Why is the performance so poor?

Frequently asked questions about Firestreamer.
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jsf
Cristalink Support
Posts: 300
Joined: 29 Aug 2010, 09:03

Post by jsf »

Firestreamer provides data transfer rates comparable to that of direct file copying to the destination medium. However, Firestreamer cannot transfer data any faster than the backup software and the storage medium will provide or consume it. In addition, any third-party software that interferes, for example, an antivirus, will adversely affect the performance.

To get an indication of what you can expect from Firestreamer, copy a single file from your computer to the destination medium via Windows Explorer and measure the transfer speed. The size of the test file must be close to the size of your backup. The copying of a group of smaller files, as opposed to a single large file, will not produce a valid result.

To troubleshoot poor performance, follow the steps below:
  1. Disable data compression and encryption (as applicable) in your backup software, in Firestreamer, and in the destination storage system.
  2. Perform a backup while monitoring the amount of available memory (in particular, kernel memory) in Windows Task Manager. If the available memory gradually decreases as the backup progresses, then some component (most likely, a device driver) is leaking memory, and that's the reason of the bad performance. Use the Poolmon utility to troubleshoot further.
  3. If the amount of available memory stays roughly the same, then the bottleneck is most likely in the destination storage stack. To confirm it, perform a backup to an entirely different storage device. For example, use a local disk drive instead of an external disk drive. Remember that the problem is often caused by the storage controller rather than the actual storage device.
See also What hardware do you recommend for use with Firestreamer?
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