Help needed to assess performance - Arcserve 11 + SDLT backup solution

[ukgebe]

Hoping you guys can assist in providing me with feedback on what our backup performance is like:
We have a Compaq dl360 server, running win2k sp4, arcserve v11, MSL5026 with 2 SDLT tape drives, and a adaptec 39160 scsi adapter.
At best, our backups finish with about an average throughput of between 150 - 350mb/min. Is this okay as from a other posts I've read this seems to be WELL below par.
To take an example, one of the jobs we backup is approx 1 100 000 files, 400Gb in size and takes about 19-20 hours to backup, coming with a throughput of about 340mb/min.

I've tried backing up the local machine, and it backed up about 9gb with a throughput of about 280mb/min, which seems to indicate it's not network causing this performance issue.

Any advise/comments ?

 

[vschumpy]

I'd take a good guess at this being caused by Anti-virus software slowing down the effective throughput from the disk subsystem.

HP have a tool on their website called PAT (Performance Analysis Tool) - it allows you to simulate backups and effective throughput whilst completely removing your backup software from the equation.

When you run it be careful with your comparisons - the tool measures throughput in MB/Sec whereas ARCserve measures it in Mb/Min.

Try both with and without Anti-Virus enabled. Remember that just disabling the realtime monitor doesn't always disable AV protection. Depending on what AV you are using this usually has file system drivers that are loaded at boot time which you might also need to disable these to get a true picture of whether AV is indeed impacting your performance here.

I had an almost identical issue to yours with pretty much the same hardware on a site I was working on recently and the AV product being run was indeed the culprit.

 

[ukgebe]

Thanks for that, I'll try it. BUT, I've got to ask, if it is indeed the AV, what was your solution, cause we can't move to another AV, and can't risk running without it

 

[vschumpy]

In the specific case mentioned the customer moved to another vendor's Anti-Virus product and the performance was much improved.