Time Machine is a Resource Hog
in [Mac Applications]
|
From: isw on 7 Mar 2010 23:32 In article <4MLkn.10889$0w4.2497(a)unlimited.newshosting.com>, Lewis <notmyemail(a)example.com> wrote: > 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. Yes, and that is precisely how I think T-M should behave. Isaac
From: isw on 7 Mar 2010 23:33 In article <tom_stiller-7FEA61.06424407032010(a)news.individual.net>, Tom Stiller <tom_stiller(a)yahoo.com> wrote: > 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. What's the data rate across your LAN to the TimeCapsule? Isaac
From: Tom Stiller on 8 Mar 2010 07:14 In article <isw-B228F5.20331907032010@[216.168.3.50]>, isw <isw(a)witzend.com> wrote: > In article <tom_stiller-7FEA61.06424407032010(a)news.individual.net>, > Tom Stiller <tom_stiller(a)yahoo.com> wrote: > > > 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. > > What's the data rate across your LAN to the TimeCapsule? > > Isaac 1 GB/Sec (1000baseT <full-duplex,flow-control> none). File transfers can achieve several hundred MB/sec while TM backups rarely exceed a few tens of MB/sec. HD Video is delivered over the same interface at about 16 MB/sec/channel (I have two channels in). -- Tom Stiller PGP fingerprint = 5108 DDB2 9761 EDE5 E7E3 7BDA 71ED 6496 99C0 C7CF
From: Tom Stiller on 8 Mar 2010 10:00 In article <slrnhp9sv7.1mbj.g.kreme(a)cerebus.local>, Lewis <g.kreme(a)gmail.com.dontsendmecopies> wrote: > In message <tom_stiller-3EAEB0.07142508032010(a)news.individual.net> Tom > <tom_stiller(a)yahoo.com> wrote: > > >1 GB/Sec (1000baseT <full-duplex,flow-control> none). File transfers > >can achieve several hundred MB/sec while TM backups rarely exceed a few > >tens of MB/sec. HD Video is delivered over the same interface at about > >16 MB/sec/channel (I have two channels in). > > You are confusing B (bytes) with b (bits). A decently fast SATA RAID > will be able to write about 30-45MB/s, which is 250-350Mb/s I was 't confused, just senior moment-ed ;-) You are correct; the "B"s should be "b"s. The numbers are correct. -- Tom Stiller PGP fingerprint = 5108 DDB2 9761 EDE5 E7E3 7BDA 71ED 6496 99C0 C7CF
From: isw on 8 Mar 2010 12:31
In article <tom_stiller-3EAEB0.07142508032010(a)news.individual.net>, Tom Stiller <tom_stiller(a)yahoo.com> wrote: --snippage-- > > What's the data rate across your LAN to the TimeCapsule? > > > > Isaac > > 1 GB/Sec (1000baseT <full-duplex,flow-control> none). File transfers > can achieve several hundred MB/sec while TM backups rarely exceed a few > tens of MB/sec. HD Video is delivered over the same interface at about > 16 MB/sec/channel (I have two channels in). Interesting. This thread has put me in mind of finding an old USB 1.1 hub that I know is around here somewhere, and hooking up the T-M disc through it, to see if throttling the data rate will help my problem. I didn't mention this before, but I think part of the issue is GIMP, which is a huge resource hog all by itself, and not helped because of its X11 underpinnings. Then, the images I'm editing are scans of 35mm slides that clock in at around 350-400 MB each when being worked on. Then when T-M starts up, things really bog down. I'm about 90% through my lifetime slide collection, with only about 400 left to edit... Isaac |