Slow backup

[MikeMo]

Ok, I have Retrospect Version 8.2.0 (399) on a dual 2.5GHz G5 Xserve (Leopard, all up to date) with an ATTO UL2D HBA, connected to an HP Ultrium 3 1x8 autoloader.

 

This box is connected via two 2Gbps fibre channels to a large Xsan storage array.

 

The Finder can copy data from the storage array at roughly 7GB/minute.

 

Retrospect is doing backups at around 200MB/minute, peaking at 400, much, much less than a straight copy can do.

 

Is this what I should expect from Retrospect on a G5, or is something wrong here? I used to hit 750MB/minute with a dual G4 to a single-drive HP Ultrium 2 over ethernet, so I'm pretty disappointed in the speed, to say the least. In fact, I'd say it is unacceptable.

 

Any advice before I dump Retrospect 8 and go back to 6.1 on the G4?

[Lennart_T]

See rhwalker's post (roughly) in the middle of this thread;

 

http://forums.dantz.com/showtopic.php?tid/31023/

[MikeMo]

Yes, thanks, I saw that post.

 

I did another test: fibre channel drive source to a second fibre channel "media set", and got 3GB/minute. This is pretty close to the theoretical capacity of the fibre.

 

So, it appears that Retrospect 8 on a dual G5 is capable of moving a lot of data - just not to this particular tape drive.

 

Does it only do the byte swapping when going to tape?

[MikeMo]

Well, it seems that, when it actually works, Retrospect 8 can hit about 1GB/Minute using my old HP Ultrium 2 drive on the same cable and UL2D HBA. So, the problem is somehow associated with the new HP 960 Ultrium 3 drive.

 

However, I'm totally giving up on Retrospect 8. It just crashes/disconnects/borks out so frequently it just isn't worth trying. I spent most of today just trying to get it to run, and I give up.

 

Amazingly, as fragile as 6.1 is, it's miles ahead of 8.2.

 

Thanks for the help, anyway.