Time Machine is a Resource Hog
in [Mac Applications]
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From: Steven Fisher on 6 Mar 2010 23:56 In article <4b933105$0$22130$742ec2ed(a)news.sonic.net>, Kevin McMurtrie <mcmurtrie(a)pixelmemory.us> wrote: > 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 assumed it must have been CPU because my disk is nowhere near saturated by Time Machine. And it isn't like it's a fast disk, it just doesn't chug that hard. Steve
From: isw on 7 Mar 2010 01:57 In article <user-148A4A.06523506032010(a)newsreader.euronet.nl>, Sander Tekelenburg <user(a)domain.invalid> wrote: > 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. The problem seems to be that once T-M starts on a disk transfer, it dominates the resources until it is finished. I think that if it would do smaller chunks with longer pause between, things would be a lot better. I used to use Retrospect (in the ancient days of OS 8 and 9), and even on 100 MHz Macs, it never ever caused poor performance. Isaac
From: isw on 7 Mar 2010 02:06 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. Temperature Monitor usually reports something in the 60-65 C range during a T-M backup. Isaac
From: Lewis on 7 Mar 2010 06:05 On 06-Mar-10 23:57, isw wrote: > I used to use Retrospect (in the ancient days of OS 8 and 9), and even > on 100 MHz Macs, it never ever caused poor performance. Disks were much smaller and you were moving far less data and it was being copied much slower. Modern drives are MASSIVE (My Mac SE came with, IIRC, a 20MB drive) and they are FAST. Your OS 8 9 backups were not many dozens of Gigabytes, and it they had been they would have taken 6-10 hours to complete. -- Hey kids, shake it loose together the spotlight's hitting something That's been known to change the weather we'll kill the fatted calf tonight So stick around you're gonna hear electric music: Solid walls of sound
From: Tom Stiller on 7 Mar 2010 06:42
In article <4b933105$0$22130$742ec2ed(a)news.sonic.net>, Kevin McMurtrie <mcmurtrie(a)pixelmemory.us> wrote: > 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 use a TimeCapsule for backups and rarely see a hiccup even while watching a full screen HDTV program on my 24" iMac. -- Tom Stiller PGP fingerprint = 5108 DDB2 9761 EDE5 E7E3 7BDA 71ED 6496 99C0 C7CF |