Bacula-users

Re: [Bacula-users] bacula-fd not playing nice with time critical apps

2009-02-10 12:44:19
Subject: Re: [Bacula-users] bacula-fd not playing nice with time critical apps
From: "Mike Holden" <bacula AT mikeholden DOT org>
To: bacula-users AT lists.sourceforge DOT net
Date: Tue, 10 Feb 2009 17:41:53 -0000 (UTC)
Foo wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I'm doing a backup on a Debian Etch server which runs a network/time
> critical app at -20 niceness, but even with nice -n19 bacula-fd still
> causes glitches (packetloss).
>
> They seem to happen when the backup starts and ends, during the backup
> (doing 20-23 MB/s) there is no problem. An incremental backup that takes 5
> seconds still causes a glitch, although much smaller. Doing an 'estimate
> job=servername' via bconsole causes no glitch, but this is probably due to
> caching after the backup (returns immediately with the correct answer).
> This makes me think it is disk IO related (2x15K rpm SAS drives in RAID1
> on Dell Perc/5i - backup goes to other disk array over Gb Ethernet/Fiber).
>
> Is there a way to solve this on the Bacula side? The server is normally
> using only a few percent CPU, with bacula-fd going up to 15-25% at most,
> it's scheduling, or some disk related holdup that seems to be the problem.

If you suspect disk I/O may be a sticking point, look at using "ionice".
Works in much the same way as "nice", but for limiting I/O rather than
cpu.

You could also look at using iotop and iftop to check disk and network
throughtput at the problem times to see what is going on.
-- 
Mike Holden

http://www.by-ang.com - the place to shop for all manner of hand crafted
items, including Jewellery, Greetings Cards and Gifts




------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Create and Deploy Rich Internet Apps outside the browser with Adobe(R)AIR(TM)
software. With Adobe AIR, Ajax developers can use existing skills and code to
build responsive, highly engaging applications that combine the power of local
resources and data with the reach of the web. Download the Adobe AIR SDK and
Ajax docs to start building applications today-http://p.sf.net/sfu/adobe-com
_______________________________________________
Bacula-users mailing list
Bacula-users AT lists.sourceforge DOT net
https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/bacula-users