ADSM-L

Re: Long pause in the middle of an NT backup.

2004-06-08 12:42:42
Subject: Re: Long pause in the middle of an NT backup.
From: "Stapleton, Mark" <mark.stapleton AT BERBEE DOT COM>
To: ADSM-L AT VM.MARIST DOT EDU
Date: Tue, 8 Jun 2004 11:42:25 -0500
From: ADSM: Dist Stor Manager [mailto:ADSM-L AT VM.MARIST DOT EDU] On 
Behalf Of Anderson, Matt
>I'm experiencing behavior on some NT nodes where, in the middle of a
>scheduled backup, there will be a long pause where no activity seems to
>occur. It would appear to occur after the backup of one drive 
>finishes, but
>before the next one starts. For example, see this log excerpt from this
>morning:
>
>06/08/2004 01:30:46 ANS1898I ***** Processed 1,911,000 files *****
>06/08/2004 01:30:47 ANS1898I ***** Processed 1,916,000 files *****
>06/08/2004 01:30:49 ANS1898I ***** Processed 1,916,500 files *****
>06/08/2004 01:31:50 Normal File-->       141,971,832
>\\my-server\f$\PerforceETC\Logs\Log.txt  Changed
>06/08/2004 01:32:34 Retry # 1  Normal File-->       141,971,832
>\\my-server\f$\PerforceETC\Logs\Log.txt [Sent]
>06/08/2004 01:32:34 Successful incremental backup of '\\my-server\f$'
>
>06/08/2004 07:56:10 ANS1898I ***** Processed 1,917,000 files *****
>06/08/2004 07:56:13 ANS1898I ***** Processed 1,917,500 files *****
>06/08/2004 07:56:15 ANS1898I ***** Processed 1,918,000 files *****
>06/08/2004 07:56:17 ANS1898I ***** Processed 1,918,500 files *****
>
>There's almost 6.5 hours where no activity was logged in the 
>dsmsched.log.
>There is a (possibly) corresponding message in the dsmerror.log:
>
>06/08/2004 01:30:48 win32NpWrite(): Error 233 writing to named pipe
>
>The client is Windows 2000 running TSM client version 5.2.2.5
>The TSM server is AIX 5.2 running TSM server version 5.2.2.2

What's (probably) happening is that TSM is doing a scan of directories
of the drive it's about to backup. If the upcoming drive is as large as
the one described in your log excerpt above, that's almost assuredly it.

Take a look at the TSM Journaling service described in the Window client
manual. The use of that should greatly alleviate the delay in backups
(and an even greater delay with large-scale restores).

--
Mark Stapleton