lafleur1977

Hello, I have been struggling with slow backups of our servers using Backup Exec for quite a while. I have been looking into it and found that our main Exchange DB was one of the resources taking ages (about 20 hours - full or diff!). I don't have alot of knowledge with Exchange and the server was configured for us so we manage it day to day really. Looking into how to improve exchange DB backup times I came across a suggestion to perform an offline defrag using eseutil (http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa998249(v=exchg.80).aspx) which almost certainly has never been done before. I have also checked the online maintenance schedule of the database which runs from midnight to 4am but the main database keeps terminating due to interruption (probably from the backup job). My question is how safe is performing an offline defrag with eseutil and is this sensible to run considering my backup problem and also how often should it be run? Thanks

Yes I checked. All of our servers has a sophos policy and on access scanning is disabled. I have disabled anti-virus scanning on our servers and am just letting a few backups complete and see if that improves it. Yeah fragmentation could be the issue but defragmenting the volumes takes days so I usually do this during closure periods. I am going to try contig and see of that works better next time. Thanks for the link to the document, I will look through that too

Yes I checked. All of our servers has a sophos policy and on access scanning is disabled. I have disabled anti-virus scanning on our servers and am just letting a few backups complete and see if that improves it. Yeah fragmentation could be the issue but defragmenting the volumes takes days so I usually do this during closure periods. I am going to try contig and see of that works better next time. Thanks for the link to the document, I will look through that too

Looking at Tuesdays diff backup, it was just over 100 GB and it took 26 hours and 10 minutes. As each diff backup completes throughout the month, and the data increases the job rate also increases. Starts at around 70 MB/min and goes up to around 150MB/min by the end of the month. I'm going to look into a few of the suggestions above and yours too anyway. We are also looking into Virtualisation as our servers will need replacing soon so it might be that we just make do until then. At least the backups are working and we can restore successfully Thanks

I have thought the amount of data would be the problem since I first started - trouble is introducing quotas when staff are use to having "infinite" storage has been difficult so far. We are a high school with 1400 users - What kind of size in your user base and whats your backup size? Never thought about changing the compression options but will try that suggestion out. That's correct in how you describe the differential backups. They usually start at about 100 GB per diff on the first Monday and grow to about 200 GB before the next Full backup. Problem is all the diff backups throughout the month take about the same 25 hours, so they are overlapping from the beginning. I have been trying to concentrate on improving the full backup first because there is so many different elements to the backup config. I have also looked at the .bkf file sizes (originally set to 1GB). I increased these to 10, 20 and 50 GB but these didn't make alot of difference. I have left it at 10 GB currently. Like you say it should be okay being a SAN but I make sure to defragment regularly (every half term - 6-8 weeks) and it literally takes about 3 days! Thanks for your suggestions

Not sure off the top of my head but I will check tomorrow. When you mentioned AV in your last reply I checked the AV on the media server and the daily scan starts at 9pm daily and doesn't seem to finish until 9am! I also noticed a duplicate scheduled task to do an AV scan on most of the data on the HP SAN. I will look into this more tomorrow and try disabling AV. Might have been a very good suggestion that

For data... Files: 1,624,661 Directories: 215,658 We use Sophos Anti-Virus on all of our servers, including our media server, which is provided by our LA. Thanks

Thanks for your reply. We backup to disc first and then replicate to tape. The disc aspect seems to be the problem rather than tape, which replicate in a few hours.

Hello, I have posted about this before but am still no closer to a solution. I have inherited a backup solution which uses BackupExec 12.5 and I am having trouble with extremely slow backup times. Currently full backups are taking 50 hours including verify and differentlial backups are taking about 25 hours. The backup time has only increased despite trying to decrease the amount of data by implementing quotas (still in progress however) and I could do with a little help to try and get the backup times down to a more realistic time. Firstly I shall explain the solution: Software: BackupExec 12.5 media server running on Windows Server 2008 64-bit. This server is also the main file server. Hardware: BackupExec 12.5 Media/File server - Spec: Intel Xeon E5310 1.60 GHz, 8GB RAM and 1 Gbps NIC. Storage: HP SAN configured by a hardware RAID and formatted as one 5 ish TB NTFS partition. This is used for the main data storage. HP Disk Array configured by a Windows software RAID (as it wouldn't work in a hardware RAID) and formatted as one 5 ish TB NTFS partition. This is used for backup storage. HP Tape LT03 drive. BackupExec 12.5 software configuration: Media server has been configured with one daily backup selection list. This currently includes the data files stored on the locally connected HP SAN (currently 1.5 TB), system states for two DC's, system state of an exchange server, exchange database (currently about 80 GB), system state of print server, shadow copy components of print server (not sure what this does and if its needed?), and a few shared folders on a couple of other servers. Two folders have been created on the HP disc array. One called Full and the other Differentials. Both of these have corresponding backup to disc folders under devices. Both were are configured with over right protection of 27 days but recently I have had to decrease these to 3 weeks and 1 week respectively due to low disc space, but I know this can be rectified by increasing the storage. Backup jobs have been created and use the selection list I described above: Mon, Tues, Weds, Thurs Differential daily backups to the Differential folder. Fri 1 Full monthly backup to the Full folder. These is then duplicated to tape. Fri 2, fri 3 and fri 4 Differential weekly backups to the Differential folder. These are then duplicated to tape. Conclusion: So the server is configured to do daily differential backups and a monthly full backup. I believe this is suppose to be the fastest method as diffs only backup the changes made since the last full. Full backups are currently around 1.7 TB's and is taking nearly 50 hours to complete, including verify. Diff backups are currently between 100 - 200 GB and are taking about 25 hours to complete, including verify. This also means our daily backups are now overlapping. Duplication to tape is around a few hours and isn't a problem. One thing that I am confused by is the job rate which after checking the job logs varies for each resource. Overall for full backups its around 700MB/min and for diffs is between 70 - 150 MB/min. Backups generally do complete successfully but the backup to disc completion time has done nothing but increase since I started here. I have tried one suggestion from a previous post to increase the .bkf file size as these were set to 1GB but I have increased them up to 50 GB and this only made a minor improvement. I have also tried breaking down the backup selection list to find the slow points and it appears its the data the data files stored on the locally connected HP SAN (currently 1.5 TB) which took around 20 hours on a full backup and also the exchange database (currently about 80 GB) which took around 23 hours on a full backup. All other resources on the selection list (system states, shadow copy components, shared folders, etc completed quickly in a few hours in total). So if the problem is with my users data and exchange database - what can I do to improve these? I have considered excluding multimedia files but not tried this yet. As mentioned earlier we are implementing quotas but this is a slow process as staff change here. As for the exchange database I am not too sure as my knowledge on exchange isn't extensive. I am aware the it does maintained every night on schedule and inbox's are restricted to 2GB per user. I think in the long run I would like to replace the backup solution with some sort of snapshot backup as the network is in use nearly 24/7. However, if anyone could offer any suggestions for troubleshooting the data and exchange db elements I would greatly appreciate it. Let me know if I have been unclear above too. Thanks

Thanks for clarifying that for me. I shall let you know how I get on

*Gently nudge* From what I have read, the 'maximum number of backup sets per backup-to-disk file' relates to each element in the backup jobs selection list. So if I have 15 elements should I set this to 15 or would you have each element in a separate file? There is also the option 'allocate the maximum size for backup-to-disk files' which I presume I would be best keeping un-selected so the full size isn't allocated even if there is only 30 MB of data. If you could possibly help clarify this part I would really appreciate it. I'm going to make your suggested change tomorrow for our next full backup. Thanks

Also, regarding your suggestion to increase the BKF files. If I was to increase it to 10 GB for example, how many backup sets per file would you allow?

I'd say so too but have not had a similar setup to compare with. About 1.5 TB of the current 1.7 TB full backup are data files (users home folders, shares, etc) so some of these could be tiny word documents aswell as larger video files, powerpoints and pdf's. We have tried reducing this data over the last year by implementing quotas but this has been a slow process (politics) and is still on going. The rest of the full backup is system states and an exchange database. What kind of data are you backing up to get 2000-3000 MB/min? Our network is a mix of 1 Gbps and 100 Mbps. Backbone is 1 Gbps (so all servers, core switch and switch uplinks) and end user devices run at 100 Mbps so I wouldn't think that could be affecting it. Thanks

Thanks for your suggestion. I will try increasing and see if it helps. Job throughput rates are for full backups its around 700MB/min and for diffs is between 70 - 150 MB/min.

Checked under Devices > backup to disc folders > Full and diff folders are both set to 1 GB. Is that too big?

Hello, I have inherited a backup solution which uses BackupExec 12.5 and I am having trouble with extremely slow backup times. Generally they are almost 24 hours including verify which cannot be right and as the backup time has only increased despite decreasing the amount of data I could do with a little help to try and get the backup times down to a more realistic time. Firstly I shall explain the solution: Software: BackupExec 12.5 media server running on Windows Server 2008 64-bit. This server is also the main file server. Hardware: BackupExec 12.5 Media/File server - Spec: Intel Xeon E5310 1.60 GHz, 8GB RAM and 1 Gbps NIC. Storage: HP SAN configured by a hardware RAID and formatted as one 5 ish TB NTFS partition. This is used for the main data storage. HP Disk Array configured by a Windows software RAID (as it wouldn't work in a hardware RAID) and formatted as one 5 ish TB NTFS partition. This is used for backup storage. HP Tape LT03 drive. BackupExec 12.5 software configuration: Media server has been configured with one daily backup selection list. This currently includes the data files stored on the locally connected HP SAN (currently 1.52 TB), system states for two DC's, system state of an exchange server, exchange database, system state of print server, shadow copy components of print server (not sure what this does and if its needed?), and a few shared folders on a couple of other servers. All of these servers are of good specification. I did remove a very old server recently but this made no difference to the backup time. Two folders have been created on the HP disc array. One called Full and the other Differentials. Both of these have corresponding backup to disc folders under devices. Both were originally configured with over wright protection of 27 days but recently I have had to decrease these to 3 weeks and 1 week respectively due to low disc space. Because of this I believe our backup storage has basically reached capacity and should be increased if we continue to use this solution for the foreseeable future. Backup jobs have been created and use the selection list I described above: Mon, Tues, Weds, Thurs Differential daily backups to the Differential folder. Fri 1 Full monthly backup to the Full folder. These is then duplicated to tape (currently 4 or 5 LT03 tapes). Fri 2, fri 3 and fri 4 Differential weekly backups to the Differential folder. These are then duplicated to tape (currently about 50% of one LT03 tape). Conclusion: So the server is configured to do daily differential backups and a monthly full backup. I believe this is suppose to be the fastest method as diffs only backup the changes made since the last full. Full backups are currently around 1.7 TB's and taking around 46 hours to complete, including verify. Diff backups are currently between 100 - 200 GB and are taking almost 24 hours to complete, including verify. Duplication to tape is around 4 hours which I consider reasonable. One thing that I am confused by is the job rate. This seems to increase as the job goes on and the more data there is to backup. For full backups its around 700MB/min and for diffs is between 70 - 150 MB/min. I have tried looking through the job logs to see if a particular part is transferring very slow but was unable to find any transfer speeds. Backups generally do complete successfully but the backup to disc completion time has done nothing but increase since I started here. BackupExec does seem to be pretty over complicated but I am not really an expert with it. The HP disc array is also a concern of mine with its software raid configuration and as to whether the unit is even up to the job. Perhaps this is the week link as it has also had many hard drive failures and hard drives have been replaced at different times so it does not have the exact same hard drives in each bay (however these are comparable). I think in the long run I would like to replace the backup solution with some sort of snapshot backup as the network is in use nearly 24/7. However, if anyone could offer any suggestions for troubleshooting this I would greatly appreciate it. Let me know if I have been unlcear above too. Thanks

No tweaks needed to deploy Shockwave/Flash/Reader. I just apply for the annual distribution licence, download the msi packages (extract in the case of Adobe reader) and deploy via group policy.

The UAC settings in group policy can be found here: In the end I have left UAC on as I managed to get a third party fix for the program in question. Sims should work with UAC without any issues as I have it working on all of our W7 PC's. Have you looked in event viewer for anything related at the time of launch? Also, sims required users to have full control of c:\program files\sims.net so if its working as admin but not as a standard user that could be it. Thanks

I can't say I have any problems with sims.net and uac. The only issues we are aware of is that Nova T4 does not work on W7 64-bit. Thanks for your reply.

Hello, We are deploying Windows 7 64-bit and one old program comes up with a UAC prompt when opened on admin and standard domain accounts. The only way around this I can see is to turn UAC off via Group policy but I am concerned this would have a negative impact on security. Is it wise to turn UAC off or does any one know of ways around it for certain programs? Thanks

You can apply for the Adobe software distribution licence here: https://www.adobe.com/cfusion/mmform/index.cfm?name=distribution_form&pv=fp Its a bit of a faff but you then have access to the latest MSI's easily. Follow the instructions on the link below to obtain the java msi: How do I deploy Java using Active Directory across a network?

Hello, I have been setting up new remote desktop servers running server 2008 R2. I am having some trouble with printers and I am not sure what exactly the problem may be. I have installed 64-bit drivers for them on the 2008 (32-bit) print server and these seem okay. The printer connections add successfully on the remote desktop servers for all users but when I try to print in office applications I am receiving errors (attached). If I print in something like paint/word/test page it prints okay. Has anyone come across this before? Thanks

I don't think hiding network from the start menu and adding in small custom adm template to hide network from windows explorer is complex. Our network share permissions are set correctly too but users, and particularly students, mess about alot so for me it is important to hide as well as prevent access.

Unfortunately not. I have managed to hide the network icon from the start menu and also from windows explorer (using a custom adm template) but not via the address bar. I am just going to leave it because as long as permissions are correct on the network users shouldn't be able to get into anything they shouldn't be able to. Thanks

@GrahamCT I have since fixed this problem. I was storing the start menu folders in netlogon so I tried creating a new dedicated share on another server called redirection. I used the domain users security group for share and security permissions and then created various subfolders in the directory for different users start menu and desktops. One thing I did notice was regarding the share permissions. I initially gave domain users 'read' but the original problem on second login then occurred so I had to grant domain users 'change'. On security permissions I gave domain users 'read'. E.g. server\redirection$\staff\start menu \desktop server\redirection$\students\start menu \desktop Hope this helps.