StoreEver Tape Storage
1748031 Members
4869 Online
108757 Solutions
New Discussion юеВ

Re: Ultrium 230 + NTBackup

 
Andreas Fritz
New Member

Ultrium 230 + NTBackup

We are running NT40 Server on a LH6000 and a Ultrium 230 drive. The Ultrium drive is connected to an separat scsi adapter. The adapter is configured ok with maximum speed.

Somehow if I backup my NTFS disks with NTBackup I only get a speed of 2MB/sec and not the 15MB/sec like mentioned in the manual.
Someone told me I have to format the disks with "format e: /a:64K"

Is this the solution or what esle can be done to get the drive working with 15MB/s in NTBackup.

How can I backup 'C:' with the correct speed - As far as I know, I can't tell NT40 how to format the disk with an '/a:64K'-Parameter when I install from CD.

Thanks for your help,
Andy
8 REPLIES 8
Vincent Farrugia
Honored Contributor

Re: Ultrium 230 + NTBackup

Hello,

I don't know thw answer to your question, but I can refer you to someone who knows. It is called "Performance Assessment Tool" and can be downloaded from here:

http://www.hp.com/cposupport/information_storage/software/pat12.exe.html

HTH,
Vince
Tape Drives RULE!!!
Andreas Fritz
New Member

Re: Ultrium 230 + NTBackup

I already tryed this PAT Tool before and it told me that the throughput of data transfer is 15,1MB/s but somehow the tape only writes with 2MB/s.
Vincent Farrugia
Honored Contributor

Re: Ultrium 230 + NTBackup

Hello again,

Your friend may not be far from the truth. The way data is stored on harddisks influence the performance. See this link for details:

http://www.hp.com/cposupport/information_storage/support_doc/lpg50032.html

You can also try the new HP Instant Support software at:

http://www.hp.com/go/instantsupport

HTH,
Vince
Tape Drives RULE!!!
Andreas Fritz
New Member

Re: Ultrium 230 + NTBackup

I checked out the note from your link - but we are already using a Raid 5 System, and the PAT12 tool says that I the hard disks deliver data with a speed of 16,2MB/s. The speed of the Ultrium Device should be 15MB/s.

I still don't know why Data can only be written to the tape with a speed of 2MB/s.
Vincent Farrugia
Honored Contributor

Re: Ultrium 230 + NTBackup

Hello,

Do you have an extra drive? I know it's asking too much, but maybe you can test it with another drive and see whether you have the same performance.

Vince
Tape Drives RULE!!!
Aaron Tatone
Frequent Advisor

Re: Ultrium 230 + NTBackup

Andreas,

Can you configure the block or transfer size for NT Backup?

I would recommend a larger segment size (in Omniback, it recommends a 64k block size and a 2GB segment size). The segment size is defined as the size of data segments on the tape. I would look at tuning the size of these and see if that improves performance.
Eric de Lange_2
Respected Contributor

Re: Ultrium 230 + NTBackup

Hi,

NTbackup is not an aplication that will give you the best performance because of the buffering and blocksize limitations.

I would download and try a trial version of BackupExec, Omniback on others, configure it for use with a 64K blocksize and take it from there.

I have had good results with ArcServe together with the imaging option. 1 9GB disk and 1 Ultrium 230 drive, 14MB/sec

cheers,

-Cal.
Graham Rawolle
Occasional Advisor

Re: Ultrium 230 + NTBackup

NTBackup has badly written tape I/O drivers. 2MB/s is about the maximum that is possible with it, no matter what sort of tape drive you use. The backup utility included with Windows 2000 is vastly improved and has similar performance to Veritas BackupExec (it is actually a cut down version of BackupExec). So, either upgrade to Windows 2000 (painful) or buy a 3rd party backup utility like BackupExec (expensive).
Also, make sure you upgrade to the latest firmware (E20D), as we couldn't get much more than 2MB/s with older versions.