Brian> We have been facing some explosive growth during the past 6 Brian> months and have grown past our current backup solution. We are Brian> currently backing up via a linux box that has our 740 nfs Brian> mounted. Backups are taking sometimes 24-30 hours for Brian> incrementals and all weekend for fulls.
Ouch, not fun. But can you give us a bit more detail on how your network and backup server are setup? Then we can help with a range of suggestions, ranging from NFS tweaks to full blown replacement of hardware.
Brian> What I am looking for is info on how others are backing up 200G Brian> volumes on 740's or 760's. I just purchased a pair of 760's Brian> and am going to need a nice stable reliable backup system for Brian> them.
We're currently using Legato Networker (Solstice Backup actually) 5.1 to backup NetApps that have been NFS mounted to the backup servers, which have ATL jukeboxes with dual DLT7000 in them. It works well on the server that's an Ultra 2 with dual 300Mhz CPUs. The other one is slow because it's just a Sparc 20 with Dual CPUs. Haven't had the chance to replace it yet.
Anyway, there could be lots of problems with your backups speeds. Some things to look at and possibly try out:
1. Change your NFS mount options
2. Build a seperate backup network between the backup server and NetApp(s). This is a good idea in general.
3. Check the load on your server when doing backups. - How busy is the CPU? - Is it swapping heavily? - Are there other programs running at the same time? - What's the size of memory on the system? - What Linux version are you running? - Do you have the latest NFS patches applied? - What tape drive(s) are you using? - Which tape jukebox are you using?
4. What backup software are you using and does it have any performance indicators?
5. Are you willing to spend the money on NDMP capable software and a DLT7000 jukebox attached directory to the filer(s)? That would get the network out of the equation almost completely.
Lots and lots of things to look at here.
John John Stoffel - Senior Unix Systems Administrator - Lucent Technologies stoffel@lucent.com - http://www.lucent.com - 978-952-7548 john.stoffel@ascend.com - http://www.ascend.com