A have an account on a shared server that runs two instances of the process bpbkar simultaneously for roughly 4-12 hours per day. I think most of the time it is on the lower end of this range. When this process runs by itself server load goes up to 7.0. When other people are using php, cgi, etc the sever load is often more than 15. I have seen it as high as 60. Support tells me that bpbkar is part of their backup process, and there is nothing they can do to reduce the load.

Does this sound right? Is bpbkar a backup program? Should backing up a server take 4-12 hours per day? Is it normal to have to run two instances of the backup program simultaneously? Should the server load be at 7.0 during backups?

Note that the server has a 466 MHZ processor and 256 MB RAM. I am not sure how many accounts are on it.

One of our servers is a P3 / 866 / 512 mb ram with about 300+ customers on it and it hits a 3-4 load avg when it doesnt the nightly backup, so yours sounds right to me

Originally posted by AlaskanWolf
when it doesnt the nightly backup

The other way around, I think ..

Anyway, 3-12 hours to do backup? No way :)

cheers,
:beer: