backing up slow for one particular vm

[chipperjonesrul]

we are using backup exec 11d to backup data from our servers using remote agent.

backup exec is installed one windows 2003 server (tape drive is connected to it), and we have an esx 3.5 server with several virtual machines, and one other windows server is also backed up with backup exec remote agent.

evern after we virtualized our file server, we still use the remote agent to backup the data off of it, just as before we virtualized it.

we have been doing this for 6 to 8 months without any major issues.

what I am running into now is that the backup has gone from taken 12 hours to 36.

I have narrowed it down to the one particular virtual server, our file server. the other virtual server still backs up at 280 to 300 mb per minute, where the file server is doing less than half that.

I am watching it now, and it started at over 200 mb per minute, and it looks like it drops a meg every minute or so, down to 39 mb per minute now.

why would one virtual server backup so much slower than the other?

what should I look at?

[Lightbulb]

Is it INCR or fulls or both that are affected by slow down?

Have their been any changes in the amount of data that is being backed up?

Have you run chkdsk on the fileserver drives?

Are there any VSS or VDS erros or warnings in the logs?

Decreasing backup speeds of the course of a system backup are often caused by the backup agent having to process numerous small files, usaly in a single directory, look for this.

Check utilization of vnics during backup proces. Also check CPU and memory overhead on VM.

If all else fails what you can do is track it downa content problem by exclusions. That is exclude 😧 does performance return to normal, if yes exlude D:\Files is performance normal? In this annoying manner you can drill down to you proble content. Try windirstat (http://windirstat.info/) to get a nice visual representation of your filesystems.

Hope some of this helps.