Actually 30MB/min is very fast for mailboxes. Many people get 5-10. That's
just the way they are. The MAPI connection wasn't designed to be used for
backup. Each mailbox and each item has to opened and closed individually.

In my view mailbox backup is a big waste of time. You need to backup the
Information Store and Directory. See
http://mail.tekscan.com/nomailboxes.htm for more info and a list of
important exchange server references.

Turn on Deleted Item retention and you have to restore individual items,
negating the need for mailbox backup.
--
Charles Villa

http://mail.tekscan.com/nomailboxes.htm
Please keep discussions in the newsgroup.


"Robert Murray" wrote in message
news:3acf3d6c@hronntp01....
> I get speeds as high as 267 MB/min on default shares but as soon as it
hits
> the mailboxes it crawls at only 30 MB. I expect it to be slower but not
that
> much slower. Any insights would be appreciated.
>
> I'm using BE 8.5, a Quantum DLT 8000 with it's own Adapted 29160, and a
W2K
> Server (Dual 866 w/ 512MB RAM and plenty of free hard drive space) to back
> Exchange 5.5 SP3 on NT 4.0 (Dual 450, 256MB RAM, and plenty of free hard
> drive space) over a 100Mb switched network.
>
>

Thank you Charles. That the slow speed is normal is what I wanted to hear. I
read your page on the subject and currently have the back up time to "waste"
and don't get the corrupt message warning. I have been using brick-level in
addition to IS/DS backup for a couple of years and haven't had a problem.

"Charles Villa" wrote in message
news:3acf4b23$1@hronntp01....
> Actually 30MB/min is very fast for mailboxes. Many people get 5-10.
That's
> just the way they are. The MAPI connection wasn't designed to be used for
> backup. Each mailbox and each item has to opened and closed individually.
>
> In my view mailbox backup is a big waste of time. You need to backup the
> Information Store and Directory. See
> http://mail.tekscan.com/nomailboxes.htm for more info and a list of
> important exchange server references.
>
> Turn on Deleted Item retention and you have to restore individual items,
> negating the need for mailbox backup.
> --
> Charles Villa
>
> http://mail.tekscan.com/nomailboxes.htm
> Please keep discussions in the newsgroup.
>
>
> "Robert Murray" wrote in message
> news:3acf3d6c@hronntp01....
> > I get speeds as high as 267 MB/min on default shares but as soon as it
> hits
> > the mailboxes it crawls at only 30 MB. I expect it to be slower but not
> that
> > much slower. Any insights would be appreciated.
> >
> > I'm using BE 8.5, a Quantum DLT 8000 with it's own Adapted 29160, and a
> W2K
> > Server (Dual 866 w/ 512MB RAM and plenty of free hard drive space) to
back
> > Exchange 5.5 SP3 on NT 4.0 (Dual 450, 256MB RAM, and plenty of free hard
> > drive space) over a 100Mb switched network.
> >
> >
>
>

We have had the same issues with very slow Exchange mailbox / information
store backups, this issue only happened when we moved to V8.6, the highest
rate we managed to achieve was 5mb. We think that we have solved this issue,
you should force your Network card in your exchange server to 100 full (or
10 full) depending on the speed of your switch. The backup speed has increased
to over 70mb per min, thus reducing our backup time from 17 hours to 3 hours.
You should also force your switch speed to match your NIC card, if you leave
the card at Auto you will get slow speeds.