Performance Checklist - HP LTO Ultrium Technical Reference Manual

so, if possible data transfer should remain within this range. In most cases, the backup application
will provide details of the average time taken at the end of the backup.
NOTE:
For optimum performance always use Ultrium 5 3000 GB cartridges.

Performance checklist

The following list summarizes factors that can affect performance. They provide guideline only of
areas that may need further investigation. They do not attempt to explain how to configure individual
systems. For a more detailed discussion, including information about tools that allow you to test
performance, refer to our white papers on www.hp.com. (Select the product first and look at the
Information Library.)
• Is the tape drive reading and writing data at the correct speed?
• Is the source system (hard disk) transferring data at the correct speed?
• Is the backup application writing buffers at the correct speed? You may need to tune the transfer,
buffer and block size settings to optimize the speed that the application writes data to the tape
drive. HP LTO Ultrium drives have an internal buffer of 256 MB.
• Is the operating system tuned for performance? You may need to adjust the data transfer packet
size.
• If you are using an SAS drive or array in a SAN environment, are you are using one of the recom-
mended fibre channel/SAS routers?
• Are user applications, such as Exchange or database servers, optimized for backup performance?
• Are there other factors that could be affecting performance, such as interference or fibre channel
infrastructure?
48 Planning your system configuration