Low performance using MSL 5030 Library and NSR e1200

[juan carlos_6]

hi!

first of all, I have a msl5030 conected to a nsr e1200 and this one conected to a MSA 1000.

nsr e1200 configuration:
firmware level= 5.01.04
bios= 4.19
booter version= 4.11

msl 5030 configuration:
firmware revision= 4.21

I'm using CA Arcserve v9 buckup software and I get a very low performance, I have proved HP Library & Tape Tools (L&TT) software in my system and I have got a very good response.

I have done two test:

- first one is the System test and the results are: 31 MB/s with 4GB of data (I think it is very good).

-The second one is a Device Performance test, the selected options are:At Step 1 I have selected the same compression that I have in my ArcServe configuration (1.6.1 compression) and at the second Step I have Selected another compression type (2.1 compresion)

-My results are:

1.6.1 compression -> 18 MB/s ->63.2 GB/hr
2.1 compresion -> 24 MB/s ->84.4 GB/hr

also, I think that this results are really good. but here appears the problem. When I test to copy from disk using ArcServe v9 Buckup Software my throughtputs are very poors. For example this this morning I have copied 20 GB file server disk and I got a throughput of 266MB/min. (15,6GB/hour).

Can someboy help me?
There is anybody with the same issue?


Thanks!!

[Robert Young_9]

If you have any unused Fibre Channel ports on the NSR try setting the unused ports to LOOP topology and speed 1GB

In ArcServe, try setting the tape block size to the largest setting.

[juan carlos_6]

Thanks Robert!!

Hi!

I'm trying to get up the tape block size, but I only find information about how to get up this block size only for arcserve v6 and windows NT, and I'm using arcserve v9 and Windows 2000 advanced server.

do you know how to do it?
can anybody help me?

[Curtis Ballard]

It looks like you have ruled out a performance problem on the server for both reads from disk and writes to tape. Is there anything else in the path?

A larger blocksize may help but I wouldn't expect to see performance that poor.

Is the 20GB file server disk that you backed up in your example in the same server that the library is connected to? I would guess not. If not check to make certain that you are transferring the data from the file server to the backup server using the fibre channel connections and not over the LAN. These speeds sound more like LAN speeds. Arcserver may require a configuration to tell it to transfer data over the SAN and not over the LAN. I know Tivoli does but I can't say for certain if Arcserve does.

[juan carlos_6]

thanks!!

I dont Know how to change the block size using arcserve v 9.01 (2040) my 3 cluster servers are connected throught a fibre switch to the msa 1000 and to the nsr e 1200 and this one is connected to the library throught the scsi chanel.

I have tested to connect one server directly to the library and for one copy the performance was very good (1200 MB/min) but after this copy the performance get down!

any idea?

thanks!!

Juan Carlos

[Curtis Ballard · Accepted solution]

With direct connect you had one good copy then performance went down.

Could you fill in a couple of questions.

How was the drive direct connected? Direct SCSI to a host? If so what kind of host/hba. Direct Fibre to a host? If so were the fibre setting changed appropriately?

When perfomance went down. Was it the same server backing up the same file or did it start to back up a different file system or server?

[juan carlos_6]

Eureka!!!

At the end I have uninstall the virusScan,(McCafee) and my performance gets up (I have install another version!!).

before 230-250 MB/min average throughput
after 670-700 MB/min

I think it is good performance, but sometimes I have some picks near 1.5 GB/min. this is really good!!

Thanks for all your help!!

Your friend Juan Carlos