Clonezilla Live now very slow at creating a clone.
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I'm using Clonezilla 3.0 Live USB on an AMD laptop running Ubuntu Linux. I'm using an external USB connected 2TB Kingston NVME m.2. Clonezilla is now taking a lot longer to create the clone on the external nvme. Used to take about 3 hours but now takes about 10 hours. What can cause this big slowdown? Any way to fix it?
Last edit: Advait 2024-01-07
Might it be somehow related with disk itself? Many nvme drives become much slower when they exceeds some capacity, ex. when you have them full in more than 50%. Please have a look on performance tests on the net for your disk. Moreover each nvme disk requires to set "empty cells" to zero which is usually done when you are not doing anything disk consuming when using operating system. If you use this disk only for backup firstly it might not have time for nulling (as it needs idle time), secondly are you sure that you have this on for external drives in Linux Ubuntu. If those cells are not set to null, then it's done when writing before actual write and it makes operations much more slow.
If you want to read more about this search for trim function in Ubuntu, ex. https://askubuntu.com/questions/1034169/is-trim-enabled-on-my-ubuntu-18-04-installation
Is "zero filling" the same as nulling?
Last edit: Advait 2024-01-23
I'm also researching how to null an external ssd. Like many things in Linux, it's kinda complicated for a newbie like me.
The nvme is 64% full. Could that cause the slowing down? I've now got the nvme plugged in and mounted and my Ubuntu OS is up and running and the nvme shows up in my File Manager. Will it automatically start running some kind of "nulling" or Trim script? I'm a newbie and not tech savvy.
I checked the link you gave but the post was way above my head. Is there some easy way to 1) Check if Trim is enabled? 2) Check if it's running? and 3) Check if the empty cells on my nmve have been "nulled" or "trimmed"? Is there some kind of Linux GUI app to check the health of an nmve? Does Trim have a GUI?
Last edit: Advait 2024-01-12
Let's distinct two things. One is slower speed due to used capacity and here you can't do anything (with exception of course to delete some data). Second is slower speed when you delete some data and on this place you put another data (ex. you delete one backup and make the second one). If trim hasn't been done, then this second backup will be much slower (as simply writing new data requires two operation 1) null 2) write).
Concerning other questions, I've configured my Linux so much time so I should search this for you. Please forgive me, but I've given you hint and please search for more info. I'm sure that trim was not automatically on in older Ubuntu. In newer ones I'm not sure. This article seems to be quite fresh and it might help but please be careful as I've haven't use any of the info from it and just quickly looked on it: https://www.maketecheasier.com/enable-trim-for-ssd-in-ubuntu/ I'm sure you can easily find other more info.
Capacity not an issue because I'm cloning, which does an overwrite every time.
I ran the sudo systemctl status fstrim.timer command it says TRIM is enabled. I'm guessing it's only running trim on the main internal system drive, and not on any external nvmes. So I have to figure out how to run TRIM on an external drive. I'm researching. Is there a command to do this?
And here for older Ubunt: https://devicetests.com/enable-trim-ssd-ubuntu
"How can I check if TRIM is enabled on my Ubuntu system?
You can check the status of the TRIM operation by running the command systemctl status fstrim.timer in the terminal. This will display the status of the fstrim timer responsible for the weekly TRIM operation."
When I run this on my system I have:
"● fstrim.timer - Discard unused blocks once a week
Loaded: loaded (/lib/systemd/system/fstrim.timer; enabled; vendor preset: enabled)
Active: active (waiting) since Fri 2024-01-12 18:18:54 CET; 7h ago
Trigger: Mon 2024-01-15 00:50:29 CET; 1 day 23h left
Triggers: ● fstrim.service
Docs: man:fstrim"
However it might happen that you have to define for which disks trim will be run.
AFAIU, your disk is not connected all the time, thus you can run trim manually, after connecting
https://www.man7.org/linux/man-pages/man8/fstrim.8.html
sudo fstrim pathtoexternaldisk
https://devicetests.com/enable-trim-ssd-ubuntu
Thanks, this link looks very helpful.
BTW. The external Kingston 2TB nvme has worked fine for about 2 years. Only in the past few weeks has it drastically slowed down when receiving a Clonezilla clone. Is that a clue to the source of the problem?
OK, I'll research this. I wish someone would make a simple GUI app so a newbie could easily manage trimming and nulling internal and external ssds. I've gotta learn quite a bit of arcane stuff to do these simple tasks.
OK, thanks. I'm now exploring the details of trimming. Kinda complicated for a newbie like me.
App request: Could someone build a GUI for this Linux trimming business?
How to mark this thread as SOLVED?
Last edit: Advait 2024-01-13
Possible reasons for Clonezilla slowdown on website cloning:
USB Connection: Check if the website server has a stable and high-speed internet connection.
Server Health: Monitor the website server's health and performance for any issues or bottlenecks.
Filesystem Optimization: Ensure the website's filesystem is optimized and not fragmented.
Software Updates: Check if any recent updates to website-related software might have impacted performance.
Resource Usage: Examine resource usage on the server to identify and resolve any resource-intensive processes.
By addressing these factors, website cloning efficiency may improve.
"Possible reasons for Clonezilla slowdown on website cloning:"
I'm a little confused why you mention "website cloning". I don't do website cloning and I don't see how it's relevant to this thread. Can I ask why you mention it?
I'm only cloning the internal drive of my laptop. It's not a server. I have no server, no NAS, no RAID and no home network. Only the one laptop.
Last edit: Advait 2024-01-19
I suggest you can give testing Clonezilla live a try, i.e., 3.1.2-9 or 20240116-noble:
https://clonezilla.org/downloads.php
They come with newer Linux kernel so maybe the results will be different.
Steven
When you say "Clonezilla live" you mean running Clonezilla from a USB drive? Because that's the only way I run Clonezilla.
Yes.
For some others, they might use Clonezilla SE (Server Edition ). Hence we use "Clonezilla live" here.
Steven
The problem is deep in the Linux kernel and has been there for the entire 15+ years I've been using Linux, first Debian and for the last 10 years, Ubuntu and then Mate. It happens regardless of the drives being rotating or solid state. It happens even with a low-level program like dd.
For example, yesterday I decided to do a bit-for-bit clone backup of my 525 MB Crucial SSD with 185 GB free to an identical external USB drive connected via USB3.
When I started the clone with Clonezilla, it started the transfer at 14 GBS and the copy time was estimated to be 20 minutes. 2 hours and 16 minutes later, 47% had copied, the speed had dropped to 1.7 GBS and the estimated remaining time was at 60 minutes with the seconds clicking upward practically in real time.
Fortunately Clonezilla responded to a ctrl-alt-del and shut down.
This morning I started the clone again at about 11AM so it could run while we went to town. We returned at 7:30PM and found that the clone had finished about 30 minutes ago.
I don't have a DVD player in this computer so I've even tried a SATA to SATA transfer. Same thing.
I have yet to determine where to file a bug report that anyone pays attention to. Canonical didn't. Debian didn't. I don't know where to go from there.
While I'm at it, if your BIOS has Secure Boot for UEFI drives, then only the drive that Ubuntu was installed on will boot. I don't know much about Secure Boot other than it crypto-graphically signs the install drive. UEFI live drives will not boot, as will not drive clones. Fortunately my fairly new Dell Optiplex BIOS allows me to turn off Secure boot. So if you have a problem booting a live thumb drive, go into the BIOS and turn off Secure Boot.
John
I've had this same issue when sending clones to external USB connected HDDs. That's why I switched to only external nvmes for clones.
I've got a fast Firecuda external 2TB nvme and Clonezilla can clone my 2TB internal drive to it in about 30 minutes. Nice.
I was told that because the main Linux devs only care about server Linux they put little effort into issues that mainly effect desktop users. In any case HHDs are slowly going away (but they'll have niche uses for a long time).
I'm also praying that one day desktop Linux will get the equivalent of the Windows Shadow Volume Copy Service (WSVCS). That's one Windows feature I really really miss and wish Linux had.
I recently switched to Tumbleweed so Btrfs snapshots are a little like having WSVCS.
Last edit: Advait 2024-01-23
Looks like formatting the external nvme drive solved the slow job time. I formatted the drive to ext4 then I did a clone job that took 1hr 40min. Before the format the job was taking about 11hrs. Looks like issue resolved.
Last edit: Advait 2024-01-26