Financials (Attain) Backup Speed problems

We have been running Navision Financials v2.5 on the proprietry Database. The Database was 20Gb spread over 5 physical disks (Raid 1) running under Windows 2000. The DBMS Cache being set at 750000 and the object cache 8000. Commitcache is set on. There are up to 80 concurrent users. Before we run some batch processing in the evening, due to the size of the Database, we undertook a “Financials Backup” (via a client from the server) to allow us to recover in case of problems with the batch processing. This took approx 40mins. We have now upgraded to Navision Attain v3.6 and the financials backup is now taking over 2 hours. All the above parameters are set the same with the Database now approx 22Gb. Can anyone explain why the Financials backup is now taking so long. Is there something we have not done following the upgrade or should we be using something else such as hot backup. Users are starting to complain that the system is running slower using Attain.

Check if you save the objects in your backup or not. In your case you don’t need to save the objects.

We have similar problem. Our database has 50 GB. With 3.0 executables backup takes 1 hour. After we changed executables to 3.6 backup takes 5 hours. From Microsoft we received this advice: restore backup to the new empty database. (till now I do not try).

Thanks for that. I have tried doing a backup of our test system which is a copy of the live system created by restoring a financials backup into an empty database. This subsequently backs up in 30minutes so it looks as if this is the solution. I will let you know how I get on. Gary

How big is the restored database now (on disk and in navision)?

The database size is 30Gb (allocated) and 20Gb actually used within Navision on the test version

I’m confused: In 3.60: > Physical size = 22Gb and the data size in navision = unknown, backup time = 2 hours > After backup/restore to empty database > Physical size = 30Gb and the data size in navision = 20Gb, backup time = 30 min

I would guess that some internal structures of the DB seem to have changed in 3.60. So, when a 3.60 executable accesses an “old” DB, there seems to be the need for some conversions or the like. Restoring a backup into an empty DB probably “upgrades” the internal structures to the new version, therefore speeding up the backup process to what can be considered “normal”. But this is just a wild guess…

Check out HOTCOPY

You must create database backup on server. Best regards from BCN. Agustí