Graeme Armitage1
Level 1 (14 points)
Desktops

Q: Speed Up Time  machines  First back up

Hi  I am trying to  complete  Times machines first back up   Basically   is  starting  again  after  a corruption of the original file.  Have  wipe  my Back up Nas and   started  from scratch    the problem  my  First back up is   2.8TB its  going to take weeks  at the rate  it is working  at  approx 50 gigs  ad day

 

Needless to say  there are too many potential pitfalls    to keeping the mach  running  this  long   as  a  my main production   unit   some app can require a restart  and  bang I am back at the beginning again.

 

I really need  to  find a way  to  speed the whole process up    just  for this initial back up .  I have found  this  site  http://www.mackungfu.org/massively-speed-up-time-capsule-time-machine-backups

Massively speed up Time Machine backups

basically its saying 

Open a Terminal window, which you’ll find in the Utilities folder within the Applications list, and paste in the following, typing your login password when prompted:

sudo sysctl debug.lowpri_throttle_enabled=0

This command prevents Time Machine’s backup process assuming a low CPU priority, allowing backups to complete insanely quickly. In fact, you’ll see MB and GBs tick past on the Time Capsule progress display in a second-by-second fashion (provided your Mac isn’t very busy with some other task).

 

can anyone  comment  on this  is it safe to do   and will it help my situation

Posted on Jul 13, 2016 5:22 PM

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Graeme Armitage1

Q: Speed Up Time  machines  First back up

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  • Helpful answers

  • by Grant Bennet-Alder,

    Grant Bennet-Alder Grant Bennet-Alder Jul 13, 2016 6:15 PM in response to Graeme Armitage1
    Level 9 (60,627 points)
    Desktops
    Jul 13, 2016 6:15 PM in response to Graeme Armitage1

    If you are talking to this NAS over Wi-Fi, or your Ethernet is not running at Gigabit speeds, you are making a big mistake.

     

    The best place for your backups is on a Directly-connected drive. NAS is a separate computer, connected to your Mac, and may have problems doing a Full Restore from these Time Machine Backups.

     

    Read the details in the Pink box on this page written by the late James Pond:

    2.  What can Time Machine back up, and where can it put it’s backups?

     

    .

  • by Graeme Armitage1,

    Graeme Armitage1 Graeme Armitage1 Jul 14, 2016 1:41 AM in response to Grant Bennet-Alder
    Level 1 (14 points)
    Desktops
    Jul 14, 2016 1:41 AM in response to Grant Bennet-Alder

    Thanks For the link  But  yes  i have  Gigabyte network  the  switches  and  Hub are 10/1000 and transfers are very fast   just  not  on time machine  I don't  have Wifi Turned on  on my desktop machines  And  previously  Time machine worked well on this set  up and i have  had  to complete several full restores   to an older Mac pro   so  i don't think the system is at fault    just the size  of  my   backup  and the time it takes  for  the  original backup (When i started with this  system  my  Total backup was  just over a 1.3TB   now at 2.8TB it is becoming a problem)   hence  my  original question about the  Terminal Hack

     

    Alternatively  should  i look at  reducing  the amount  of  files  that  are to be backup  by excluding areas   so  once the  initial backup  is complete   I can the  start removing  directories  from the  exclusion  set up in  Time Machines  preferences. Not  ideal  but  it  might get  me there in the end.  

  • by John Lockwood,

    John Lockwood John Lockwood Jul 14, 2016 1:48 AM in response to Graeme Armitage1
    Level 6 (9,205 points)
    Servers Enterprise
    Jul 14, 2016 1:48 AM in response to Graeme Armitage1

    This seems a valid solution to your problem and I see it doing no harm, I would do it the following way.

     

    1. Do the terminal command at the end of the day
    2. Start the initial Time Machine backup
    3. Leave it running over night
    4. Assuming it has finished successfully reboot the following morning which will undo this command

     

    I would totally agree that doing at least the initial i.e. big Time Machine backup over WiFi is a very bad thing to try. Even if normally you use WiFi do the first one via Gigabit Ethernet. I would even turn off WiFi temporarily on your Mac.

  • by Graeme Armitage1,

    Graeme Armitage1 Graeme Armitage1 Jul 14, 2016 4:21 AM in response to John Lockwood
    Level 1 (14 points)
    Desktops
    Jul 14, 2016 4:21 AM in response to John Lockwood

    Thanks for  your reply 

    Question  I am  2 days and  only 118 GB into a back up   Can i run the command  while the   back up is in progress    or should  i just cancel out  of this   back up  for the moment   and start a fresh

     

    Kind regards

     

    Graeme

  • by John Lockwood,

    John Lockwood John Lockwood Jul 14, 2016 4:35 AM in response to Graeme Armitage1
    Level 6 (9,205 points)
    Servers Enterprise
    Jul 14, 2016 4:35 AM in response to Graeme Armitage1

    You can try the command during your current backup, I believe it should still take effect. You can also stop the current backup, do the command and then start the backup again. The resumed backup should carry on from the point it reached although this way it will first have to redo the analysing phase.

     

    One thing I remember is that anti-virus software can cause Time Machine to be much, much slower. This is because Time Machine accesses each file multiple times and each time a file is accessed it can trigger a virus scan of that file. It maybe such software is smarter these days but I remember Sophos used to cause a massive slow down of Time Machine.

  • by Grant Bennet-Alder,

    Grant Bennet-Alder Grant Bennet-Alder Jul 14, 2016 9:14 AM in response to Graeme Armitage1
    Level 9 (60,627 points)
    Desktops
    Jul 14, 2016 9:14 AM in response to Graeme Armitage1

    Time Machine's Biggest "claim-to-fame" is that it is the backup that "gets done" -- slowly, in the background, without interrupting your foreground work. I do not see this temporary priority change for the first Backup as any sort of an issue, provided, as John Lockwood suggests, you undo it at the end of the initial full backup. (The author of that article says the change is temporary, and a Restart removes it.)


    If you are going to always run it at higher priority, Time Machine will get in your way. In that case, you may be better served by a different backup method, BUT: as always, the best backup method is the one that actually gets done. Having the perfect backup method, but that method is so onerous that the latest backup is a month old, does not help anybody.


    Another interesting feature: If you give Time Machine a second drive, it will automatically do every-other backup to every-other drive, creating two independent Backup sets on two different drives.

  • by Graeme Armitage1,

    Graeme Armitage1 Graeme Armitage1 Jul 15, 2016 2:20 AM in response to Graeme Armitage1
    Level 1 (14 points)
    Desktops
    Jul 15, 2016 2:20 AM in response to Graeme Armitage1

    Just   quick update  and  thank you  to all those  who responded

     

    I have enable the Hack whilst the  back up was running   It seems to work  and  a significant increase  in speed    has  occurred.   Where  i was  backing up approx 52 GB a day   I am mow looking at 130 GB  a day    its  still going to take  a while   but every  little helps  and  is more  likely  to succeed  in creating a my  initial back up.  If  It fails this time  i will  omit  large  parts  of  my system  and  try to backup  in smaller section  thanks again for  your help  

  • by Grant Bennet-Alder,

    Grant Bennet-Alder Grant Bennet-Alder Jul 15, 2016 8:47 AM in response to Graeme Armitage1
    Level 9 (60,627 points)
    Desktops
    Jul 15, 2016 8:47 AM in response to Graeme Armitage1

    To run at Gigabit speeds, all your Ethernet cable must have all 8 wires present. When I find cables with only four wires connected, I cut the ends off them, so that i don't fool myself later.

     

    Network Utility.app (should be in the Utilities folder)  can tell you the actual link speed of your Ethernet interface.