ONTAP Discussions

OSSV Exchange residing on non-NetApp array

byermann
5,061 Views

IHAC that is looking to backup MS Exchange in "remote" locations using OSSV.

In the absence of SME it is possible to get a consistent backup with application shutdown?

Also, can OSSV ingest Exchange storage holdings residing on non_netApp storage arrays?

1 ACCEPTED SOLUTION

radek_kubka
5,061 Views

Exchange backup & restore is a very hairy topic. What version are we talking about (Exchange & Windows)?

OSSV (unfortunately) is not application-aware & basically everything is treated as flat files. So one of the ways to do off-line backup via OSSV could be by doing local NT Backup (http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa998870%28EXCHG.80%29.aspx) & then sending NT backup image across the wire via OSSV.

Arguably the number of changed blocks in file system will be substantial, so a lot to send!

Regards,
Radek

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9 REPLIES 9

radek_kubka
5,062 Views

Exchange backup & restore is a very hairy topic. What version are we talking about (Exchange & Windows)?

OSSV (unfortunately) is not application-aware & basically everything is treated as flat files. So one of the ways to do off-line backup via OSSV could be by doing local NT Backup (http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa998870%28EXCHG.80%29.aspx) & then sending NT backup image across the wire via OSSV.

Arguably the number of changed blocks in file system will be substantial, so a lot to send!

Regards,
Radek

byermann
5,061 Views

Thanks I'll review the information you included.

Re: your question regarding release specifics, Exchange 2007 running on Windows 2k3 or Windows 2k8.

radek_kubka
5,061 Views

Exchange 2007 running on Windows 2k3 or Windows 2k8.

Re 2k8 - the note on this Technet article is funnily contradicting itself (sort of):

"Windows Server Backup in Windows Server 2008 no longer supports Exchange-aware backups or restores."

and further on:

"However,Exchange 2007 SP2 includes a new plug-in that enables you tomake Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS)-based backups of Exchange datausing Windows Server Backup in Windows Server 2008."

rojas
5,061 Views

Hi,

Is there any way to use VSS integrated to OSSV to get Exchange consistent backup?

Is there any script to make or to use as basement to make that?

Could I use SMBR to make a single recovery of a message?

Thanks a lot in advance for your answer,

Mauricio

scottgelb
5,061 Views

Syncsort NSB has an OSSV agent that talks to NetApp SnapVault Secondary.  It supports Exchange, SQL, SharePoint and Oracle.  It handles hot backup of Exchange on non-netapp disk to the NetApp target.  They also have EMBR (same OEM software as SMBR) to handle single message restore on the NetApp Target.  There is a license fee to get the NSB master server and clients but no additional charge on the NetApp side since you already have snapvault secondary.

rojas
5,061 Views

Hi Scott,

Thanks, I know them (syncsort) very well, but in this oppty we can not work with them

We are seeing to propose to use scripts.

Does anybody have experience on scripting?

Thanks,

Mauricio

richard_evans
5,061 Views

Has anyone looked at using Snap Creator in combination with OSSV to backup exchange in remote systems? If anyone has any want or need for this I would like to help work on this and colaberate.

My thoughts on this would be:

Components:

     Protection Manager (PM)

     NetApp Host Agent (NHA)

     OSSV Agent (OSSV)

     Snap Creator (SC)

     VSS

     MS Exchange (MSE)

Work Flow:

     PM call backup

          --> NHA --> OSSV

     OSSV call SC to run script

     SC

          quiesce MSE

          quiesce VSS

          Call OSSV

     OSSV

          take snap

          tell SC done

     SC

          unquiesce VSS

          unquiesce MSE

          tell OSSV done

     OSSV

          start transfer

          tell NHA done

     NHA

          tell PM done

     Monitor transfer

I don't know how dificult this will be to script but from the following doc Snap Creator can use OSSV as an agent.

https://fieldportal.netapp.com/viewcontent.asp?qv=1&docid=29890

Let me know if you guys come up with anything else.

V/R,

Rich Evans

Systems Engineer

Lewan & Associates

Rich.Evans@Lewan.com

C. 843.327.5704

richard_evans
5,061 Views

I started looking at AlphaVSS to interface with Exchange VSS through .Net since I don't know c or c++. I need to create a pre and post script and also a config file.

The pre-script needs to perform the following functions:

     Query Providers

          add exchange provider to the provider variable

     Query Exchange Storage Groups (SG) from config file

          add SG to BackupSet

     Call InitializeForBackup

     Call Freeze

SnapCreator Agent will call OSSV to take a VSS snapshot of the SG

The post-script simply needs to call BackupComplete to the Exchange VSS provider.

Let me know if there is anything I am missing.

V/R,

Richard Evans
Systems Engineer
Lewan & Associates
Rich.Evans@Lewan.com
C. 843.327.5704

nicholas4704
5,061 Views

Hi

Can you please update this?

I need to make consistent Exchange Backup using OSSV. Can we use SnapCreator for that?

Thank you.

Nick

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