Exchange SnapManager Logs not purging

[michaelsooper]

I hope this is the correct area for posting this.

Our Exchange server lod drive (iSCSI dedicacted) is filling up every month causing us to have to go in and manually delete the log entries from the following location: L:\SME_SnapInfo\EXCH__SECURITY-MAIL\SG__First Storage Group

I've gone into snapdrive and snapmanager on the Exchange server, but unable to locat the settings to correct this.

Thanks,

Michael

[lwei]

Hi Michael,

Are you asking about purging Exchange log files? After a successful VSS backup including checksum verification, Exchange will truncate the log files. If the checksum verification is not done, or fails, then the log files will not be truncated.

Thanks,

Wei

[beaupre]

The retention of the backup sets is controlled by the retention parameters in the backup job in Windows Scheduled Tasks. If you are basing your retention on days, the you will see a -RetainDays parameter. If you are basing your retention on the number of backups you want to keep online, then you will see a -RetainBackups parameter.

If SME backup or verification fails, transaction logs are not truncated and retention policies are not enforced.

Manually, deleting logs is a bad thing to do as this can cause VSS errors which can result in SME backup failures. Also, manually deleting snapinfo log data outside of SME delete backup action can cause problems with SME retention working properly.

If you are looking to free up space in your log LUN, I suggest that you do the following:

1. Check to see if SME backups and verification are working properly. This can be done by looking at the backup logs in the Report section of SME. If the backups and verification are working correctly, then you should look at three ways to alliviate your space problems: 1) Increase the size of the Transaction Log LUN using SnapDrive, or 2) Decrease the amount of backup sets that you are keeping online, or 3) Manually delete SME backup sets using the "Delete Backup" action in SME.

To increase the size of the Transaction Log LUN, you will need to increase the size of the flexvol where the LUN is located. The size you will increase the flexvol will be the size of the LUN plus any fractional reserve.

To decrease the amount of backup sets that you are keeping online, modify either the -RetainDays or -RetainBackups in the SME backup job in Windows Scheduled tasks on the Exchange server.

Thanks,
Mark

[michaelsooper]

Mark,

I checked the scheduled job as you said and -RetainBackups set for "8"

I did look at the last backup job and saw and error that it couldn't locate eseutil.exe followed by errors everytime that executable was called. I've attached the log file.

Thanks for your help,

Michael

[lwei]

Then just copy the eseutil.exe to the proper location. Looks like that's the reason the logs are not purged.   -Wei

[michaelsooper]

I would if I knew where the proper location was. I see a copy in exchsrvr\bin, which is where I imagine it should be because that's were exmerge sits along with other utlities.

[lwei]

I see. Maybe just add exchsrvr\bin to the path. I'm surprised it's not there already. Thanks,   -Wei

[beaupre]

Thanks for providing the log from the backup. The backup job is not configured to do a verification after a backup.

The error that you are seeing is where SME is querying eseutil the checkpoint log for which logs have been committed.

If SME cannot determine which logs have been committed, it cannot archive the logs to snapinfo so that one day they will be purged per SME retention policies.

If you open a command line on the exchange server and run this command:

eseutil  /mk L:\Exchsrvr\mdbdata\E00.chk

What is the result?

Thanks,
Mark

[michaelsooper]

Mark, here is the output.

E:\Exchsrvr\bin>eseutil /mk L:\exchsrvr\mdbdata\E00.chk

Microsoft(R) Exchange Server Database Utilities
Version 6.5
Copyright (C) Microsoft Corporation. All Rights Reserved.

Initiating FILE DUMP mode...
      Checkpoint file: L:\exchsrvr\mdbdata\E00.chk

      LastFullBackupCheckpoint: (0x0,0,0)
      Checkpoint: (0x191E2,C00,0)
      FullBackup: (0x191C6,8,16)
      FullBackup time: 04/07/2010 06:00:18
      IncBackup: (0x0,0,0)
      IncBackup time: 00/00/1900 00:00:00
      Signature: Create time:02/25/2005 14:08:22 Rand:2328769 Computer:
      Env (CircLog,Session,Opentbl,VerPage,Cursors,LogBufs,LogFile,Buffers)
          (    off,    252,  12600,   1741,  12600,    500,  10240, 229376)

Operation completed successfully in 1.62 seconds.

Thanks for your help,

Michael

[beaupre]

Michael,

This is good. Eseutil.exe is not damaged.

Can you open a command prompt and type the command: path

Please post the output of this command.

Also, I would like you to re-run the SME Configuration wizard and please set the verification server to be the exchange server. SME should detect the path of eseutil.exe. If not, then manually set the path.

After you have done that, please re-run the backup.

Thanks,
Mark

[michaelsooper]

Path output:

E:\Exchsrvr\bin>path
PATH=C:\Program Files\Support Tools\;C:\WINDOWS\system32;C:\WINDOWS;C:\WINDOWS\S
ystem32\Wbem;C:\Program Files\eSafe;C:\Program Files\NetApp\SnapDrive\;C:\WINDOW
S\system32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0;C:\Program Files\NetApp\SnapManager for Exchan
ge\;C:\WINDOWS\system32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0

I will run the SME Configuration Wizard shortly.

[beaupre]

Looking at your path output and comparing it to my test exchange server, you need to update the path variable on your exchange host.

You will need to add E:\Exchsrvr\bin; to the path variable on your Exchange server.

After you do that, try running a backup.

Thanks,
Mark

[michaelsooper]

Still having the issue.

I put in E:\Eschsrvr\bin into the path variable and I'm able call any execute from that folder without issue, but SME is still reporting it can't find eseutil.exe. I'm a little apprehensive about rerunning the SME Config Wizard, but when I do start it the correct path for eseutil is shown. The main question before I run it is that will running it undo any settings? Is it a wizard I can just click through and it will retain all the old information for storage and log locations? So far it looks like I won't have to fill anything in, but as I said, I'm just a little worried that I'll knock something out.

Thanks for you help,

Michael

[beaupre]

Michael,

You can re-run the configuration wizard and not disrupt your environment if you are not changing the location of the exchange data.

Re-running the configuration wizard will allow you to refresh the SME configuration.

Thanks,
Mark