# Restoring files on FreeBSD 5.5



## Polsk (Dec 3, 2008)

Hello.

I am very new to FreeBSD and I have a question or two about backing up files and restoring them.

I am trying to determine if I am doing the correct things to make my backup and restore go smoothly.  I have purchased a Adaptec 29160 SCSI card and a Quantum Ultrium LTO-3 Tabletop Drive.  I am testing this a different server than the "live" one to see how it works.

I have a 10 gig file (test.tar) that I have in my directory.  I use the command "cat /home/mydirectory/test.tar >/dev/sa0".  It takes 10 minutes to send this file to the tape drive.  I am not sure is that is slow or not?  It is roughly 17 megs/sec.

Now when I restore the tar file back to the server, the same 10 gig file takes approximately 18 hours to restore.  That seems to long in my opinion, especially when the "live" server has 200 gigs to back up and if the need ever arised to restore all 200 gigs it would take too long to do it.

Does anyone have any opinions on this or any different hardware that they use for backups? If need be, I can update to FreeBSD 7.0 and see if that makes a difference. 

I know I am asking alot of questions here, but if I am trying to learn.  SO thank you for any help.

I guess I should give some specs of the test system.  
Dell Optiplex GX150, Celeron 900 
20G 7200 rpm drive
Adaptec 29160 SCSI card
Quantum Ultrium LTO-3 Tabletop

The Adaptec is installed in a 32 bit slot, which according to Adaptec would drop the transfer rate to 132 mb/sec.  The Quantum is rated at 80 mb/sec.  Is my "test" system not a good choice to test this out on?  The "live" server is Dell PowerEdge 1.7 Celeron.  

I guess I am trying to find out why it takes so long to restore 10 gigs.

Thank you for any help.


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## graudeejs (Dec 3, 2008)

what file system are you using?

if it's UFS have you considered
https://forums.freebsd.org/showthread.php?t=185


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## Polsk (Dec 3, 2008)

Yes, I am using UFS.

I do believe that I figured out what the problem is/was.

I have a separate test machine that I have FreeBSD 7.0 installed on.  I restored the backup on this machine and the backup went at least 50 times faster on 7.0 than on 5.5.  

I know the Adaptec card is compatible with FreeBSD 6.1 and 6.2, but it must not be at its fullest capabilities in 5.5.

Thank you for your help.


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