Can a single script use multiple execution units to finish faster?

[jcapslock]

I just started a couple of weeks ago and I'm getting my bearing with Retrospect. I'm wondering if there is anyway I can have a script take up multiple execution units so that it can back up multiple targets at the same time? (To a hard disk of course, wouldn't attempt this to tape).

Or do I have to split up all my clients into seperate scripts? It would be ideal if it could be done the former way, because even if I split them up, I have no way of knowing how much time each client will take, so it would be tough to balance them out to finish at the roughly the same time. The computer we are using has a gigabit connection and plenty of resources but takes hours to back up the PCs, because it does them one at a time.

 

Thanks,

JC

[jcapslock]

bump

 

Can I at least put multple backup sets on the same volume? Then at the very least I can make multiple scripts to break up the number of clients and cut down the time to back them all up from 17 hours to considerably less. I did set up a test where I transferred snapshots of 3 different sets to 3 new sets on a single volume at the same time. It seemed not to complain that multiple sets were on the same volume (300 gig hard disk) but about 90 minutes into the transfer the retrospect GUI blanked out and took 100% CPU and disk activity stopped. I also kind of remember reading somewhere that it was not recommended to put more than one set on a volume, but assumed this statement was referring more to tape and cd volumes. Anyone else doing multiple sets on a disk based volume to maximize execution units?

[natew]

Hi

 

Retrospect 6.5 and above support up to 8 paralell executions. The rule is that you can only use one source or destination at a time.

 

What I would do is this:

Break up your clients into groups using "source groups" or "folders" in the configure->volumes window.

Create a seperate backup set for each group

Create a seperate script for each group.

 

If you have a server edition of Retrospect 7 you can set up a proactive backup script with mutliple backup sets. That will automatically run as many paralell backups as possible until everyone gets backed up.

 

Thanks

Nate

[jcapslock]

Thanks for your reply Nate,

 

I understand what you are saying. I think I need to enter volumes into the discussion. I currently have 3 - 300 gig hard drives. The amount of data we are backing up totals under 600 gigabytes. What I am trying to do is combine multiple sets on the same drive (volume) to get past my current limitation of three simaltaneous backups. I create the sets as disk sets so they may span to another volume. Technically it lets me create the sets on the same drive, and back up to them at the same time. But retrospect locks up after about 30 minutes and 40 gigs when the 3 sets are on the same volume. If they are on seperate volumes, I don't have a problem. But my dilema is that I do not want to have eight drives to fill up all 8 execution units. Is what I am trying to do allowed by Retrospect?

 

Backup server is Windows XP, Retrospect 7 server edition, Athlon 64, 3dware IDE raid controller, 3 - 300 gig IDE hard drives.

 

 

 

Thanks for your help,

 

 

 

Mark

[natew]

Hi

 

I suspect the "locking up" problem is caused by heavy I/O load on the RAID. It isn't caused by Retrospect itself.

 

Make sure you have the newest drivers installed for the RAID card. Also make sure you have the latest chipset drivers for the motherboard installed.

 

Thanks

Nate

[jcapslock]

My average network backup speed is about 100MB/min. With only 3 sessions running, it doesn't seem like enough to fill up the I/O. I have tried the newest 3ware drivers, newest chipset drivers for the motherboard, newest network card drivers for Intel Pro. I have also tried swapping out the 3ware with 2 promise ATA133 cards for testing. This actually happened again yesterday, only this time with our normal backup scheme of backing up to 3 sets on 3 seperate drives. The OS does not crash, just the app. If I end task and restart it everything starts up OK.

 

I have also tried reinstalling Windows XP from scratch, with newest drivers. I'm at a complete loss. Ideally I would like to back up to 8 sets to maximize my execution units on a single logical drive which would be a raid 5 of 6 total disks, and do weekly snapshot transfers to offsite media and groom the raid set to whatever number of days keeps it from running out of space. But I can't even keep 3 backup sessions running consistently on seperate volumes.