Ghost Solution Suite

i saw a similar discussion here https://www-secure.symantec.com/connect/forums/ghost-82-and-ghost-115 and my problem is v.similar.

basicly, backup speed is pretty normal. but restore is super slow, alot slower than version 8 family.

What i notice is that on restoring the ghost "pauses"

it restores at incredible 2200mb/mnt or more for 10 secs and then pauses (like, frozen) for 10 or 15 secs and then resumes restore and pauses again ...

this is not a single machine or lan problem. i been doing restores on diferent lans, 100mbps lans and 1gb lans, on diferent servers, dells, hps and even ibms and diferent network structure, some slower some faster, but the symptom is allways the same.

run - pause - run - pause - run - pause .. etc

a restore that used to take less than 30mnts is now taking more than 3hrs on ghost 11.5

is there any fix for this? i tried live update but say i have latest version, i didnt tried the linux boot, i understand nothing of linux, so i didnt tried that

welp

I did some more testing, tried to disable cache on raid controller, enable cache, disable cache on ghost, enable cache and nothing changed for worse or better.

Gave a try on the linux boot system and it's not as hard as i expected. In linux the problem also exists, but it's alot less severe, the time he spends running is alot longer then the time he spends froze up, thus, the restore is alot faster.

Also, i noticed that when ghost is "frozen" (both in WinPE and linux) the HD led lights up alot, like if the hd is extremely busy. once ghost unfrezzes, the hd led goes back to some blinks like normal.

i tried this on hp server, dell server, and in a mix of network configurations (diferent cabling, diferent switchs)

the problem is cosistent, happens allways, no matter the hw, lan or the data volume or type to restore.

I put the image file into a USB2 external HD and tried to restore from the usb disk connected directly into the server, bypassing all the network stuff, but there was no change, and the slowlyness persists, so the problem as nothing 2do with network.

I also tried to burn the images into DVDs (3 DVDs) and also, no improvement.

this needs to be fixed, it's taking excessive time to restore, something i was suposed to do in less than 1 day im taking entire weekend 2do... it's not viable.

fix this symantec. fix it fast. plz

Hello,

What speeds are you seeing, both while Ghosting over the network and via USB? 

Randall

When backing up, floats from 600mb/mnt to 1100mb/mnt, when restoring floats from 50mb/mnt to 200mb/mnt

restoring from lan or usb made no diference.

the usb disk is a 1Tb USB 2.0 maxtor harddrive, 7200rpm and yes, the server usb ports are 2.0

Are you using multicast? You should definitely use multicast. However, I am going to recommend testing a restore to a single machine using unicast to see if the speed is better. You may be looking at a router/switch configuration issue. Make sure that IGMP snooping is enabled on all routers and switches. 

Also, make sure taht the network and storage drivers in WinPE are the latest.

Thank you,

Randall

I used multicast and unicast. no change in performance.

I also tried mapped drive aproatch, also no change in restore speed...

even when using vmware on "local machine" lan mode, the problem is the same.

i honestly dont understand how you cant replicate this problem.

There is anything or anyway i know of, that i can avoid this issue, boggles my mind on how you cant find it...

i did not try that. the drivers i am using are the drivers that came with the suite.

i wont be able to do another test for some time, most likely a month, since im out of the location during this period. i will report what i find by then.

but i find hard to be that aswell, since i tested several diferent vendor hardware, (dell/hp/ibm) and they did not use the same raid controller as expected from this brands, each to his own. so, diferent drivers too.

but ill try to update the drivers anyway.

If this does not work, what else can i do?

Rui,

Right now, the drivers seem like they are the issue. We eliminated the network, you've tried different boot media. It seems like that is the most relevant thing left. Try adding these Vista drivers to Windows PE:

Thank you,

Randall

I am hacving the same problem

using windows pe disks

runs for 5 sec wait s for 30

this is running from the ghost server not the console

on gig network to wqrkstations and to server

server running windows 7 8 gigs of ram

sata 3 drives