[FX.php List] FileMaker performance issues during FMSA scheduled backups

[Ernest Cunningham]

This is not exactly a speed up of the backup process, but this may  
help with over all user satisfaction.

I cant remember why exactly but I think backups when backing up all  
databases happens a folder at a time. So when you store your databases  
in the Data folder put them into folders and number the folders in  
order of preference to backup. You can group backups then so that way  
the user only gets the coffee cup in one term of time, instead of over  
a large timeframe as it backs up 1-2 files of your solution now,  
another in 3 mins time and then another in 5-6 mins time etc. That  
doesn't speed up your backup time but allows certain services to be  
disrupted once over a smaller period of time. I used to work at  
Digital Fusion (www.digitalfusion.co.nz, Australasia's largest  
FileMaker Developer house.)and I am sure this is what we did back a  
couple years ago and it worked nicely. That said tell me if you think  
I am talking out my arse here.

Also I am not sure if putting the data onto a separate raid would be  
of any benefit considering you are using Raid 5. Wouldnt hurt though I  
suppose to try.




Kind regards,

Ernest Cunningham

__________________________________________________________

   FileMaker Database Developer
   Nelson,  New Zealand

   Ernest Cunningham
   Mobile: +64-21-40 66 75
__________________________________________________________

On 10/10/2008, at 5:58 AM, David Ness wrote:

> I can not get around the need to perform FMSA v9 scheduled backups  
> on our databases each afternoon at 12:00 noon. At the moment the  
> backups start, not only do our local (20+) clients start receiving  
> the ‘coffee cup’ upon virtually any interaction with the database  
> using FileMaker Pro, but our online fx.php clients are being  
> affected as well, to the point that timeout errors are occurring  
> during page loads that involve FMS interaction.
>
> I would like to resolve this if I can. Solutions involving SQL are  
> not an attractive option.
>
> All of our FileMaker software is of the latest versions and up to  
> date. The server runs no other software except Doubletake, which I  
> do not believe is the problem (the problem existing before out  
> deployment of Doubletake). The web server and FM server are separate  
> machines. Our FMS hosts about 100 files, of just under 10GB in size  
> total. The backup schedule completes in about 25 minutes.
>
> The FMSA server hardware is fairly high-performance, a Dell  
> rackmount server, (2) Dual-Code 3.66Ghz processors, 4GB RAM, (6)  
> brand new internal 160GB drives in a RAID 5 configuration. I had  
> heard during a TechNet seminar that it’s best to store the backup  
> files onto a separate partition (C: = OS, D: = FMSA, E: = Backups).  
> I have though about attaching another, separate RAID, just for the  
> backup target, but don’t necessarily know if that will be of much  
> help. I suspect that the solution might lie elsewhere.
>
> 2 questions for the group:
>
> 1)       Do others have noticeable FMS/PHP performance issues during  
> FMS scheduled backups?
> 2)       Do you have ideas on how to resolve the issue? ALL ideas  
> are welcome.
>
> Thanks!
>
>
>
>
> David Allen Ness
> Database Systems Programmer
> Web Applications Developer
>
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