Article ID: 54439
Article Type: Troubleshooting
Last Modified:
Synthetic full backup jobs are running slowly in a production environment.
Synthetic full backup jobs are running slowly.
Although synthetic full backup jobs generally impose lighter loads on your production environment than standard backup jobs, they do require significant system resources. Therefore, if you run a large number of synthetic full backup jobs—especially if you run multiple jobs concurrently—the production environment can become overloaded and the jobs can run slowly.
Use one of the newer and smarter scheduling options for synthetic full backups.
You might be running synthetic full backup jobs to meet certain objectives (for example, the need to delete expired items) that can be accomplished using alternate methods. Use the alternate methods, explained below, to lessen or even eliminate the need to run synthetic full backup jobs.
Objective 1: Need to delete expired items
Alternate Method: Enable the AutomaticDeletionExpiredData additional setting. After you enable this additional setting, deleted items are removed from the ContentStore once a week. For more information, see Data Aging and Retention for Laptop Backup.
Objective 2: Need to reclaim space
Alternate Method: Use the Run Synthetic Full - As needed to reclaim space scheduling option, which automatically triggers a synthetic full backup job in order to reclaim space from backed up media. For more information, see step 5 of the Procedure in Adding an Automatic Synthetic Full Backup Schedule to a Schedule Policy.
Objective 3: Need to tape out
Alternate Method: Use the Run Synthetic Full - As needed for extended retention scheduling option, to match the backup schedule with extended retention or tape out frequency. For more information, see step 5 of the Procedure in Adding an Automatic Synthetic Full Backup Schedule to a Schedule Policy.
If you do not want to use the alternate methods described above, and still want to run synthetic full backups, schedule the synthetic full backup jobs so that they do not run concurrently. This will decrease the demand placed on system resources.
To do this, stagger the synthetic full backup jobs throughout the day, week, or month by using the Run Synthetic Full - Every X days scheduling option so that synthetic full backup jobs are spread out evenly. For more information, see step 5 of the Procedure in Adding an Automatic Synthetic Full Backup Schedule to a Schedule Policy.