Slow throughput ARCserver release 11

[David Mew]

Hi Guys,

I have just installed CA Brightstor ARCserve release 11 for Microsoft Small Business Server 2003 onto SBS 2003 (Bulit approx 2months ago)with an HP StorageWorks VS80 DLT tape drive.

I have approx 15Gb of data, plus any exchange mailboxes and information store.

I am getting a terrible throughput of approx 6-10Mb/min, meaning my backup ran for 15 hours, while only backing up 70% of the data!

I used the diagnostic tools for the tape drive from HP and a performance test gave me 5MB/second which I presume will mean 300MB/minute. Much better!

Does anyone have any clues about increasing the throughput for this product? I cannot see anywhere to increase the block size (as I read regarding a veritas product). CA are not very helpful and don't answer my emails.

The drivers installed correctly (v2.4) from the cd and no error messages are seen through ARCserve, but NT backups seem to fail.

Any Help would be greatly appreciated.

[Steven E. Protter]

Measure peformance over time. Know where the problem is before you proceed further. The performance of this product may or may not respond to Kernel tuning.

See attached script set.

SEP

[Richard Verweij]

I'm having almost the same problem. Same tape unit and also SBS 2003, Throughput is approx 5Mb/minute instead of per second. We use the v2.5 driver. After stopping the acrserve engines and enabling the tape library a backup with NT backup shows a throughput of approx. 200 MB/minute. So I think the hardware is ok and it is an Arcserve problem. Any help would be appreciated

[John Swanson_5]

I'm working on a similiar issue.
After rebuilding a DL380 due to power failures, to Win2003 with Arcserve 11, my throughput jumped to a whopping 100Mb.
After troubleshooting for a couple of days, a co-worker mentioned he was having the same problem with a brand new server with Arcserve 11.1.
After un-installing 11, and installing Arcserve 9, my throughput averages 500Mb for the past 3 days.

Some time this week, I'll "UpGrade" to 11.
I did this on a different server that we were testing 11 on, and it's worked fine.

Keep in mind though, the problem could be with your source server. 1 of the servers I'm backing up, averages 10Mb throughput. I'ts taking me 9.5 hours. My next step, is going to be breaking the teaming on the source server.

[Ian Pike]

Has anyone found a cure for this yet?

We have two servers with this problem.

I have managed to fix one inadvertantly by using the wrong driver. At one point we installed a DLT VS40/80 (double hight unit with an ejection handle) into the server and this work. When we put back the DLT VS80 the problem seems to have been cured but when we view the unit with HP Tape tools it is still appearing as a DLT VS40/80 and not a DLT VS80.

Can anyone throw any light on this?!!!!

[Paul Lemonidis]

Sorry David but I am currently afflicted with the Arcserve user hostility virus and can only suggest you upgrade (not that that would be very hard!!!!!) to Backup Exec 10.
One backup service account across the board. No forver being prompted for passwords from various sources as and when it feels like it!

[Bob Lewis_3]

There is a fix for this problem. CA support walked me through it the other day. Use CSTOP from the command line in the "Brightstor Arcserve Backup" directory. Use the Device Wizard in Brightstor to determine which device number addresses your tape drive. Open regedit and navigate to the "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\ComputerAssociates\BrightStor Arcserve Backup\Base\TapeEngine\DEVICE1" folder. In my case it was DEVICE1. If it doesn't exist, add a DWORD entry called "DefaultBlockFactor" and enter a value of 5 (hex). The support engineer had me try 6 first but that didn't work. Might work for you. I'm guessing higher values provide better performance. Exit from regedit and run CSTART from the command line in the "Brighstor Arcserve Backup" directory. My throughput jumped from 5.8 Mbs per minute to almost 200. Hope this helps.