Slow Data Speed to External HD

[vipes27]

We have an external HD plugged into the USB of one of our hosts. We use a 3rd party program to create a backup and the external HD is the location that it gets sent to. If we point the backup to a "local" drive on the server, the backup/data speed is very high but when we point it at the external HD, it's considerably slower. The HD is a USB 3.0 device. Is there anything in the settings that could be changed to try in to increase the speed?

Thanks.

[VirtuallyMikeB]

Good day,

Are you backing up a VM, or...?  What version and build of ESX/ESXi are you using?

If we're talking about a VM backup, check out this VMware KB article:

http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?cmd=displayKC&externalId=1022290

Cheers,

Mike

http://VirtuallyMikeBrown.com

https://twitter.com/#!/VirtuallyMikeB

http://LinkedIn.com/in/michaelbbrown

[vipes27]

No, we're backing up some SQL databases and some other files using Backup Exec. In Backup Exec, when I point it to a local drive, it flies but when going to the USB hard drive, it's very slow.

We're on ESXi 4.1.

[sparrowangelste]

is it being backed up via pass through in a windows vm?

on the usb drive properties in windows is write cache: quick removal or perforamnce?

[vipes27]

Sorry, I'm not sure what you mean by pass through. It's a Windows Server 2008 vm and Backup Exec is backing up the files and dumping the backup to the external USB hard drive.

I don't see that anywhere in the properties. I know it's generally under a Policies tab but I don't have that tab listed.

[sparrowangelste]

iirc you wont get faster than usb 2.0 speeds.

the usb drive is connected to the host correct? And your win 2008 vm is given the usb drive as a drive.

the issue could be the drive?

it will be slower than nativley connecting it to a physical host.

In my own tests, that what I found

http://sparrowangelstechnology.blogspot.com/2012/07/iometer-test-of-usb-flash-drive.html

[vipes27]

Yes, it's connected and can write to it, it's just slow. It's a USB 3.0 drive but I wasn't sure if it would go faster than 2.0.

I figured it would be a little slower then a physical connection but I didn't think it would be this slow. When Backup Exec is going to the USB hard drive the job rate is running at about 370MB/min compared to 2,000MB/min when going to the local disk.

[vipes27]

I thought I'd try something different and have the backup go to the local disk and then copy or move the file to the external HD. Backing up to the external HD took 1:11 and backing up to the local disk took 10 minutes. I then tried moving the file to the external HD and it initially showed about 5 minutes to move 13.1GB of data. It was going about 60MB/sec and had about 3GB done and it just froze. After a few minutes, it started again but then showed about 1 hour and 5 minutes to complete and was running around 7MB/sec.

I moved the file between local disks and it took less than 5 minutes. Is there something that's getting hung up between the local disk and external HD?

[johnwest80]

I'm having the same issue.  I added the USB device to my Windows Server 2003 vm, and ran the HD Tune benchmark on it after seeing slow real-world performance.  I'm only getting 7MB/sec as well.  I've tried different physical usb ports and two different usb hard drives; same result.  The server is a brand new Dell 510 with high-end specs.

Help?