HP Storageworks 1/8 G2 data transfer.

[jo_pappachan]

Anyone,

Here I m using HP StorageWorks 1/8 G2 Tape Autoloader with PCI Express Ultra 320 SCSI adaptor on HP Prolant server. When I make backup through HP Data protector Express to this tape drive the throughput (Data Transfer) is very low ie 15 - 18 MB/Min. Anyone know what could be the reason for this? Do i need to upgrade anything? Pls guide me..

THANKS & REGARDS,

Jojo.

[thomasr]

There could be several reasons for slow performance. 

First question -- that autoloader is sold with many tape drives -- can you tell us if you have LTO-1, LTO-2, LTO-3, or LTO-4?    You can always tell through the GUI (and probably through the front panel, although I don't remember the keystrokes to get there).

- If you're performing a network backup (pulling data from another server over an Ethernet network) you must be on gigabit (Gb) Ethernet or else your performance will be limited to about 12 MB/second.

- One of the most common is that the source disk simply can't get the data to the tape drive any faster.   Windows servers that are highly fragmented and/or have lots of small (under 10K) and tiny files may only be able to feed the backup device at 10MB/second.    The solutions here are: move to faster disk (HW-based array controller, stripe across many disks, keep your disk defragmented, last case: perform an image backup instead of file-by-file (this will give you the fastest possible backup time, but will cause longer restores)

- The server itself may be a bottleneck.   Check in Windows Performance Monitor (or whatever utility works with your OS) and make sure that the system has plenty of available CPU headroom and RAM. 

- It's possible that the tape drive or media are performing poorly.   This can be determined by running HP's free Library and Tape Tools ( http://www.hp.com/support/tapetools ) and performing drive and media tests to see if either the drive or tape media have problems.     With newer LTO drives, you can run HP TapeAssure ( http://www.hp.com/go/tapeassure )  and monitor performance, compression, etc. real-time.   TapeAssure is also free.

My recommendations would be in this order:

1) Run PerfMon and look for any obvious server-side bottlenecks.

2) Use Library and Tape Tools to check how fast data can be read off the source disk.

3) If nothing obvious stands out with 1 and 2, check your media with the Library and Tape Tools Media Test, and also generate a support ticket on the drive itself.