Xen users - Aug 2009 - backing up DomU with Netbackup is 3 times slower

Hi all,
We have recently migrated our critical servers like MS Exchange, MS SQL etc.
to Xen 3.0.3 on RHEL 5.3 server. Although servers are in production and
performance is acceptable, but when we attempt to take backups of DomUs
(same way as we used to take in physical servers scenario) using Netbackup v
6.5 application from Symantec, it takes 3x more time to finish the backup.
What used to take earlier 18 minutes (exchange mailbox level backup) is now
taking 90 minutes.
Our host servers are brand new Dell 2950 with 32 GB RAM and 8 Cores, out of
which we have committed 2 cores (read 2 vCPUs)  and 4 B RAM to exchange,
which is equivalent of its earlier physical server configuration.
Is there anyway that this can be taken care of as backup is an integral part
for any organization

thanks


_______________________________________________
Xen-users mailing list
Xen-users@lists.xensource.com
http://lists.xensource.com/xen-users

On Sun, Aug 23, 2009 at 10:23 AM, abhi datt<abhi.datt@gmail.com>
wrote:
> Hi all,
> We have recently migrated our critical servers like MS Exchange, MS SQL
etc.
> to Xen 3.0.3 on RHEL 5.3 server. Although servers are in production and
> performance is acceptable, but when we attempt to take backups of DomUs
> (same way as we used to take in physical servers scenario) using Netbackup
v
> 6.5 application from Symantec, it takes 3x more time to finish the backup.
> What used to take earlier 18 minutes (exchange mailbox level backup) is now
> taking 90 minutes.
> Our host servers are brand new Dell 2950 with 32 GB RAM and 8 Cores, out of
> which we have committed 2 cores (read 2 vCPUs)  and 4 B RAM to exchange,
> which is equivalent of its earlier physical server configuration.
> Is there anyway that this can be taken care of as backup is an integral
part
> for any organization
>
> thanks
>
> _______________________________________________
> Xen-users mailing list
> Xen-users@lists.xensource.com
> http://lists.xensource.com/xen-users
>
Are you using pv drivers? Perhaps redhat provide pv drivers of their own?

You can get James Harper''s gpl pv drivers from
http://www.meadowcourt.org/downloads but they work a lot better with
Xen 3.4 than 3.0.3, the drivers will give a huge increase in i/o
performance on the hd and network, but I would upgrade Xen if you want
to try them.

Andy

_______________________________________________
Xen-users mailing list
Xen-users@lists.xensource.com
http://lists.xensource.com/xen-users

Thanks Andy. I''''ll try that too. Do you suggest some thing
else too, to be
tuned besides using PV because when I ran this performance test
http://www.passmark.com/products/pt.htm
inside guest (windows 2003) with and without PV drivers I didn''t find
much
difference in read and write speed.

thanks
Abhi


On Sun, Aug 23, 2009 at 6:34 PM, Andrew Lyon <andrew.lyon@gmail.com>
wrote:
> On Sun, Aug 23, 2009 at 10:23 AM, abhi datt<abhi.datt@gmail.com>
wrote:
> > Hi all,
> > We have recently migrated our critical servers like MS Exchange, MS
SQL
> etc.
> > to Xen 3.0.3 on RHEL 5.3 server. Although servers are in production
and
> > performance is acceptable, but when we attempt to take backups of
DomUs
> > (same way as we used to take in physical servers scenario) using
> Netbackup v
> > 6.5 application from Symantec, it takes 3x more time to finish the
> backup.
> > What used to take earlier 18 minutes (exchange mailbox level backup)
is
> now
> > taking 90 minutes.
> > Our host servers are brand new Dell 2950 with 32 GB RAM and 8 Cores,
out
> of
> > which we have committed 2 cores (read 2 vCPUs)  and 4 B RAM to
exchange,
> > which is equivalent of its earlier physical server configuration.
> > Is there anyway that this can be taken care of as backup is an
integral
> part
> > for any organization
> >
> > thanks
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > Xen-users mailing list
> > Xen-users@lists.xensource.com
> > http://lists.xensource.com/xen-users
> >
>
> Are you using pv drivers? Perhaps redhat provide pv drivers of their own?
>
> You can get James Harper''s gpl pv drivers from
> http://www.meadowcourt.org/downloads but they work a lot better with
> Xen 3.4 than 3.0.3, the drivers will give a huge increase in i/o
> performance on the hd and network, but I would upgrade Xen if you want
> to try them.
>
> Andy
>

_______________________________________________
Xen-users mailing list
Xen-users@lists.xensource.com
http://lists.xensource.com/xen-users

On Sun, Aug 23, 2009 at 8:04 PM, Andrew Lyon<andrew.lyon@gmail.com>
wrote:
> You can get James Harper''s gpl pv drivers from
> http://www.meadowcourt.org/downloads but they work a lot better with
> Xen 3.4 than 3.0.3, the drivers will give a huge increase in i/o
> performance on the hd and network, but I would upgrade Xen if you want
> to try them.
They work just fine with RHEL''s version of Xen (3.1+). The only
exception is probably Windows CDROM drive, which should work only on
Xen 3.4.

-- 
Fajar

_______________________________________________
Xen-users mailing list
Xen-users@lists.xensource.com
http://lists.xensource.com/xen-users