Reduce CPU Usage

jduhon

Hi,

I am running SQL Backup Lite v4 on SQL 2000 to backup a 20GB database on a P4 machine. I am also running a service on the same machine which stores information to the database constantly. Normally, the CPU load with this service running hovers between 25-35%.

However, when I run a full or differential backup, my CPU usage spikes up to 100% while the backup runs. This causes problems with the service running in the background.

Is there a way to reduce the amount of CPU cycles SQL Backup Lite is using? In other words, I am wondering if there is a setting that will throttle back the speed at which SQL Backup runs. Don't get me wrong, I use SQL Backup for the speed and space savings, but I am willing to sacrifice a little of either if I could keep the CPU usage below 80% for the duration of the backup.

For comparison, when I run a native full backup in SQL 2000, my CPU usage spikes at around 50%. But it takes almost twice as long, and I don't have the benefit of compression.

Does anyone have any thoughts or ideas on this subject? TIA

petey

You can try using the THREADPRIORITY option to set SQL Backup process to run only when no other processes of a higher priority are running e.g.

EXEC master..sqlbackup '-sql "BACKUP ... WITH THREADPRIORITY = 2" '

See the help file topic 'The SQL Backup Toolkit\Toolkit Syntax\The BACKUP Command' for details of the other options.