Ghost 6.0 multicast S-L-O-W

[SlickVic]

I am trying to ghost one computer to another computer on my home network (through a 3Com Super Stack II 3000 switch)...my NICS are 10/100's in both machines, with CAT 5 cable.

Ghost boots up fine on the client, see's the other computer (server) with no problem, and starts the transfer (multicast) with no problem...EXCEPT speed...the fastest it will transfer is 3mb/min, and I'm transferring ~10GB...not good.

Any suggestions on why the speed is so slow...my network works fine transferring files/folders back and forth...it is VERY fast.

I tried Symantec's site...pretty useless.

Also, any issues with the size of my transfer...should I use any switches, etc.

Thanks.

 

[SlickVic]

^^^

 

[Vegito]

Weird, I multicast to 397Megabyte in about 11 minutes.

What kind of network setup, OS, Protocol.

I'm using
1 Dell Server - PowerEdge 4300 P3 with Intel 10/100 - NT server

Nortel Switch 24 Port 10/100

8 Dell Precision Workstation using 3COM 10/100 - Microsoft Client through DOS

TCP/IP on DHCP

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Thats 397 compressed, uncompressed into 1.1Gig of uncompress data

 

[SlickVic]

WIN 98 SE client, Windows ME server (yes, full version of Millennium), TCP/IP, simple network, 2 computers, switch...no problem with connection per se, just that 3mb/min is brutal.

 

[MrChicken]

The only time I've had ghost run this slow is when I using a 486 laptop. The cpu was just too slow to uncompress the image file any faster than 3mb/min.

 

[stash]

I dont know what method you are using to multicast (either a boot floppy that connects to the server, or the server sends the command the client reboots to the ghost partition), but you need to make sure your packet drivers are current.

Download the latest drivers for your card and update the NDIS packet drivers on either the boot floppy, ghost partition, or both. This is the most likely problem with your speed.

The reason is that you said your network is normally fast. Ghost is very picky however, with its network drivers. Realize though that a 10Gb image is still going to take awhile. I used to multicast a 30 pc lab with a 5Gb (Full compression) win2k image and it would take about a half hour. Speeds were usually faster than what you're getting tho.

One final thing: I wouldn't judge the speed of the transfer by what the ghost client tells you. Check the speed as reported by the multicast server. It is usually more accurate.

 

[SlickVic]

Thanks STaSh...I'll try the drivers...I use the boot disk on the client...As a Network Engineer, I use Ghost often, but I never saw this type of slow performance...the client machine is 824 mhz/384 mb ram and the server is a 366 with 256 mb ram, so the hardware is up to snuff.

Yeah, 10 gb will take awhile but at the rate it was going, it figured out to about 60-80 hours...ouch!!

Thanks to all for your input.

 

[Skippy]

Make sure to load smartdrv from your bootdisk before the transfer.

 

[SlickVic]

Still no go at faster than 3mb/min...hmmm...very strange!

 

[LordOfAll]

Is it that way with all transfers or just with ghost?

 

[Wintal]

I found this in the FAQ section of the Ghost manual (pg 115)
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I'm using Norton Ghost to save an image file to a server using a network client boot disk as suggested. I'm running TCP/IP. Norton Ghost takes a long time to save and load an image to and from the server. Why?

Norton Ghost rides the network layer or stack created. Not all stacks work the same. Norton Ghost only goes as fast as the network layer that you've created. The stack may work well normally, saving files normally. Norton Ghost will really ride the stack aggressively. Try experimenting with different clients. In addition, there are several settings which can affect network performance. MS network client 3.0 TCP settings can be altered in the protocol.ini settings. Try adjusting the tcpwindowsize and tcpconnections values to improve performance.

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Good luck!

 

[CBuxton]

I had this problem when I was ghosting servers for backup purposes. I use Cisco networking equipment and Gigabit ethernet. Should NOT be a slow network, but ghost was going about 2mb/min. Finally figured out that the computer and the switch were not negotiating speeds and duplex correctly. I tried a combination of forced speeds and auto and found that setting the switch to auto and forcing the NIC solved the problem. Ghost sped up to the usual 200+mb/min.

 

[narciarz]

Use NetBEUI as a protocol. TCP/IP is very slow for some reason when using Ghost.

 

[GoldServe]

I dunno wut's wrong wif your multicasting....ghosting a 600mb drive takes like 6-7 minutes...goes at around 114mb/min using high compression....when i download back the image..it goes at 240mb/min..i guess i downloads the compressed image and decompresses it on the machine making the ghost think it's going faster than it really is but still...shouldn't be that slow!