Methods to improve backup performance without adjusting Veritas NetBackup™ buffer files

Problem

Methods to improve backup performance without adjusting Veritas NetBackup™ buffer files

Error Message

N/A - Backup speeds appear to have reduced, have slower over time, or have been impacted due to a change.

Cause

Changes in the NetBackup configuration, or within the environment, have impacted backup speeds.

Solution

Modify or adjust the following settings individually or collectively. Each point may not apply to every NetBackup environment.

Modifications within NetBackup:

• Disable all NetBackup logging.
• Disable Compression in the Policy Attributes.
  • Conversely enable Compression. The point is, you don't want to have both software compression and hardware compression active simultaneously.
• Disable intelligent disaster recovery (IDR) and true image restore (TIR) in the Policy Attributes.
  • NetBackup will spend extra cycles on these activities thereby causing the backup to last longer.
• Disable Open Transaction Manager (OTM) and Volume Snapshot Provider (VSP). OTM and VSP will cause backups to last longer.
  • If disabling OTM or VSP is not an option, consider moving the OTM or VSP cache file to a different drive letter.
  • If backing up the C:\ drive, locate the cache file on D:\ or vice versa.
• Disable Job Tracker on each client machine.
  • The tracker starts through the registry, see article 100016312 on how to disable tracker.
  • Job Tracker is listed as tracker.exe in Task Manager. Job Tracker is designed for computers that are used as desktop workstations, to tell the users when a backup is active on their workstation. Consequently it is not needed on normal data center class servers.
• In the Policy, change from using the directive " All Local Drives" to individual drive letters and system state.
  • In many situations, specifying drive letters produces quicker backups than using the All Local Drives directive.
• Examine Exclude and Include Lists and eliminate them if possible.
  • NetBackup must process each of these lists and this will slow down the backup.

Modifications Outside of NetBackup:

• Disable outbound Virus Scanning on all data sets being backed up.
• Disable NT File System (NTFS) compression on all data sets being backed up.
• Ensure that network communication is working optimally:
  1. Verify that the network interface card's (NIC's) Hub/Switch ports are set to Fixed Duplexing and Fixed Speed rather then Auto-sense and Auto-negotiate.
  2. Use FTP to transfer a large file (50 megabytes or more) from the media server to the client and back again. Time each operation. If moving the file in either direction is significantly longer then the other, there is a network problem.
• Try using Host files rather then relying on the domain name server (DNS) for name resolution (use extreme caution if doing this).
• Connect the tape drives onto different SCSI buses. For example: Assume 8 tape drives, 2 drives connected to each SCSI card requiring 4 total SCSI cards.