SME can definitely help out. You have a couple of choices:
Offload the verification process from your production Exchange server
Throttle the verification process
Offload the verification process
By offloading the verification process onto another server, you eliminate that load on the production server, allowing it to do what it does best...serve mail. You can offload verifications in two ways:
A remote verification server
This is typically a stand-alone Exchange server that has SnapDrive and SME installed. SnapDrive has to be licensed, however SME does not (as long as it is only doing verifications). The SME instance in the production environment communicates with the stand-alone SME instance and coordinates the verification process. When the verification is complete, the stand-alone instance of SME reports back to the production instance of SME with either a pass or fail and SME will mark the backup set accordingly.
A SnapMirror destination
If you have a DR solution using SnapMirror replication, you can use your DR Exchange server to perform backup set verifications. This works similarly to a remote verification server. Both instances of SME (production and DR) will communicate back and forth to perform the verification (on the DR servers and storage) and report back with a pass or fail...marking the backup sets accordingly.
Throttle the verification process
Verification throttling allows you to pause the verification process for 1 second after a specified number of I/O operations. This frees up the CPU/memory on the Exchange server so it can process other requests (e-mail). There is a cost for doing this however (nothing in this world is free...right??). The cost is that verification times will be longer. And the extra time will depend on the throttle amount that you specify.
Offloading verifications to another server (remote or a SnapMirror destination) is the preferred choice for reducing/removing verification load from your production Exchange server.
