Re: [Bacula-users] Moving a catalog due to performance issues

On 3/30/2011 12:27 PM, Dermot Beirne wrote:
> Hello,
> I am using Bacula 5.0.3 on ubuntu 9.04
>
> I am have serious performance problems with migration speeds to tape.
> I have used the btape speed command to test the throughput of the disk
> to tape and it is achieving speeds of up to 6 times what my migration
> speed is getting, so I don't think it's the hardware.
>
> Someone asked if my catalog is on the same disks as the data being
> migrated, and it is.  I am not sure if this would be making such a
> huge difference, but I'm looking into moving it off the Bacula server
> to a remote server.
>
> I have some questions on doing this:
>
> 1. Does it make sense.  Could it be having such a serious impact on
> the migration speeds, or should I look elsewhere first.  In case it's
> relevant, my Bacula server has a single Raid 5 array configured with
> LVM into two logical volumes. The catalog is on one, and the data on
> the other.

It could possibly impact performance. If spooling, or at least spooling 
of attributes, is not being used, then this will cause disk thrashing, 
where the r/w heads of drives are constantly having to be moved back and 
forth to write to the catalog, then the data, then the catalog, then the 
data, etc.

The simple solution is to turn on spooling and see if that makes a big 
improvement. Otherwise, to move the catalog to another server is 
possibly a solution, but it would then be limited by, and taking up, 
network bandwidth. It would be better to have another disk in the same 
server that was dedicated to the catalog.

> 2. Does Bacula need to be on the box hosting the catalog, or is just
> having MySQL installed enough.

Just MySQL.

> 3. Can I dump and reload the catalog db from the Bacula server to the
> new remote server, change the catalog resource record, and continue
> using that.

Yes, it is just a normal database.

> 4. I am currently using mysql version:
>
> Server version: 5.0.75-0ubuntu10.5 (Ubuntu)
>
> I understand that unless I install this exact version on the remote
> server, I'll have to recompile Bacula.  Is this correct?

No, that is not correct. Otherwise, a simple update of MySQL would 
render Bacula unusable.


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