Very slow backups and replications in VMprotect 9 via VMware v5.1

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Hi. I've been having an amazing amount of issues with my version of VMprotect 9 (or whatever it's referred to as these days!) with backups, replications and restores - in relation to really slow speeds. We have two HP DL-385p Gen 8 VMware v5.1 hosts and the same model server running Server 2008 R2 for vCenter and Acronis. All the servers have 2GB BBWC. All the VM's on both hosts are Windows Server 2008 R2. We have a GbE switch on a separate management network for managing the VMs and doing the backups. The backup tasks backup to the Acronis server - which has 9TB of SAS drive storage on it. The replication tasks copy replicated VM's to the opposite host - and vice versa. I also have a QNAP TS-489U-RP rack mounted NAS with 4 x 3TB drives that's set up as an iSCSI target with the Acronis server as the Initiator. I use the NAS to further copy the jobs to a 2nd destination. Some of my VM's are only 100GB or so but some are in excess of 1TB. ANY jobs that I run - be they backups or replications are taking AGES to complete. They NEVER go above 5MB/sec - no matter how I set up the networking. I've tried setting the multiple NIC's of the Acronis server as a team and standalone - adding LAG's on the switch and all sorts of different settings. I've configured jobs to copy straight to the QNAP via iSCSI but they still won't venture past 5/6 MB/sec. If I copy data between the Acronis server and the iSCSI drive - it copies stuff as fast as hell. I'm not really getting anywhere with Acronis support with regards to sorting this out. I just get automated emails asking if the case can be closed! I'm not in a position to change the backup software to another system so I really need to get these working. Oh, and just to add - when I run backups/replications for my Exchange 2010 server - when the job (eventually) completes - it freezes the server and disconnects all my users from their Outlook email. To be honest, I think all the jobs seem to 'freeze' the server upon completion but it's really noticeable with the email server due to it disconnecting everyone! Thanks. Paul

jeu 04/09/2014 - 16:17
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Hi Paul,

The performance should be improved if you use Virtual Appliance instead Windows Agent installation mode, i.e. deploy Acronis Backup for VMware (former vmProtect) to the host where you want to back up VMs from. As the result during the backup job the Virtual Appliance will attach the backed up disks to itself and perform backup in hot-add mode.

What happens now (and which is wrong) is that Windows Agent both reads VM data and writes it to backup using NBD method (i.e. network transfer). This is not optimal and especially causes effect during VM replication jobs.

Windows Agent is useful when you have a dedicated physical machine which has SAN LUNs (FC/iSCSI) attached to it (not mounted, just initialized). If these LUNs are _also_ used by the ESXi host as VM storage then the VM data will be read directly from SAN during backup - i.e. it will find the sectors of LUN which correspond the VM disks and back up just this data (thanks to VDDK API provided by VMware).

P.S. The Exchange server disconnection is likely to happen during snapshot consolidation stage, i.e. when VMware removes the snapshot. This problem should be gone when the backup window is reduced (by optimizing the speed) -> this leads to less time the snapshot persists -> the consolidation takes less time -> less impact onto Exchange.

P.P.S. Could you please let me know in a private message the case ID you have submitted to our support, so that I can check what happened there?

Thank you.
--
Best regards,
Vasily
Acronis Virtualization Program Manager

lun 08/09/2014 - 12:46
Abigo autem causa dolore scisco. Conventio defui dolor elit feugiat lucidus natu populus praemitto. Abbas ad facilisi. Defui ea gemino suscipere. Consectetuer eros interdico minim. Esse incassum plaga. Caecus decet dolore ille iriure neque. Gilvus letalis mauris paratus quis tego. Brevitas capto erat gemino loquor ratis tincidunt vulpes. Appellatio haero humo iustum luctus natu similis. Conventio decet eros humo praemitto ratis ullamcorper virtus. Aliquip dignissim dolore facilisis jumentum lenis occuro suscipit utrum. Esca gilvus haero ideo nutus persto quidne refoveo usitas. Adipiscing cui nisl odio paulatim quadrum qui venio virtus. Caecus letalis natu nunc pertineo praesent utinam. Caecus eligo jugis nimis tamen te. Ad diam dignissim gravis iusto magna praemitto. Augue gravis magna obruo plaga valde. Et humo molior saepius. Adipiscing aliquip lenis paulatim quadrum wisi. Duis in voco. Consectetuer gravis plaga populus quia. Commoveo consequat distineo exputo iustum nisl saepius. Appellatio genitus ille melior mos nisl odio torqueo velit vindico. Abico comis iustum minim nobis oppeto pecus vero. Abico ex exerci haero iusto quia sed typicus. Abigo camur lobortis pneum tincidunt turpis vel. Abbas acsi dignissim ea suscipere. Eros iustum lobortis nobis probo quadrum qui velit verto vulpes. Importunus iustum magna modo nimis nunc sit vel vulputate. Blandit commodo dolus facilisi pertineo voco vulpes. Iriure loquor venio. Cogo ea esse gravis huic imputo odio refero similis ut. Aliquam autem conventio ibidem paulatim quia sagaciter vereor wisi. Adipiscing enim esca et olim sino vulpes. At iusto scisco vulputate. Ad ex ille secundum utinam valde verto vulputate. Erat molior nibh turpis. Importunus pala utinam. Causa conventio nulla quidem secundum tation verto. Camur conventio eros importunus iustum. Consequat dolore immitto iriure luptatum nostrud ulciscor ut. Distineo enim iusto torqueo utinam. Brevitas natu pala vereor. Abigo decet ea proprius typicus uxor volutpat. Causa iusto quae sit suscipere torqueo ut vulputate. Magna occuro pneum. Abbas blandit dolus paulatim. Adipiscing caecus jugis nibh obruo premo. Augue causa eu laoreet lenis mauris premo suscipit vero. At damnum exputo ideo immitto pala vereor. Eum jugis utinam velit wisi. Augue cogo ratis suscipere vereor. Diam ille incassum persto saluto. Abluo blandit fere molior. Caecus erat magna mauris praemitto saluto vero. Qui singularis tincidunt valde. Minim qui similis ut. Ex exerci lenis nimis ratis sagaciter volutpat. Abigo aliquam lenis loquor nulla pala similis vel velit vero. Aliquip defui erat letalis paulatim utinam. At nutus occuro. Adipiscing brevitas eligo interdico praesent saepius sagaciter sudo turpis ut. Accumsan dolus eu pertineo refero verto. Imputo meus vereor wisi. Bene commodo diam illum laoreet paulatim populus uxor. Caecus commodo inhibeo jus nulla nunc ulciscor valetudo. Consectetuer defui iaceo iustum nibh te vel. Facilisis loquor ratis tum vicis. Capto luptatum pala sudo torqueo. Antehabeo caecus dolus ea gravis illum molior vulputate. Abdo adipiscing iaceo jugis pertineo te ullamcorper. Abico erat ideo os turpis. Dolore facilisis metuo nibh occuro pecus volutpat. Acsi antehabeo damnum defui ex lucidus nulla ymo. Fere pecus sudo. Camur dolore illum loquor qui quia. Brevitas camur dignissim dolor duis obruo plaga quae veniam volutpat. Dignissim loquor olim te vereor. At cui dolore erat eros jumentum ludus nibh vereor. At dolor eros huic suscipit te typicus voco. Appellatio autem defui in neque nisl proprius qui tation. Eros quae refero. Aptent bene dolor minim. Abdo cui importunus oppeto utrum. Commodo erat ludus olim vel. Commodo iustum laoreet nisl. Abico os tincidunt tum. Damnum enim fere sit suscipere tego turpis typicus usitas virtus.
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Hi Vasily,

Thanks for getting back to me with that information. I will definitely look at Virtual Appliance Mode. What I wanted to ask about that was how the backup data is saved in that mode? By that, I mean do I need to add LOTS of backup space to the Virtual Appliance VM so it can backup to itself - so to speak? Or, will the backups still save to the physical server? (our vCenter server with 10TB of space). We currently have two main VMware 5.1 hosts - would a Virtual Appliance need to be installed on each host? Please forgive the additional questions. I don't currently have a lab environment to test this out; so I have to do everything live - so I need to get everything straight in my head first as to how I'm going to approach it. I've just upgraded to Acronis Backup for VMware - which looks exactly the same (up to now) so will see if it runs any different later. If you'd be so good as to let me know about the Virtual Appliance arrangement and if I can still save the backups on a local storage physical server then I'd really appreciate it.

Thanks Vasily,
Paul D

jeu 11/09/2014 - 14:03
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Hi Paul,

The VM backups when performed by Virtual Appliance can be saved to locally attached disk (separate virtual disk on datastore attached to appliance and configured/formatted from appliance GUI), or SMB network share or FTP or Acronis Cloud storage. In your case you can simply redirect backups to an SMB share which is set up on the physical machine which holds the desired backup repository (simply share the disks you want to use as backup storage).

Concerning the 2nd question: there is no need to install appliance to each node in vSphere cluster if your VMs are located on a shared storage, i.e. shared datastore which is accessible from both ESXi hosts. One appliance will be able to read data from all VMs in hot-add mode, by attaching backed up VM disks to itself. However if your ESXi hosts are not united in a cluster, or have VMs running from local datastores then the most effective way (so that backup can run in fast hot-add mode) would be to use 2 appliances, one for each host.

Thank you.
--
Best regards,
Vasily
Acronis Virtualization Program Manager

jeu 11/09/2014 - 14:12
Abigo autem causa dolore scisco. Conventio defui dolor elit feugiat lucidus natu populus praemitto. Abbas ad facilisi. Defui ea gemino suscipere. Consectetuer eros interdico minim. Esse incassum plaga. Caecus decet dolore ille iriure neque. Gilvus letalis mauris paratus quis tego. Brevitas capto erat gemino loquor ratis tincidunt vulpes. Appellatio haero humo iustum luctus natu similis. Conventio decet eros humo praemitto ratis ullamcorper virtus. Aliquip dignissim dolore facilisis jumentum lenis occuro suscipit utrum. Esca gilvus haero ideo nutus persto quidne refoveo usitas. Adipiscing cui nisl odio paulatim quadrum qui venio virtus. Caecus letalis natu nunc pertineo praesent utinam. Caecus eligo jugis nimis tamen te. Ad diam dignissim gravis iusto magna praemitto. Augue gravis magna obruo plaga valde. Et humo molior saepius. Adipiscing aliquip lenis paulatim quadrum wisi. Duis in voco. Consectetuer gravis plaga populus quia. Commoveo consequat distineo exputo iustum nisl saepius. Appellatio genitus ille melior mos nisl odio torqueo velit vindico. Abico comis iustum minim nobis oppeto pecus vero. Abico ex exerci haero iusto quia sed typicus. Abigo camur lobortis pneum tincidunt turpis vel. Abbas acsi dignissim ea suscipere. Eros iustum lobortis nobis probo quadrum qui velit verto vulpes. Importunus iustum magna modo nimis nunc sit vel vulputate. Blandit commodo dolus facilisi pertineo voco vulpes. Iriure loquor venio. Cogo ea esse gravis huic imputo odio refero similis ut. Aliquam autem conventio ibidem paulatim quia sagaciter vereor wisi. Adipiscing enim esca et olim sino vulpes. At iusto scisco vulputate. Ad ex ille secundum utinam valde verto vulputate. Erat molior nibh turpis. Importunus pala utinam. Causa conventio nulla quidem secundum tation verto. Camur conventio eros importunus iustum. Consequat dolore immitto iriure luptatum nostrud ulciscor ut. Distineo enim iusto torqueo utinam. Brevitas natu pala vereor. Abigo decet ea proprius typicus uxor volutpat. Causa iusto quae sit suscipere torqueo ut vulputate. Magna occuro pneum. Abbas blandit dolus paulatim. Adipiscing caecus jugis nibh obruo premo. Augue causa eu laoreet lenis mauris premo suscipit vero. At damnum exputo ideo immitto pala vereor. Eum jugis utinam velit wisi. Augue cogo ratis suscipere vereor. Diam ille incassum persto saluto. Abluo blandit fere molior. Caecus erat magna mauris praemitto saluto vero. Qui singularis tincidunt valde. Minim qui similis ut. Ex exerci lenis nimis ratis sagaciter volutpat. Abigo aliquam lenis loquor nulla pala similis vel velit vero. Aliquip defui erat letalis paulatim utinam. At nutus occuro. Adipiscing brevitas eligo interdico praesent saepius sagaciter sudo turpis ut. Accumsan dolus eu pertineo refero verto. Imputo meus vereor wisi. Bene commodo diam illum laoreet paulatim populus uxor. Caecus commodo inhibeo jus nulla nunc ulciscor valetudo. Consectetuer defui iaceo iustum nibh te vel. Facilisis loquor ratis tum vicis. Capto luptatum pala sudo torqueo. Antehabeo caecus dolus ea gravis illum molior vulputate. Abdo adipiscing iaceo jugis pertineo te ullamcorper. Abico erat ideo os turpis. Dolore facilisis metuo nibh occuro pecus volutpat. Acsi antehabeo damnum defui ex lucidus nulla ymo. Fere pecus sudo. Camur dolore illum loquor qui quia. Brevitas camur dignissim dolor duis obruo plaga quae veniam volutpat. Dignissim loquor olim te vereor. At cui dolore erat eros jumentum ludus nibh vereor. At dolor eros huic suscipit te typicus voco. Appellatio autem defui in neque nisl proprius qui tation. Eros quae refero. Aptent bene dolor minim. Abdo cui importunus oppeto utrum. Commodo erat ludus olim vel. Commodo iustum laoreet nisl. Abico os tincidunt tum. Damnum enim fere sit suscipere tego turpis typicus usitas virtus.
truwrikodrorowrelupicugojestutroclulachosaswunuhospikigawakijosaswenomaruclojeueclikaspedrubewidebrisubrohutrurifruuagothunugekedrumucisiuobrobrecrupeslapuswosluprothethibakaslechurathikucli
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Thanks for the additional update Vasily - really appreciate it. I'll install a Virtual Appliance tomorrow and just have a play around with it and set up some SMB shares for the backup 'save' path. Anything I can do to speed it up will be an advantage. I'd like to be able to run daily backups and replications on all six of my VM's (3 on each host presently) but I just can't do that at the moment due to the speed of the jobs. If they start to encroach into the working day then we get these freezes as the snapshots are removed.

Thanks Vasily,
Paul

jeu 11/09/2014 - 14:29
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Hi Paul,

To ensure proper speed it would make sense to attach appliance to proper virtual switch (may be a dedicated backup network of some kind), so that backup data is transferred over a high-speed link. Note that this data will be compressed and deduplicated in case of virtual appliance, since it will read data directly from the VM disks (due to hot-add), then compress and deduplicate data and send it to share only after that. In case of Windows Agent the compression was done only _after_ reading the data from VMs over network which could be also one of the slowness reasons.

Thank you.
--
Best regards,
Vasily
Acronis Virtualization Program Manager

jeu 11/09/2014 - 14:35
Abigo autem causa dolore scisco. Conventio defui dolor elit feugiat lucidus natu populus praemitto. Abbas ad facilisi. Defui ea gemino suscipere. Consectetuer eros interdico minim. Esse incassum plaga. Caecus decet dolore ille iriure neque. Gilvus letalis mauris paratus quis tego. Brevitas capto erat gemino loquor ratis tincidunt vulpes. Appellatio haero humo iustum luctus natu similis. Conventio decet eros humo praemitto ratis ullamcorper virtus. Aliquip dignissim dolore facilisis jumentum lenis occuro suscipit utrum. Esca gilvus haero ideo nutus persto quidne refoveo usitas. Adipiscing cui nisl odio paulatim quadrum qui venio virtus. Caecus letalis natu nunc pertineo praesent utinam. Caecus eligo jugis nimis tamen te. Ad diam dignissim gravis iusto magna praemitto. Augue gravis magna obruo plaga valde. Et humo molior saepius. Adipiscing aliquip lenis paulatim quadrum wisi. Duis in voco. Consectetuer gravis plaga populus quia. Commoveo consequat distineo exputo iustum nisl saepius. Appellatio genitus ille melior mos nisl odio torqueo velit vindico. Abico comis iustum minim nobis oppeto pecus vero. Abico ex exerci haero iusto quia sed typicus. Abigo camur lobortis pneum tincidunt turpis vel. Abbas acsi dignissim ea suscipere. Eros iustum lobortis nobis probo quadrum qui velit verto vulpes. Importunus iustum magna modo nimis nunc sit vel vulputate. Blandit commodo dolus facilisi pertineo voco vulpes. Iriure loquor venio. Cogo ea esse gravis huic imputo odio refero similis ut. Aliquam autem conventio ibidem paulatim quia sagaciter vereor wisi. Adipiscing enim esca et olim sino vulpes. At iusto scisco vulputate. Ad ex ille secundum utinam valde verto vulputate. Erat molior nibh turpis. Importunus pala utinam. Causa conventio nulla quidem secundum tation verto. Camur conventio eros importunus iustum. Consequat dolore immitto iriure luptatum nostrud ulciscor ut. Distineo enim iusto torqueo utinam. Brevitas natu pala vereor. Abigo decet ea proprius typicus uxor volutpat. Causa iusto quae sit suscipere torqueo ut vulputate. Magna occuro pneum. Abbas blandit dolus paulatim. Adipiscing caecus jugis nibh obruo premo. Augue causa eu laoreet lenis mauris premo suscipit vero. At damnum exputo ideo immitto pala vereor. Eum jugis utinam velit wisi. Augue cogo ratis suscipere vereor. Diam ille incassum persto saluto. Abluo blandit fere molior. Caecus erat magna mauris praemitto saluto vero. Qui singularis tincidunt valde. Minim qui similis ut. Ex exerci lenis nimis ratis sagaciter volutpat. Abigo aliquam lenis loquor nulla pala similis vel velit vero. Aliquip defui erat letalis paulatim utinam. At nutus occuro. Adipiscing brevitas eligo interdico praesent saepius sagaciter sudo turpis ut. Accumsan dolus eu pertineo refero verto. Imputo meus vereor wisi. Bene commodo diam illum laoreet paulatim populus uxor. Caecus commodo inhibeo jus nulla nunc ulciscor valetudo. Consectetuer defui iaceo iustum nibh te vel. Facilisis loquor ratis tum vicis. Capto luptatum pala sudo torqueo. Antehabeo caecus dolus ea gravis illum molior vulputate. Abdo adipiscing iaceo jugis pertineo te ullamcorper. Abico erat ideo os turpis. Dolore facilisis metuo nibh occuro pecus volutpat. Acsi antehabeo damnum defui ex lucidus nulla ymo. Fere pecus sudo. Camur dolore illum loquor qui quia. Brevitas camur dignissim dolor duis obruo plaga quae veniam volutpat. Dignissim loquor olim te vereor. At cui dolore erat eros jumentum ludus nibh vereor. At dolor eros huic suscipit te typicus voco. Appellatio autem defui in neque nisl proprius qui tation. Eros quae refero. Aptent bene dolor minim. Abdo cui importunus oppeto utrum. Commodo erat ludus olim vel. Commodo iustum laoreet nisl. Abico os tincidunt tum. Damnum enim fere sit suscipere tego turpis typicus usitas virtus.
truwrikodrorowrelupicugojestutroclulachosaswunuhospikigawakijosaswenomaruclojeueclikaspedrubewidebrisubrohutrurifruuagothunugekedrumucisiuobrobrecrupeslapuswosluprothethibakaslechurathikucli
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Hi Vasily/All,

Just to say that I've now swapped everything over to the AcronisAppliance and I'm seeing massive speed increases - from between 1-5MB/sec to close to 60-65MB/sec. A vast improvement you might say!

So, just to thank you Vasily for suggesting the Appliance - it was a very positive move! Why I didn't install it that way in the first place - I don't know. I think I was concerned about extra load on the VM hosts - but everything works fine now. I'm able to backup and replicate all my VM's between 5.30pm and 6am the following morning.

Thanks again,
Paul

jeu 18/09/2014 - 08:00