Bottleneck - Backup Server

I am trying to analyze/identify the bottleneck on our new backup
server. I was wondering if someone could recommend some performance
counters to watch.
Right now I am watching "% Write Time" I am averaging around
"500" for this measure while copying a 50GB database file. It is
taking almost twice as long to copy the file to a different server as
opposed to a different direct attached array. The % disk write counter
is similar on both servers. Am I wrong to assume that the physical
disks are the bottleneck (due to high performance counter ratings)?
Does anyone know some general guide lines on real world throughput on
the following? What kinds of things should I be looking at and/or
asking our IT department?
Gigabit dedicated network
Perc4 (I read on Dells site that it is 320MB/s which translates to
1.1TB / hour)
Raid 5 using 6 - 300MB disks (10,000 RPM)
Other bottleneck candidate?
Server Configuration
Windows Server 2003
Dell PowerEdge 2850
Perc4 - Raid 5
PowerVault 200s
Gigabit network
Dave,
Look at the current or average disk queue length. It will tell you if the OS
is waiting for the disks. Also look at the network interface / Bytes
Receive/sec. to determine how fast the data is being moved across your
network. The network is usually the slowest in the mix and it is common for
a server to server copy to take more time than a disk to disk copy on the
same server.
Also, you will have additional overhead writing to a raid 5 because of
writing the parity information.
-- Bill
"Dave" <daveg.01@.gmail.com> wrote in message
news:1168620575.775759.196740@.i15g2000cwa.googlegr oups.com...
>I am trying to analyze/identify the bottleneck on our new backup
> server. I was wondering if someone could recommend some performance
> counters to watch.
> Right now I am watching "% Write Time" I am averaging around
> "500" for this measure while copying a 50GB database file. It is
> taking almost twice as long to copy the file to a different server as
> opposed to a different direct attached array. The % disk write counter
> is similar on both servers. Am I wrong to assume that the physical
> disks are the bottleneck (due to high performance counter ratings)?
>
> Does anyone know some general guide lines on real world throughput on
> the following? What kinds of things should I be looking at and/or
> asking our IT department?
>
> Gigabit dedicated network
> Perc4 (I read on Dells site that it is 320MB/s which translates to
> 1.1TB / hour)
> Raid 5 using 6 - 300MB disks (10,000 RPM)
> Other bottleneck candidate?
>
> Server Configuration
> Windows Server 2003
> Dell PowerEdge 2850
> Perc4 - Raid 5
> PowerVault 200s
> Gigabit network
>