My backup is killing disk performance. How do I slow it down?
Aug 11, 2026
-
by John Britto
-
-
1 min read
Quick Linux Tip #37 :
Try: ionice -c 3 -p $$
Info: ionice sets I/O priority. Class 3 (idle) only allows disk access when no other process needs it.
Examples:
$ ionice -c 3 nice -n 19 rsync -av /src /dst # Throttles CPU + I/O
$ ionice -c 2 -n 7 tar -czf backup.tar.gz /data # Best-effort, low priority
$ sudo ionice -c 1 -n 4 -p 1234 # Real-time priority (root only)
Note: Classes: 1=Real-time (root only), 2=Best-effort (default), 3=Idle. Combine ionice with nice for complete system throttling.
LinuxTeck.com
linuxteck@ubuntu:~$ ionice -c 3 -p $$
linuxteck@ubuntu:~$ ionice -n $$
idle
linuxteck@ubuntu:~$ ionice -c 3 tar -czf backup.tar.gz /data
linuxteck@ubuntu:~$ iotop -o -b -n 1 | grep tar
3456 idle linuxteck 0.00 B/s 234.56 K/s ?unavailable? tar -czf backup.tar.gz /data
linuxteck@ubuntu:~$
About John Britto
John Britto Founder & Chief-Editor @LinuxTeck. A Computer Geek and Linux Intellectual having more than 20+ years of experience in Linux and Open Source technologies.
View all posts by John Britto →
Leave a Reply