Upgraded from ESXi 4.1 to 5.5 and now my tape backup is taking 30% longer.

[HenryatNF]

Tape backup time increased 30%.

Using Backup Exec 2010 R3 through an

Adaptec AHA_29320LPE PCI based SCSI 320 card to an HP MSL 2024 G3 serices tape libarary with a HP Ultrium 4 drive.

I have updated firmare for all hardware and updated BE 2010 to latest patches.

When running ESXi 4.1 with Windows 2003 R2 running the adaptec driver backup times were adequate.   After upddating to ESXi 5.5 the same WIndows 2003 R2 server does not see the Adaptec card but a generic scsi card.  This is due to the AHS2030LPE not being on the HCL list.  I see no other 320 scsi card on that list, so do not see a way to swap the card to a supported one.

Initially the upgrade defaulted the VM to use the LSI controller. I changed this to the paravirtual as I understand it has imporved performance.

What can I do to restore the performance of the backup?   Will scsi passthrough help? Will something else work?

[Lenora_BE]

Hello HenryatNF,

Backup Exec 2010 R3 doesn't support ESXi5.5. so for starters you should upgrade to Backup Exec 2012 and make sure you load all of the service packs after it is installed.

just FYI  Backup Exec 2014 will be released soon and it has been redesigned/configured with the most missed parts of BE 2010 R3 added back in.  It is in Beta right now and users approval is high.

[HenryatNF]

We do have support on our BE but have heard a few bad things about BE 2012 and our last BE update ended up be more of a chore then it was an improvement.  Since our SCSI card is not on the HCL, will it really make any difference?

Would this be worth checking out.  VMware KB: Configuring VMDirectPath I/O pass-through devices on a VMware ESX or VMware ESXi host

[Lenora_BE]

This would be what Symantec calls an Alternate Configuration which means that you may or may not get support help if you run into problems.  You would need to reproduce the problem in a supported environment to get Symantec's assistance.