Time Machine is a Resource Hog
in [Mac Applications]
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From: Sander Tekelenburg on 6 Mar 2010 00:52 In article <isw-73CC4E.21225205032010@[216.168.3.50]>, isw <isw(a)witzend.com> wrote: [...] > I want something that will make it take longer to do a backup, and so > leave more processor cycles for other tasks *while it is running*. How about lowering the priority of backupd, with renice? To have that happen automatically, you'd need something to watch for backupd to be launched. Maybe a stay-open AS applet, or a cron job. (Or just maybe a parameter can be set in a .plist somwhere...?) Or perhaps simpler to do it the other way around: up iMovie's priority when you want that. There's a Menu Extra, Process Wizard, that provides a nice GUI for that: <http://www.lachoseinteractive.net/en/products/processwizard/>. (Probably doesn't work anymore with Snow Leopard, but it still does on Leopard.) That's assuming CPU-usage is the issue. If it's actually disk activity, I doubt you could do anything about it. Except get a faster disk. -- Sander Tekelenburg, <http://www.euronet.nl/~tekelenb/> Mac user: "Macs only have 40 viruses, tops!" PC user: "SEE! Not even the virus writers support Macs!"
From: Kevin McMurtrie on 6 Mar 2010 00:58 In article <isw-68661E.11501105032010@[216.168.3.50]>, isw <isw(a)witzend.com> wrote: > When I'm doing something like photo editing that takes a lot of > processing, and Time Machine kicks in, things get more than a little > sluggish on my 1.8GHz Core Duo MacBook. > > Is there some way to tell Time Machine to play better with others? I > really don't care how long it takes to do a backup, but I want it to be > a *background* task, not the one the Mac spends most of its time on. > > Isaac There's nothing you can do except turn it off. Even if you had a very fast Mac you'd find that applications periodically stall in the filesystem while trying to poll the status of the backup disk for no good reason. -- I won't see Google Groups replies because I must filter them as spam
From: Tom Harrington on 6 Mar 2010 19:28 In article <isw-73CC4E.21225205032010@[216.168.3.50]>, isw <isw(a)witzend.com> wrote: > In article <tph-971F12.13461805032010(a)localhost>, > Tom Harrington <tph(a)pcisys.no.spam.dammit.net> wrote: > > > In article <isw-68661E.11501105032010@[216.168.3.50]>, > > isw <isw(a)witzend.com> wrote: > > > > > When I'm doing something like photo editing that takes a lot of > > > processing, and Time Machine kicks in, things get more than a little > > > sluggish on my 1.8GHz Core Duo MacBook. > > > > > > Is there some way to tell Time Machine to play better with others? I > > > really don't care how long it takes to do a backup, but I want it to be > > > a *background* task, not the one the Mac spends most of its time on. > > > > It _is_ in a background task. Being in the background has nothing at > > all to do with how much CPU time something uses. > > Yes, "definitionally" it is a background task; the problem is that > "functionally" it is anything but. Actually it is, in every sense, a background task. Like I said, being in the background is completely unrelated to CPU usage. > > If it's a problem, consider using > > <http://www.klieme.com/TimeMachineScheduler.html> to change its schedule. > > I know about that. It will cause T-M to run less often, but *when it > runs* it will still be as much of a resource hog as it is now. The idea was that you'd schedule it for times when you're not working. > I want something that will make it take longer to do a backup, and so > leave more processor cycles for other tasks *while it is running*. There are many other backup tools available. If you don't like one, consider switching to another. -- Tom "Tom" Harrington Independent Mac OS X developer since 2002 http://www.atomicbird.com/
From: Steven Fisher on 6 Mar 2010 23:00 In article <isw-68661E.11501105032010@[216.168.3.50]>, isw <isw(a)witzend.com> wrote: > When I'm doing something like photo editing that takes a lot of > processing, and Time Machine kicks in, things get more than a little > sluggish on my 1.8GHz Core Duo MacBook. backupd peaks at about 6% of my MacBook's CPU. Yours is not that much older than mine, so I don't see why would be much worse. What temperature is your MacBook running at? If it gets too hot, your computer will get throttled down automatically. This causes the sluggishness you describe. Steve
From: Kevin McMurtrie on 6 Mar 2010 23:52
In article <sdfisher-2E6BCB.20002006032010(a)mara100-84.onlink.net>, Steven Fisher <sdfisher(a)spamcop.net> wrote: > In article <isw-68661E.11501105032010@[216.168.3.50]>, > isw <isw(a)witzend.com> wrote: > > > When I'm doing something like photo editing that takes a lot of > > processing, and Time Machine kicks in, things get more than a little > > sluggish on my 1.8GHz Core Duo MacBook. > > backupd peaks at about 6% of my MacBook's CPU. Yours is not that much > older than mine, so I don't see why would be much worse. > > What temperature is your MacBook running at? If it gets too hot, your > computer will get throttled down automatically. This causes the > sluggishness you describe. > > > Steve It's not a matter of CPU consumption. Time Machine keeps the source and destination volumes saturated. Many system operations access the startup disk or query all mounted volumes for status, and that is what causes everything to slow down during a backup. An extreme case can be seen when backing up to a remote volume over the internet - all apps stutter or flash the spinning beachball. -- I won't see Google Groups replies because I must filter them as spam |