[dba-Tech] Symantec Backup Exec

Jim Lawrence accessd at shaw.ca
Tue Mar 30 14:53:16 CDT 2010


Three of products on SBS are designed to have their own servers and do not
necessarily work well with other applications, especially if they are of the
same ilk. Exchange and SharePoint are the biggest offenders but MS SQL can
consume a lot resources if you have large databases, running it with IIS and
have your caching turned on.

It is not that these products can not run is a smaller memory foot print, it
is that they seem to holds on to memory that they are not using. This is why
sometimes even when memory usage may seem OK things are still running slow.
Each product assumes there is a certain buffer and temporary storage space
available and then they end up having to negotiate with each other. You can
view this when observing the memory usage through TaskManger and you notice
a one of two second spike that may top out memory.

In addition, if setup the recommended way, everything runs through the
server. All the desktops of all staff are managed that way. To handle these
and other sever issues there is extensive use of the SQL server which
stores, tracks and manages all the resources on the system. That adds
another layer of resource usage.

Though SBS is a very cost and management effective system, it is replacing
three or four stand-alone servers and needs similar resources. If possible
the best server would have a 64bit OS, 64 bit hardware, quad core, 16GB RAM
with a full RAID 5. There is just no substitute for horsepower. ;-)

Jim

      

-----Original Message-----
From: dba-tech-bounces at databaseadvisors.com
[mailto:dba-tech-bounces at databaseadvisors.com] On Behalf Of Gustav Brock
Sent: Tuesday, March 30, 2010 9:59 AM
To: dba-tech at databaseadvisors.com
Subject: Re: [dba-Tech] Symantec Backup Exec

Hi Janet

This sounds strange. I just checked at a client running file, print,
exchange including web access, Windows backup, and default SharePoint stuff
(which I cannot find out how to switch off).
Installed ram is 8 GB, consumed is 4.66 GB. Idle CPU is 0-3%.

SQL Server and store.exe each eat 600 MB, IIS and EdgeTransport each ~225
MB, svchost and IIS each ~180 MB, DataCollector and SQL Server*32 each ~160
MB, all other below 80 MB.

/gustav


>>> jerbach at gmail.com 30-03-2010 18:28 >>>
Jim -

Like you, we've been backing up to a portable device and taking the disks
off-site using Casper.  But I was told last week that Casper does not
provide a truly bootable image for SBS 2008.

I guess I balk at the standard Windows backup from an ease of recoverability
standpoint in a total server crash.  I like the idea of backups that provide
a bootable image that can be restored onto another machine without having to
re-install every bit of software.  I've never been in that kind of
dead-in-the-water situation (thankfully!) so I'm just going by what I
imagine the recovery process to be like.  Which, of course, is very likely
way off the mark.  Am I putting too much emphasis on the importance of a
bootable image?

Thanks for the info on logmein - I will look into that more.

On your client's SBS 2008 machine...do you happen to know what the base line
day-to-day memory usage is?  Ours is running at around 12gb out of 16
total...and I'm starting to think that 2008 is such a resource pig that it
really does require that much.  I would be curious to know if your client's
machine runs like that as well.

Janet

On Tue, Mar 30, 2010 at 10:42 AM, Jim Lawrence <accessd at shaw.ca> wrote:

> Hi Janet:
>
> Does not your SBS have a fine backup system built in? The Symantec backup
> would have to have a lot of features to make it worth it. We have been
> doing
> some experimenting with LogMeIn remote and offsite backup and it looks
> really good. Here is a review of the product:
>
> http://reviews.cnet.com/e-mail/logmein-backup/1707-3536_7-31841188.html 
>
> In the office we backup to portable drives and then take them off site.
>
> On another aside, at a client's site, that is using SBS 2008, we have been
> working to get it performance up but the only success we have had is by
> maxing out the RAM... 16GB and it is finally up to a good trot.
>
> Jim
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: dba-tech-bounces at databaseadvisors.com 
> [mailto:dba-tech-bounces at databaseadvisors.com] On Behalf Of Janet Erbach
> Sent: Tuesday, March 30, 2010 6:47 AM
> To: Discussion of Hardware and Software issues
> Subject: [dba-Tech] Symantec Backup Exec
>
> We've gotten a server upgrade quote from a local consultant who is
> recommending that we switch to Symantec's Backup Exec 2010 for backing up
> our SBS 2008.  Do any of you have any experience with this product?  Is it
> good?  Bad? Ugly?
>
> Janet Erbach
> IT Administrator
> Natural Healthy Concepts



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