HP Netserver E800/backing up files

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PFJ

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Hi All,

we are running Windows Small Business Server on a HP Netserver E800 win2KSP4 (X86 Family 6 Model 8 - Stepping 10 AT/AT Compatable -261,616RAM) and daily we backup onto a DAT72 tape using Veritas (now a Symantec product). It backs up ~34GB of selected files but it takes forever and almost exceeds the 24hrs so the daily idea of backing up idea is void.

My email is unpredictable as a result on my workstation (win2k) but the junk emails are cleaned from the server daily ( and boy are there a lot!).

The server runs NAV Corporate and I've carried out scans for nasties using programs as recommended in these forums but it is still very slow. I presume that the main reason is that it is running the back up during the daytime when it should have completed the backup at night.

Is it possible to use an USB external HD of say 500GB with five partitions (one for each working day of the week) and would it be faster?

Regards
PFJ
 
First you should figure out what is the bottleneck.

It could be the antivirus. I hope you haven't set the real-time scanner to scan "all files". Try disabling.

It could be simple overload.. 256MB of RAM is not much, especially if you are running a resident modern antivirus. The system could be swapping mad when having to serve users, scan for viruses and run the backup. Check the memory/swap usage.

It could be the filesystem. NTFS is not that great performance-wise, especially if you have thousands of small files. If your disk is (or has been) over 90% full, then the files may be heavily fragmented. Try defragmenting. Consider setting up several partitions.

It could be the backup software. The file selection algorithms may be braindead. If you are making inremental backups, then the backup software has to compare the attributes of each file against the backup database. Try just copying the files to another partition/drive and see how fast that goes.

It could be the tape or the tape drive itself. Again, try a backup to disk and see the speed of that.

It could be broken hardware. Bad hard drives, misconfigured/bad disk controller, loose cables..

It could be your backup methodology. Do you need to do a daily full backup? How about daily incrementals and a weekend full?

Does the server have USB 2.0 ports/controllers? USB 1.1 would be horribly slow. You might have to invest in more internal hard drive(s) or maybe some external SCSI solution (if you have SCSI) instead.
 
Thanks Nodsu for your reply.

Your right, it could be AV conflicts between the router and the servers onboard AV.

Do you have any preference in server manufacturers or types if I'm eventually forced to purchase a new one?

Regards

PFJ
 
HP or IBM, Sun. Never a Dell.

No matter what, get a "real" server with a server motherboard (Xeon or Opteron processor(s)).

Two power supplies, SAS RAID, hotswap hard drives.
 
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