StorageWorks 1/8 Autoloader Library DLT VS80 performance

[Steve L.]

My Autoloader is connected to a HP ML350 G3 via its' onboard SCSI. The Server has a RAID card where all its' hard drives are connected. Is this an ideal setup? I am getting an average 140MB per minute throughput performance. I would like to improve the performance significantly. Plz advise. TX!

[Patrick Terlisten]

Hello Steve,

please provide more informations about you enviroment. You get round about 2 MB/s, a VS80 can deliver up to 8 MB/s (compressed 2:1). Which type of data did you backup? Many small files can reduce the throughput. Few big files oder databases can be backuped more quickly.

Kind regards,
Patrick

[Steve L.]

The files that are being backup are mixed. They're comprised of Windows OS files, application files, personal files, etc. It's difficult to give an idea as to the type of files because they vary very much.

My server is a dual 3.2GHz Xeon processor w/ 1.5GB RAM.

[Patrick Terlisten]

Hello,

which backup software do you use?

Kind regards,
Patrick

[Steve L.]

Backup Exec v9.1

[Jaclyn Rothe]

Tape devices can not be connected to the onboard RAID cards for proliant servers.

Here are the recommended cards for your server:
374654-B21 - Single channel Ultra320 SCSI HBA G2
268351-B21 - Dual channel Ultra320 SCSI HBA (Retired)
284688-B21 - Dual channel Ultra3 SCSI HBA (Retired)*

* Please ensure the adpu160m.sys driver Version 6.1.640.100 or higher (available from www.compaq.com/support) is used in this configuration.

Per:
http://www.hp.com/products1/storage/compatibility/tapebackup/ISS/Detail/16-0025-0056.html

Being connected to a RAID controller can cause not only performance issues but also detection problems, stuck tapes, rjeected media and other issues that will prevent successful backups.

Per:
http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/Document.jsp?lang=en&cc=us&objectID=lpg50003&jumpid=reg_R1002_USEN

Tape devices also need to be isolated and NOT daisy-cahined on the bus with any other products including hard drives or other tape devices.

Please make sure the bus is terminated.

The Block & Buffer size in your backup software needs to be set to 64k for the DLT VS 80 drive.

I hope this helps! :)

[Jaclyn Rothe]

Additionally, if BUE is being used as the backup software these docs might be useful:

http://support.veritas.com/docs/249090

http://support.veritas.com/docs/243636

http://support.veritas.com/docs/244747

[Jaclyn Rothe]

Also 140 mb/min = 2.3mb/s which is not far off of the 3mb maximum native transfer rate. It doesn't appear there is very much of a bottleneck at all for this drive.

Please let me know if there is more info regarding the slow backups, and I will see what else I can recommend.