To summarize what everybody suggested :

1. Check the teaming driver
2. Check virusscanners
3. Check speed settings on the network card
4. Change buffer settings

Thanks to everybody for their sugegstions. I asked our customer for the
virusscanner as I know they are using one. I will also ask about the
network card settings, but I'm sure that that is ok.

I will soon look into the buffer settings. This server is a media server
and thus does not transfer any data across the network, so I don't think I
need to look into network buffer settings. I also don't think that the
teaming driver will have some effect here. I was more thinking about the
tape buffer settings.

Am I wrong when I say that changing a buffer setting as NET_BUFFER_SZ won't
make a difference in my case.

What would be a recommendation for SIZE_DATA_BUFFERS and
NUMBER_DATA_BUFFERS. Would that have an impact on e.g. my Exchange mailbox
backup ?

Thanks,
Bruno





                                                                                
                                                                  
                      "Robinson, Greg"                                          
                                                                  
                      <[email protected].        To:       veritas-bu 
AT mailman.eng.auburn DOT edu                                             
                      gov.au>                             cc:                   
                                                                  
                      Sent by:                            Subject:  RE: 
[Veritas-bu] Buffer settings                                              
                      veritas-bu-admin AT mailman DOT eng                       
                                                                         
                      .auburn.edu                                               
                                                                  
                                                                                
                                                                  
                                                                                
                                                                  
                      11/22/2002 02:11                                          
                                                                  
                                                                                
                                                                  
                                                                                
                                                                  




By any chance are you using compaq drivers for your NIC's?  And does it
only
break under heavy load (ie, a backup)?

If so, then dump the comapq drivers and use the intel ones, and you should
get
no network timeouts.

Just so happens that our veritas consultant here today told me this
yesterday.
I don't have this situation, but I would believe him.

Good luck.

Greg.

-----Original Message-----
From: vidit kohli [mailto:vidit_k AT hotmail DOT com]
Sent: Friday, 22 November 2002 3:12 AM
To: veritas-bu AT mailman.eng.auburn DOT edu
Subject: RE: [Veritas-bu] Buffer settings


hey

check your anti virus software on servers, we too had 41 network timed out
problems, then we upgraded to norton antivirus 7.6.1- which has a option to

avoid scanning files while backups are done,
it also improved our EXCH and file system backup performance

also we forced full duplex 100MBS on compaq 2000/NT server nic card

cheers

vk






From: <Bruno.Bossier AT comparex DOT be>
To: "Vapiwala, Kevin V [IT]" <kevin.v.vapiwala AT citigroup DOT com>
CC: veritas-bu AT mailman.eng.auburn DOT edu
Subject: RE: [Veritas-bu] Buffer settings
Date: Thu, 21 Nov 2002 17:27:27 +0100


It's a Compaq network card and there is teaming, but I don't know exactly
how many ports there are. This is for a customer of ours. I will also check
with them tomorrow for the network settings, but they should be 100Mbit
Full Duplex on both the card and the network port.

This server is a media server and only backs up itself. There is a fibre
connection via a Qlogic card to a Brocade switch where an ATL P7000 is also
connected to via 3 fibre connections. I don't think we have to look into
that direction as we get network timeouts (status 41).







                       "Vapiwala, Kevin V
                       [IT]"                        To:
"'Bruno.Bossier AT comparex DOT be'" <Bruno.Bossier AT comparex DOT be>,
                       <kevin.v.vapiwala@cit
veritas-bu AT mailman.eng.auburn DOT edu
                       igroup.com>                  cc:
                                                    Subject:  RE:
[Veritas-bu] Buffer settings
                       11/21/2002 17:11






What is the NIC on those machines? Are they gigabit Ethernet? if not are
the
teamed 100mbit ?

Kevin

-----Original Message-----
From: Bruno.Bossier AT comparex DOT be [mailto:Bruno.Bossier AT comparex DOT be]
Sent: Thursday, November 21, 2002 10:44 AM
To: veritas-bu AT mailman.eng.auburn DOT edu
Subject: [Veritas-bu] Buffer settings


Environment : Netbackup Datacenter 4.5 MP1, master on W2K and media servers
on W2K and NT, 4 SSO drives

We are experiencing some performance problems. Most of the backups run, but
we don't get the speed we expect. There is one specific server (W2K) which
has an Exchange agent configured for individual mailbox backups (about 2700
mailboxes). That backup takes a very long time, but it works (about 11
hours for almost 60Gb). There is also a normal file backup scheduled and
that one never works. The backup starts and after a while aborts with code
41 (network timeout). Sometimes the backup not even starts.

I found some documents on the Veritas support site which talks about
several buffer settings. However, these documents are for Netbackup 3.4.

Are there some recommendations for these buffer settings ? I'm especially
looking at tape buffer settings (SIZE_DATA_BUFFERS and NUMBER_DATA_BUFFERS)
as this specific server is a media server with no clients attached to it
and thus only backups itself.

Bruno



_______________________________________________
Veritas-bu maillist  -  Veritas-bu AT mailman.eng.auburn DOT edu
http://mailman.eng.auburn.edu/mailman/listinfo/veritas-bu





_______________________________________________
Veritas-bu maillist  -  Veritas-bu AT mailman.eng.auburn DOT edu
http://mailman.eng.auburn.edu/mailman/listinfo/veritas-bu


_________________________________________________________________
Tired of spam? Get advanced junk mail protection with MSN 8.
http://join.msn.com/?page=features/junkmail

_______________________________________________
Veritas-bu maillist  -  Veritas-bu AT mailman.eng.auburn DOT edu
http://mailman.eng.auburn.edu/mailman/listinfo/veritas-bu
_______________________________________________
Veritas-bu maillist  -  Veritas-bu AT mailman.eng.auburn DOT edu
http://mailman.eng.auburn.edu/mailman/listinfo/veritas-bu