Enterprise Vault Index Backup or Not ?

Hi there,

I wrote the Backup Best Practises Paper https://forums.symantec.com/t5/Enterprise-Vault-Product/How-to-Backup-EV-New-Document/ba-p/354045#A74 and really think you need to be careful in your question here. Yes is the answer to your question, but frankly I'd never advise any customer to do this, as it introduces risk to your end-users!

Indexed data is quite important -- and reindexing anything (even if you didn't own EV) is not a quick-n-dirty fast procedure if you have a sizable amount of data. IF (big IF) you had SQL and all other parts of your EV infrastructure properly (and media verified from time to time!) you might be able to consider this.

You'd be looking at index-replay, an activity that takes appreciable amounts of time. That also means depreciated end-user functionality, overall archiving throughput (slowed as EV server(s) busy reindexing) and generally I would (politely) really question your overall motive for not backing up.

If you take a look at the latest version of the BP paper above, especially if you use Backup Exec 12, you have some very tidy ways to alter backups. If you use NBU, you can also decrease your time windows, which would leave you with the ultimate of coverage. With non-Symantec backup products, your mileage may vary as to the most efficient ways to backup.

With all due respect, is the risk worth it? 9.5 out of 10 customers I've spoken to would argue not.