Slow backups

[mitchell427]

We are running nt4.0 sp6a on a clustered server with one 35/70 DLT drive on each cluster and exchange 5.5 server on one cluster, Also there are 3 other nt 4.0 servers on the domain which are also backed up.

Over the past few months the backups have got slower and slower are now backing up about 35-50 mb/min. (15-16hrs to backup 47gb).

We are using BE 7.3 with the exchange agent installed.

Any ideas would be most helpfull

Cobra427

 

[Qdog]

Try a backup-to-disk folder backup to see if your tape device is having problems. If the backup-to-disk folder backup is slow to, then it probably is a network problem. If the backup-to-disk folder is consistently fast, investigate hardware and hardware connections.
Try transferring a large block of files across the network from the affected remote servers through Network Neighborhood and time it, see how many Mb/min it takes.
Stop the Remote Agent service on the remote servers and test a backup. If it is faster, reinstall the remote agent.
If your NIC cards are set to Auto for negotiation, set them to full-duplex or half-duplex on the backup server(s), switch ports and the remote servers. Upgrade the NIC drivers to latest.
Are you using Open File Option? That will slow backups. Turn Diskeeper and Antivirus live/on-access scans off during backups.
Is there something running on the Backup Exec server(s) during the backup or on the remote servers? Turn off screen savers on remote servers and Backup Exec server(s) as they are CPU intensive.
Check event viewer-->system log for any hardware errors w/source of your tape drive(s), library or SCSI cards. Look for event id 7, 9, 11, 15 as they are hardware errors reported by your devices to the OS.

Basically, there are not any throughput controls in Backup Exec.