High CPU usage (305)

[BiEmme]

Since we moved from Windows Server 2012 (Viceversa 3) to Windows Server 2022 (ViceVersa 6), we're experiencing high CPU usage (over 30% all the time).

Our settings:

Folders
- Source: "\\192.168.1.13\wwwroot\photo\"
- Target: "E:\wwwroot\photo\"
- Include Subfolders: Yes
- Index Drive in Target to accelerate scanning
- Exclude files: "web.config"
- Exclude hidden files
- Exclude system files
- Exclude subfolders: "temp"
- Exclude empty subfolders
- Exclude hidden subfolders
- Exclude system subfolders
Comparison
- Comparison Type: Size and Timestamp
- Ignore 2 seconds difference
- Ignore any second difference
Execution
- Method: Replication (Update Target)
- No overwrite / read-only / error confirmations
- Log File: "C:\ProgramData\ViceVersa PRO\log1.log" (max 10000 KB)
- No archive for deleted/replaced source files
- No archive for deleted/replaced target files
- Scan target while scanning source (prefetch target)
- Use Windows native file copy
- Large fetch
- Copy file/folder permissions

Before upgrade, it used only fe % of CPU time.

[TGRMN Software]

Hi,

This option requires the disk to be indexed and may take extra CPU time:

- Index Drive in Target to accelerate scanning
_________________
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TGRMN Software Support
http://www.tgrmn.com
http://www.compareandmerge.com

[BiEmme]

We removed indexing on target, but didn't see much difference.
CPU is still between 15% and 40%.

This is Windows 22 Server, with Intel(R) Xeon(R) Gold 6336Y CPU @ 2.40GHz 2.39 GHz (2 processors), and 32 GB of RAM.

In fact, this server doesn't do nothing at all, it is used only for backup in case 1st server will fall down.

So it's only task is to copy files from 1st server, using ViceVersa.

[TGRMN Software]

Hi, is there a reason why you are using "Use Windows native file copy"? If not strictly needed in your setup, try to switch that option off.

Also look at the multithreading options in the ViceVersa profile settings. These are new and while they make the copy faster they might take extra resources.

Below is an explanation of the multithreading options you will find in a ViceVersa profile (Performance / Bandwidth > Multithreading), what each option does, default behaviors, and useful tips.

Multithreading options
- Scan Target While Scanning Source (Prefetch Target) (Yes/No)
- When enabled, ViceVersa scans and caches the target while it scans the source. This can reduce overall compare time in many scenarios.

- Multithreaded Source Scanning (Yes / No / Auto)
- Uses multiple threads (up to 16) to scan the source folder(s) in parallel instead of scanning subfolders sequentially.
- Recommended for network paths, mapped drives, or local disks with fast seek (e.g. SSD).
- Auto: ViceVersa decides whether to use multithreaded scanning based on the source location (network, mapped, or fast local disk).

- Multithreaded Target Scanning (Yes / No / Auto)
- Same behavior as Source Scanning but for the target side. Parallel target scanning can speed comparisons when the target is over the network or on SSD.

- Multithreaded Comparison (Yes / No / Auto)
- Uses multiple threads (typically up to 16) to compare source and target entries in parallel.
- Especially helpful when CRC or SHA comparisons are used, or when source/target are network or fast-seek drives.
- Auto: enabled automatically when CRC is used or when conditions (network/SSD) make it beneficial.

- Multithreaded Sorting (On/Off)
- Uses multiple threads ( default 8 ) to sort file lists. Enabled by default and can be several times faster than single-threaded sorting.

- Number of File Copy/Delete Threads (Number or Auto)
- Controls how many threads are used to copy and delete files in parallel.
- Can be set manually or to Auto. Using many threads speeds up copy/delete over low-latency networks, SMB shares, and SSDs.
- ViceVersa supports high thread counts (video/documentation mentions up to 128 threads for copy/delete).
- Auto behavior:
- For network and mapped drives: uses 16 threads.
- When deleting local files: uses number of system CPU cores.
- When copying between local disks on different physical devices: uses number of system CPU cores.

Notes and recommendations
- More threads usually increase throughput over networks and on SSDs, but also use more CPU and I/O resources. If system responsiveness is important, reduce threads or use a lower process priority.
- If you are on a slow/latency-prone network or scanning deeply nested network folders, test enabling/disabling multithreading and consider enabling Network Friendly Folder Scanning if you see "handle is invalid" errors.
- Auto is a safe starting point: ViceVersa will enable multithreading only when it detects it is likely to help.
- When copying large numbers of files or very large files, also review Performance/Bandwidth settings (buffer size, Windows native copy, unbuffered copy) and Process Priority to balance speed vs. system impact.
_________________
--
TGRMN Software Support
http://www.tgrmn.com
http://www.compareandmerge.com