server maybe the bottleneck (because it can't be disk - disk test show 600 to 700 MB/s).
Again, on the source vSphere5 R710, I have the network management network setup with NIC teaming with 8 Gigabit Nics with "Load Balancing" policy set to "Route based on the originating virutal port ID". Should I change this? It seems VBR maybe using just one NIC on the source, instead of the nic teaming?

When I setup a proxy on the source & target, using virtual appliance, I basically get the same #'s as above, san any traffic going through the physical VBR server.

Thx

[dellock6]

Virtual Port ID does not aggregate gigabit ports, you are confusing this with etherchannel (IP Hash on vSphere). On etherchannel, your 8 nics will be aggregated in a virtual 8 gbit connection, on port id, every connection to/from the management network will use one of the nic, but the maximum speed you can have is 1 gbit as you suspected.
To use etherchannel you need trunk capability on the upstream switches, but 32 MBits is not a limit value for a single gigabit network anyway...

Luca.

[itdirector]

Thx Luca.
Any update/notes/solution/analysis from Veeam support?

Thx

[foggy]

Have you opened a support case to be able to get "update/notes/solution/analysis from Veeam support"? Remember, these forums are not monitored by our support team.

Anyway, 32 MB/s is not that bad for the Network mode. Seems that this is what your source is actually capable of.