True Image 9.1 Slow network backups to Windows 2003 SBS RC2

Afternoon

Any one had any luck with True image 9.1 workstation (build 3886) and windows 2003 Small Business Server RC2 (I’ve also tried Virtual PC 2005 Server with a Trial 2003 server image with similar results; but this virtual machine was run on top of the 2003 SBS OS, so it could actually be something with the physical hardware or the SBS installation.)

I get extremely slow network performance when backing up using True image (from within windows and via the Acronis boot disk)

On my test Server and workstation, backing up to a network drive gets me on average around 1% network utilization on a gigabit network (very little CPU on the server, and very little CPU on the workstation).

I've tried different computers (to backup from) and different backup destinations (Windows XP Pro, Windows 2000 Pro), and the speed issues always seem to tie back to Windows 2003 SBS server.

I can copy data to/from the workstation/server (MS file sharing) and peek at just under 20% network bandwidth usage in a lot of cases.

I've played with the throttling settings within TI without any luck. I’ve checked network drivers, security settings. I’ve dug through the forums here but can’t seem to find anything that fits my exact issues.

Server Machine specs: Windows 2003 SBS file server . 915 P4 Dual core 3.4 ghz on a Asus P5LD2 with the onboard PCI Express Gigabit Marvell 88N8053 Network card, AX300SE ATI PCI express video, onboard Intel ICH7R sata controller in a Raid 5 configuration (3 Seagate SATA2 ST3500641AS 500G 16M drives ) with 2 gig of memory (Pc 5300 Syncmax memory configured as dual channel)

Workstations: 1 test machine is basically the same specs as the server with a single Seagate 80 gig hard drive and only 1 gig of memory running Windows XP pro with SP2. Other test machines are a mixture of Windows 2000 and XP pro,

On the two main testing machines, firewalls have been disabled, and the latest Service packs have been applied.

The Server has had the latest Group management and Acronis backup server installed

The Workstation has the latest build of Acronis (full and Agent installed)

I posted a request help to Acronis support via their website over a week ago; but haven't heard anything back

I'm at a complete lost to what is going on

Has anyone had similar issue, or have some suggestions, which I could try to solve this, or help narrow my search into identifying what the root cause is.

In advance, thanks for any assistance

Paul

 

Hi Paul,

i have exactly the same problem.

on a 2003 enterprise server it works fine. but on a sbs 2003 server i have very slow network.


please tell me if you have a solution


tnx

andy

 

Hi Paul again


do you have a DELL PC?


I read in this forum that DELL Customers have this problemes. Because of their RAID-Controllers in it


Andy

 

Hi Andy

No Solution or response from Acronis yet - Sent them another Polite "Hello? Anyone Home" email about 20 minutes ago

Nadda on the Dell machine.. Just a Asus base clone machine slapped together (with pretty good parts and lots of air circulation) running a raid 5 set of three 500 gig sata2 drives, with 2 gigs of memory and a p4 dualcore 3.4 processor.

I was thinking it may be some obsure Server setting. I installed a VHD test drive image of 2003 Enterprise addition in a virtual PC (http://www.microsoft.com/technet/try/vhd/default.mspx) on the SBS server and it still ran exactly the same (slow slow performance). Mind you, not sure how much of definate test this is as the base machine is the one I've been having the issues with.

There was another thread recommendation to update the LAN man security settings through a group policy for the domain; but when I applied it, it toasted active directory (couldn't get back into the group policy editor, due to rights, to change it back + services were failing all over the place - had to recover via a backup)

I may try Migrating the current live image of SBS server to a straight SATA drive drives using the IDE emulated default controller option (IDE emulated SATA, SATA native, and Raid) as I initially installed all mass storage devices during the initial install (hopefully I wont be stuck with dealing with WPA again). I'll post my results (wont be until wednesday)

Andy: How are your transfer rates on MS file sharing related tasks (SMB/Nebios over TCPIP)? I'm able to hit 30% (which I believe translates into around 30 MEG/sec on my gigabit segement) which doesnt jive with the 0.5 to 1% I get during an TIWS to network image backup.


Paul

 

Hi Andy

I'd like to thank you for your posts.. They got me thinking

Did a little playing with the Raid settings (Write caching wasn't enabled at the raidset level) and was able to boost the speed of the backups from .5 to 1% to around 8% (as much as 16 times the initial performance).

Its strange how if I transfer a large file to the 2003 server via windows filesharing, there wasn't any real performance hit (I would of expected all writes to exhibit the same sort of performance degration). Additionally, I was able to get slightly better backup writes using the Acronis boot disk; but maybe the Anti Virus (pcCillin) was acting as a bit of a bottle neck while windows was up on the workstation (but CPU usuage on the workstation was never really above 40 % during the backup)

I'm looking into adding a non raid-ed drive to the system for just True image backups and maybe swap as a short term fix, and the possibility of getting a much better PCI add on raid controller in the future..

I'm hoping running a single drive will allow me to hit higher bandwitdth usage (I can hit as high as 20% bandwidth usage with windows file sharing during a file transfer)

I'll post my results

Paul

 

Hy guys I'm on the same wagon.
Backing up from XP+SP2 workstation with TI 9.1 (3886) to a Windows 2003 server Standard Edition that hosts a 3Ware RAID controller and it is horribily slow. Zero CPU usage and network bandwidth on both machines.
11 hours to backup 12GB.......

Any hint?

 

Hey Blutarsky

I'd try connecting up a good fast USB2.0 external hard drive to your 2003SBS. Then create a share, and try a backup to the USB drive. See if you can get any better performance.

Enabling write caching on the Raid 5 set controller helped my performance at least 10 fold

Aside: It was strange how copying large files to the server (MS file sharing) wasn't causing the same sort of performance issues as was noticed with True image. (I'm just guessing; but maybe the true image backup data stream was being Transferred and written out in smaller blocks which was causing the raid controllerto perform more parity related work?)

Good luck with your issue, and remember to post back any results

Paul

 

Similar situation here.

Server 2003 Enterprise, software RAID 5 exhibits the same speed slow (1 GB/hr uncompressed). That should rule out the controller.

No problem writing to a software Striped set on XP Pro, nor to a plain Basic or Dynamic drive on either Server 2003, XP Pro, or 2000 Pro. No problem using Ghost or Drive Image 2002 anywhere.

All products and destinations (except True Image and Server 2003 RAID) take 4 +/- 1 min to backup a 2GB image (normal compression, ~1GB compressed) over gigabit ethernet. Backing up to a local drive is also about 4 min. True Image and Server 2003 RAID takes 122 min (!) I've not installed True Image on the server for testing (inasmuch as it requires a reboot (?!?)).

I have just a couple days left before it appears I'll be testing their refund policy.

 

Guys here's an updated thread: https://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?p=970413