Test network speed between Backup & Disaster Recovery appliance and clients

Jan 1, 2018
1 min read

This test will only identify network bottlenecks and will not indicate how fast a backup job will run.

There are some instances where backups are running slow and is difficult to pin what the cause of the problem might be. This test will help to identify if the problem is in the network and routing.

To start this test, you will need to first SSH in to the Backup & Disaster Recovery appliance as the root user.

Once at the command line, make the appliance the listening server by running the following command:

iperf -s

Next, connect to the client that is currently showing signs of being slow.

For clients running Windows:

Download the iperf and move it to drive C.
Open Command Prompt and go to the drive C:
```
cd C:
```
Enter the following command:
```
iperf -c <ipaddress > -t 60
```

For clients running Linux, iPerf is usually available in any Linux distribution repository, and is often installed as part of the base installation.

To start the test, open the Shell, and enter the following command:

iperf -c <ipaddress > -t 60

After performing the test, the Shell will show something like this after about 60 seconds:

C:\ > iperf -c 198.51.100.34 -t 60
------------------------------
Client connecting to 198.51.100.34, TCP port 5001
TCP window size: 8.00 KByte (default)
------------------------------
[132] local 198.51.100.79 port 56109 connected with 198.51.100.34 port 5001
[ID] Interval Transfer Bandwidth
[132]
0.0-60.3 sec 43.5 MBytes 6.05 Mbits/sec

This will give you the speed that it was able to transfer data back and forth between the two.

You can specify how long you want the time to run by changing the number after the -t. The longer the test runs, the better the results will your average speeds.

You can also flip the test to have the client be the server and the appliance be the client. This may show if there is a problem sending or receiving.