Which NIC Teaming Type?

[gimp]

Supporting a 24/7 facility, that currently has, oh, 250 or so employees. Roaming profiles in use, along with home folders on the server.
Profiles and home folders are stored on the same server, along with it also being the print server.

We have a separate backup server (along with 4 other servers, so 6 in total), running BackupExec 12.5, Server 2008.

For throughput, I had been going by the Job Rate that BackupExec reports.

Previously, no NICs were teamed, on the backup server or main file/print server.
Job Rates reported for the main file/print server were ~14MB/minute.
Yet, Job Rates on the other 4 servers was hitting ~500MB/minute.

Setup NIC teaming on both the backup server and file/print server. Currently using Adaptive Load Balancing on both servers.

Job Rates on other servers is now hitting upwards of 1.8GB/minute.

Yet, Job Rates on the main file/print server are still a measly 14MB/min. This includes the weekly full backup, along with the daily differentials.

Any ideas as to how to speed up the backup process? Granted, it's still quicker than it was with the old hardware (ancient HP autoloader/library using DLT, upgraded to Dell PowerVault 124T library with LTO3 tapes).

I also copied large files off the file/print server to the backup server; speeds were roughly the same, not even saturating a 100mbit link, with teamed gigabit. I believe it maxed out at right around 70'ish mbit/sec.
All servers are connected at gigabit, and connected to the same Cisco gigabit switch (Catalyst 5274?)

 

[B1zz]

i'm assuming the server with the issues is running off a raid array, checked to make sure theres no dead drives in the array as that would hurt disk throughput. maybe setup a perfmon job while the backups happen to try and determine where there might be issues. if all else fails i've seen stupid shit like a flaked out driver "worked well enough" to get to web, email, copy files etc. but would never perform over 10mbit on a gigE line.

i'm just tossing things out there to check, it seems like you're automatically assuming the issue is with the network and not the server itself.

 

[gimp]

sorry, yes, RAID5 with 1 hot spare.
All servers are setup the same. Several of them are the same model and all that good stuff.

I did forget to mention, that once I teamed the 2 NICs, throughput did increase.

Previously, with the single NIC, I was only able to pull about 10mbit/sec off the server.
After teaming the NICs, it went to ~70mbit/sec.

but with all the users that are constantly logging on/off, accessing files from their home drives, etc, I'm just not sure which NIC Team Type would be best for maximum throughput with multiple connections.

I guess that was my main question, I just kinda ranted

 

[IntelOwnz]

Previously, no NICs were teamed, on the backup server or main file/print server.
Job Rates reported for the main file/print server were ~14MB/minute.

...

Setup NIC teaming on both the backup server and file/print server. Currently using Adaptive Load Balancing on both servers.

Yet, Job Rates on the main file/print server are still a measly 14MB/min

Original post said the speed did not increase, but your follow up says they did? I'm confused a bit here, maybe it was a typo. Perhaps it's not the network but rather the CPU/memory/raid array? Is there enough throughput on the hard drives to compensate all the i/o's from users + running these reports?

 

[gimp]

Original post said the speed did not increase, but your follow up says they did? I'm confused a bit here, maybe it was a typo. Perhaps it's not the network but rather the CPU/memory/raid array? Is there enough throughput on the hard drives to compensate all the i/o's from users + running these reports?

ahhhh crap... sorry.

Job Rates reported by BackupExec did not change.

but when manually copying a file, throughput did increase (yet, still not even exhausting 100mbit).

HDD shouldn't be a factor; there's actually an old ass HP NetServer with a 1.4GHz P3 (and degrading RAID) that has a reported Job Rate of ~500MB/min.

these backups are also being done at 10:00pm when there are less users in the facility.

the servers are both PowerEdge 2850's (the main file/print and backup servers).

Both have U320 SCSI 15k RPM drives, with the onboard Perc4e/Di
5 drives + 1 hotspare.

although I couldn't even guess as to how many users are actually on computers in the evenings.