When using NBD/NBDSSL transport mode with Backup Exec 21.4 and later, see the following article for information about tuning backup performance.
About VMware Asynchronous read operations during backup
Hotfix 176937 for Backup Exec 2010 R3 improved the performance of VMWare related backup or restore jobs and the same is included in the later versions. The best improvement gain is usually seen with backups using SAN transport type over backups using NBD backup type. It will be a better impact with NBD type backup if the network is 10GB end to end. With this improvement there are 8 registry keys that can be modified towards getting optimal performance.
Registry Keys and Location:
Before BE 21 - HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Symantec\Backup Exec For Windows\Backup Exec\Engine\VMware Agent
BE 21 onwards - HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Veritas\Backup Exec For Windows\Backup Exec\Engine\VMware Agent
Warning:
Incorrect use of the Windows registry editor may prevent the operating system from functioning properly. Great care should be taken when making changes to a Windows registry. Registry modifications should only be carried-out by persons experienced in the use of the registry editor application. It is recommended that a complete backup of the registry is done prior to making any registry changes.
Values Default
Hex (dec)
"Enable Buffered Reads" =dword:00000001 (1)
"Number of Read Buffers" =dword:00000004 (4)
"Size of Read Buffers" =dword:00000400 (1024)
"Enable Buffered Writes" =dword:00000001 (1)
"Number of Write Buffers" =dword:00000004 (4)
"Size of Write Buffers" =dword:00000400 (1024)
"Write Thread Priority" =dword:00000000 (0)
"Read Thread Priority" =dword:00000000 (0)
Values Recommended - 1GB NBD
Hex (Dec)
"Enable Buffered Reads" =dword:00000001 (1)
"Number of Read Buffers" =dword:0000000a (10)
"Size of Read Buffers" =dword:00001000 (4096)
"Enable Buffered Writes" =dword:00000001 (1)
"Number of Write Buffers" =dword:0000000a (10)
"Size of Write Buffers" =dword:00001000 (4096)
"Write Thread Priority" =dword:00000001 (1)
"Read Thread Priority" =dword:00000001 (1)
Values Recommended - SAN/10GB NBD
Hex (Dec)
"Enable Buffered Reads" =dword:00000001 (1)
"Number of Read Buffers" =dword:00000010 (16)
"Size of Read Buffers" =dword:00002000 (8192)
"Enable Buffered Writes" =dword:00000001 (1)
"Number of Write Buffers" =dword:00000010 (16)
"Size of Write Buffers" =dword:00002000 (8192)
"Write Thread Priority" =dword:00000001 (1)
"Read Thread Priority" =dword:00000001 (1)
Note: The performance improvements are still limited to resource usage (local to the media server, on backup target and on the transport layer) at the time of the backups!