dump faster from remote than from local

[Randy Bush]

>> dump from B->A i.e. from a system on local ether
>> 
>>   DUMP: DUMP: 2082890 tape blocks on 1 volume
>>   DUMP: finished in 478 seconds, throughput 4357 KBytes/sec
>>                                             ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
>> and a local dump on A
>> 
>>   DUMP: DUMP: 3560987 tape blocks on 1 volume
>>   DUMP: finished in 3694 seconds, throughput 963 KBytes/sec
>>                                              ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
>> why is local slower than remote?
>
> What are you dumping to on A?

sorry.  both dumping to a separate dump drive on sys A.

> If you are dumping to a file on the same spindle, you spend a lot
> more time doing long seeks.  Is there other I/O occuring on the
> same spindle as the filesystem that you are dumping on A?

nope

> Could the file system on B have a small number of large files while A
> has a large number of small files?

nope.  both /usr on freebsd systems

> What results do you get if you dump each file system to /dev/null
> on the local machine?

good question

randy