topic Re: OSSV Exchange residing on non-NetApp array in ONTAP Discussions

OSSV Exchange residing on non-NetApp array

byermann — Thu, 05 Jun 2025 07:19:34 GMT

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?

Re: OSSV Exchange residing on non-NetApp array

radek_kubka — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 12:42:22 GMT

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

Re: OSSV Exchange residing on non-NetApp array

byermann — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 12:47:48 GMT

Thanks I'll review the information you included.

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

Re: OSSV Exchange residing on non-NetApp array

radek_kubka — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 13:01:07 GMT

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."

Re: OSSV Exchange residing on non-NetApp array

rojas — Thu, 31 Mar 2011 12:17:29 GMT

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

Re: OSSV Exchange residing on non-NetApp array

scottgelb — Thu, 31 Mar 2011 12:27:05 GMT

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.

Re: OSSV Exchange residing on non-NetApp array

rojas — Thu, 31 Mar 2011 14:05:02 GMT

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

Re: OSSV Exchange residing on non-NetApp array

richard_evans — Thu, 14 Apr 2011 15:20:34 GMT

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

quiesce MSE

quiesce VSS

Call OSSV

OSSV

take snap

tell SC done

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

Re: OSSV Exchange residing on non-NetApp array

richard_evans — Tue, 19 Apr 2011 21:21:57 GMT

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

Re: OSSV Exchange residing on non-NetApp array

nicholas4704 — Thu, 11 Oct 2012 12:54:13 GMT

Can you please update this?

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

Thank you.

Nick