ATI 2019 - Backup on Network destination problem (freezes / high CPU / high RAM)

Marin, it would be helpful if you could provide us with some more information.

First, can you confirm that you did not have this problem with prior version(s) of ATI. Which version did you use before moving to ATI 2019?

Second, what sort of NAS are you backing-up to. 

Also, how much RAM is installed on the PC.

Just noticed that you tried other network locations in addition to the NAS.

There have not (I think - but its well past my bed time and things are a bit fuzzy) reports of high RAM usage. From time to time there have been reports of high CPU usage.

Ian

(Note to Ian: Please remember to check this out tomorrow.)

Marin wrote:  When I change destination from external HDD to my Network Location (NAS), problem comes up - backup starts, and works, but RAM usage starts to raise very fast (up to 99%), then after this CPU up to 99% and computer freezes.

Please can you confirm what you mean by the above?

Are you changing the destination for the backup task that created a backup on your external HDD to now use a destination on your NAS?  That is what it sounds like you are doing?

Please try creating a separate backup where the destination is your NAS and see how that performs?

I would suspect a whole lot more network activity and CPU usage if the first point is correct due to the mixed locations of data here.

On PC I have 16GB + 8GB RAM (Total = 24GB)

I have tried with all types of network locations (NAS, SMB on Windows PC...) - when backup destination is using network the same thing happens.

Once again, full backup on USB drive is working without any problem.

I will try now ATI2018

Marin, just to repeat my earlier question - are you making new backups when picking these different destinations, or are you changing a backup task that was used to write to a local destination to now write to a remote / network one?

I just tested exact the same thing with ATI 2018 and the problem is still there - so version of ATI we can exclude.

When I create a new plan, with destination on Network location, problem is there. When I change only location on this plan to external HDD everything works like it should without a problem. When I change back destination to network location problem is again there.

So it does not matter which settings are in the backup plan, because when I change destination for backup - problem is there (with network) or problem is gone (with external HDD).

I have changed also internal PCIe Network card, but Problem is still there.

Where can I check why destination change to network location causes this problem?

I have also tried now with USB Network card... the same thing happens but only it comes slower - I think because of slower speed of USB Network card.

Have you pointed the backup task to the root path of the NAS folder or have you mapped the NAS drive to your Windows installation?

I have a very small thought that if writing directly to the NAS there may be a difficulty, but if it's writing to a mapped drive it's avoided.  No guarantee this works but might be worth trying.

I have tried this also (mapping NAS destination as Computer Drive) but situation is the same.

Marin, please can you download the MVP Log Viewer tool from the Community Tools link in my signature and use this to review the logs for your backups to the network locations and compare with the logs for your external HDD backups?  Please post copies of these logs to let us see what is happening too.

Marin,

Can you have a look at Windows Task Manager while the backup task is running to your network, Select more details to get an expanded view if necessary.

Scroll down the list under the Processes tab and locate Windows Processes.  Continue to scroll down and locate Service Host.  You will see a lot of entries for it.  Locate which one(s) are using the most CPU and Memory.  I am thinking it will be Service Host: Local Service (Net...).

Once you find the highest usage entry look to the right of that line and you will see a > symbol.  Click on that to expand it.

What does doing this reveal?  What is the underlying service that is eating up the CPU and Memory resources?

Once you find out what service is causing the problem you can try to address it.  One course of action would be to locate the named service in Services.msc, stop the service and restart it.  It could be that updating you network adapter drivers is in order to correct the problem.

Problems like yours are often due to memory leaks which are often caused by out of date drivers.

Hmm.  I'm noticing something similar.  I normally do not do ATI backups using SMB connections to NAS drives but I was testing a disk backup to NAS  today.  The backup was running very slowly so I killed it.  I've redefined the backup and am running it again.  ATI - in particular, TrueImageHomeService.exe - is the highest CPU user on my system after System Idle Process.  It bounces around between 15% to a bit over 20% CPU.  That's on a 4 core processor with hyperthreading so ATI is eating between 1 to 2 threads.  I don't remember paying much attention to ATI CPU use before, but this seems a bit excessive. 

I won't have time to work on this for a few days but maybe I'll open a ticket next week.

BTW, that CPU usage was as reported by Process Explorer.  Task Manager shows about half that.  I'm not sure how to interpret the difference.  (Actually, under Details, Task Manager does agree with Process Explorer.)

There is probably a process dependency between TrueImageHomeService.exe and another Windows process such as Service Host and the network services that it supports.  These are a mixture of Windows System files and Device driver files.  You might find corruption, in a System file or you might find memory leaks with an outdated driver.  It has been reported elsewhere on the NET that computers with more than 8GB of RAM suffer from memory leaks more so than those with 8GB or less due to outdated drivers for network adapters.

I myself do not run less than 16GB of ram on my machines except for an old PC my wife uses.  I keep drivers up to date on a pretty regular basis and I have never experienced this problem.  I also use top flight ram as well so I suspect that plays a part here as well.

Post back with your findings Patrick, maybe you will figure out your issue. 

Thank you guys for help...

I have tried everything but without success..

Finally, I have reinstalled Windows 10 again, and now everything works normaly. It has been some conflict which I could not locate.

Again -> thank you

Marin, thanks for your update - sorry to hear that a reinstall of Windows 10 was needed but understand how difficult it can be to track down some of these strange issues.  Good to hear that this issue is resolved by that reinstall.

While I won't be able to do a lot of testing right now, I tried the backup with two other network adapters: a USB-attached Wifi adapter (802.11n, unfortunately) and a USB3.0-attached gigabit Ethernet adapter.  I also updated the driver for my on-board NIC.

Updating the driver seemed to achieve nothing significant.

When using the Wifi adapter ATI CPU use went way down - using between 3 and 5%.  Unfortunately, but understandably,  the transfer speed also went way down.  

When using the USB-attached NIC the ATI CPU use went back up to 15 - 20%.  Both Ethernet adapters are made by RealTek.  This may invalidate this test.  They use different drivers but the drivers may be the same under the covers.

For the test I'm backing up drive with just under 300GB of data to an old, slow WD MyBookLive NAS.  According to a LAN speed test I've run the NAS write speed varies between 30MBs and 45MBs depending on block size (and probably a lot of other things).  ATI transfer rate to the NAS is around 20-28MBs over the gigabit Ethernet.

In all the attempts I have not let the backup run to completion.  I' m going to let the current one complete before doing any more tests.  (That should be in two hours according to the progress bar.)

Patrick 

I regularly see 20 to 30 percent CPU usage.  I think that is normal.

You have something else going on on your machine.  Have you ever had Intel Rapid  Storage Technology app installed on your computer?  If yes is it still installed?

I had to uninstall it from one of my systems due to random shutdowns.  Took me awhile to figure it out.  Finally found it in the Windows Reliability tool!

Once the backup ended I started a "regular" backup - a backup of one SSD and and one HDD to a USB3.0 attached external drive - and took a look at the CPU use.  I the usage varied a lot but 30% was pretty typical for a big part of the run.  I originally thought my CPU use was excessive because 1) I had never looked, and 2) I thought the behavior sounded a bit like Marin's.

I've changed my mind.  I think my ATI is probably normal given the slow speed of the NAS I was using.  I will look at drive related performance stuff.  I have never understood IRST - no idea if it is important or bloatware.  I have it installed and running.  I gather I should uninstall it.

By the way, I saw some very unusual stuff in Process Explorer during this backup to a local drive that I did not see during the backup to the NAS.  There was a sudden switch from high activity in TrueImageHomeService.exe to moderate activiy in that task but significant activity in two TrueImage.exe tasks.

That's a lot of ATI activity.

And later, a big drop in the activity of TrueImageHomeService.exe  but high activity in the other tasks.

Patrick,

I would encourage you to uninstall the IRST software.  It is meant to help with the management of your drives especially with RAID arrays but really is not needed.  Most user end up installing it when they install the Intel storage controller driver not knowing that the app is not needed.

The activities you see for Acronis services during a backup run are normal.  Yes there is a good bit of activity but then, a lot goes on during a backup task run as well.

Hopefully by uninstalling the IRST software you will gain back your lost performance and rid the machine of the instability you experience.