Frank N Berry Posted March 27, 2008 Report Share Posted March 27, 2008 What would be the expected performance for the following configuration? Backup Server: Dell Precision T3400 (2.4GHz Intel E4600) 2 GB RAM 2 x 500 GB drives in RAID-1 configuration Adaptec Ultra160 SCSI 39160 PCI Dell PowerVault LTO-2-024 (PV110T) Windows XP Pro SP2 Retrospect Professional 7.5.508 Backing up a roughly 100 GB shared directory from the main RAID volume (which is also the C: drive). In addition, we are backing up 5 Windows XP Pro workstations from a Gigabit network. Files are mostly CAD based which is roughly anywhere from under 1 MB to about 30 MB (avg. 5 MB). Performance we are seeing is about 100 MB/minute from both the local directory and from the network. Questions: - Is the performance above unusual? I would think backing up local files would be much faster than this, especially considering the gear. I didn't expect the local and network speed to be roughly the same unless 1) the files are so small that it's creating a bottleneck or 2) there is a problem with Retrospect/drivers/backup server. - This is a brand new system and Dell/Tandberg drivers were installed along with some XP update to support this drive. Does Retrospect come with its own drivers? Is it preferable to remove the Dell drivers (as I believe they are designed to support XP's Backup program)? Is it a good ideal to install the latest RDU? When removing the Dell drivers or adding/removing the RDU, is it necessary to reboot the system or is it sufficient to just restart Retrospect? Any hints on how to improve the above performance or is this normal? Many thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eppinizer Posted March 27, 2008 Report Share Posted March 27, 2008 (edited) Is the performance above unusual? Yes. Backing up your local drive with an LTO-2 should be much faster with your set-up. I would say at least 1000 Mb/minute. Backing up over your network is well... reliant upon your network. Adding removing RDU only requires retrospect to restart, changing/removing your Dell drivers will require a restart. Did retrospect recognize your drive immediately after you plugged it in? Have you already tried removing the drivers?( I am not recommending it, just curious) Edited March 27, 2008 by Guest Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frank N Berry Posted March 28, 2008 Author Report Share Posted March 28, 2008 JMcIntire, thanks for the reply. Yes. Backing up your local drive with an LTO-2 should be much faster with your set-up. I would say at least 1000 Mb/minute. Backing up over your network is well... reliant upon your network. Hmmm....I thought so. We're getting very respectable transfer rates over the network with regard to file sharing (this Retrospect server is also acting as a file server for the other 5 XP workstations) and I've seen slower tape drives/setups do much better even over slower Fast Ethernet networks so I think there's something else going on here. Did retrospect recognize your drive immediately after you plugged it in? The drive was seen right after Retrospect was first installed and run. However, the Dell drivers were already installed. I didn't do the OS setup/updates (previous consultant did) so I don't know if this is because the Dell drivers are the reason for this or if they are the cause of the performance slowdown. Have you already tried removing the drivers?( I am not recommending it, just curious) No, but actually this was the reason I posted. I know that another OEM (EMC Insignia) recommends that you DO NOT install their drivers and let the backup software use its own drivers. I wanted to find out if the performance issue was related to these installed drivers or am I looking at a hardware issue? Or something else? Should I uninstall the Dell drivers? Should I install the latest RDU? Any other performance tips? Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AndrewA Posted March 28, 2008 Report Share Posted March 28, 2008 You do not really need to uninstall the drivers for the device, just disable the drivers within Device Manager. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eppinizer Posted March 28, 2008 Report Share Posted March 28, 2008 Should I uninstall the Dell drivers? As Andrew said, you can disable the drivers. Should I install the latest RDU? Yes, you should always have the most recent RDU installed into Retrospect. RDU's can contain updates beside device compatibility, such as fixes for better and more stable performance. However, LTO-2 is an older machine and we do much tweaking with our old drivers unless new bugs are found. Any other performance tips? Hmm, like I said before, with your set-up you should be getting around the same performance that we get. Have you used this SCSI card for other deceives and received better performance? Is your LTO drive properly terminated? -Jeff Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frank N Berry Posted March 31, 2008 Author Report Share Posted March 31, 2008 Disabled drivers, installed latest RDU and rebooted. Same performance of about 100 MB/minute. Have you used this SCSI card for other deceives and received better performance? This is a brand new SCSI card and is dedicated to the LTO-2 drive. Is your LTO drive properly terminated? Yes, external active terminator on the Dell LTO-2 drive (provided with the drive). All other configurations are default. Anything else I can try? Thanks for the help! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eppinizer Posted March 31, 2008 Report Share Posted March 31, 2008 Hmm, do you have the means to test the LTO-2 drive on a different SCSI card, or perhaps try a different drive on the same SCSI card? I wouldn't think that having RAID 1 would slow things down... Is the data being written correctly? Do you have customized options for the backup set? It is possible that your machine is struggling with all of the the smaller CAD files you mentioned earlier. You might want to try backing up a larger file(~1g) just to see if you get better performance. If you do get better performance, try zipping several of the smaller files together creating a single larger file. Good luck! -jeff Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frank N Berry Posted April 2, 2008 Author Report Share Posted April 2, 2008 Hmm, do you have the means to test the LTO-2 drive on a different SCSI card, or perhaps try a different drive on the same SCSI card? No, unfortunately I don't. The drive and the card were purchased together explicitly for this purpose. No other device shares the bus. I wouldn't think that having RAID 1 would slow things down... Is the data being written correctly? Do you have customized options for the backup set? Data's being read and written fine at full Gigabit speeds over Windows XP file sharing with other XP stations. Duplicating files directly on the host show expected SATA RAID1 transfer speeds. It's just the speed of the data (SATA and over the network via Gigabit) to the SCSI card and then the LTO-2 via Retrospect that's no higher than 100 MB/min. Backup scripts have the defaults except for the allowed scheduled time and to force Outlook backups. Thorough verification is on, but I think that's a default too. It is possible that your machine is struggling with all of the the smaller CAD files you mentioned earlier. You might want to try backing up a larger file(~1g) just to see if you get better performance. If you do get better performance, try zipping several of the smaller files together creating a single larger file. Ok, I finally got to test this. I got the backup up to date with the source, then I took a 2 GB directory of CAD and raster files and compressed it into a 1.8 GB zip file. I then ran the backup and unfortunately the speed is about the same (actually 95 MB/min). So this rules out the file sizes as being the bottleneck. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jetdog9 Posted April 2, 2008 Report Share Posted April 2, 2008 Have you tried drivers from Adaptec's website, not from the Windows CD or Windows Update? This may make a *substantial* difference. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frank N Berry Posted April 2, 2008 Author Report Share Posted April 2, 2008 Have you tried drivers from Adaptec's website, not from the Windows CD or Windows Update? This may make a *substantial* difference. Latest drivers are from 2005: http://www.adaptec.com/en-US/speed/scsi/family_manager_set/u160_fms40_sp5_s4_exe.htm I'll try installing these this weekend and report back. Do I need to uninstall the Windows drivers first? Thanks for your tip. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jetdog9 Posted April 2, 2008 Report Share Posted April 2, 2008 You should not need to uninstall. Just point to the Adaptec ones. I don't know if you'll get the Windows message about drivers not being signed, etc, but go ahead and proceed even if you do. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frank N Berry Posted April 3, 2008 Author Report Share Posted April 3, 2008 You should not need to uninstall. Just point to the Adaptec ones. I don't know if you'll get the Windows message about drivers not being signed, etc, but go ahead and proceed even if you do. Thanks jetdog9. I'll give it a go this weekend. Not to question your expertise, but do you have a similar setup? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mayoff Posted April 3, 2008 Report Share Posted April 3, 2008 Not to question your expertise, but do you have a similar setup? I can easily say that jetdog9 is a true hardware expert and he offers very good advice. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frank N Berry Posted April 14, 2008 Author Report Share Posted April 14, 2008 Happy to post that jetdog9's suggestion helped GREATLY! Many thanks! The backup is humming along at 1200 MB/min now...woohoo! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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