Forum Discussion

AndresV's avatar
AndresV
Level 6
5 years ago

Backup directly from the nodes in a Exchange Dag Enviroment using netbackup

Hi Guys

Hi guys,

Is there a way to backup exchanges databases, including the option to use GRT, using the nodes and not the DAG itself?

we configure a backup network but we could not add the dag IP address to this backup network, we added an additional nic to each node so NBU can communicate to the node using this nic.

 

 

 

 

 

 

  • What path did you find? I copied the following key directly out of regedit using Copy Key Name. Do this on your Exchange server node where NetBackup is installed.

    HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Veritas\NetBackup\CurrentVersion\Agents\Exchange

  • I think you can back up an individual Exchange server even if it's a member of a DAG. Use Microsoft Information Store:\ as your backup selection, just like you would do with a standalone server.

    However, you don't need to. NetBackup doesn't use the DAG's IP address and NetBackup does not try to connect to the DAG by DAG name. Many DAGs these days don't have IP addresses.

    The NetBackup Discovery Framework service on each Exchange server (NetBackup client) looks up in the Registry whether it belongs to a DAG, and if so pushes the DAG name up to the master server. On the master server, NetBackup uses the discovery results to choose an Exchange server to represent the DAG. The DAG lookup is done by name, and the node is accessed by name.

    To make DAG resolution work, and also to make GRT work, you need to configure Exchange credentials in the client host properties for every node where NetBackup will run. I make each Exchange server visible as a client in the NetBackup administration console by configuring a dummy Windows-NT policy for each node.

    • AndresV's avatar
      AndresV
      Level 6

      Hi, 

      Thank you very much for your response.

      I´m kinda confused here because in the clients I have "node1" and the backup selections always is "Microsoft Exchange Database Availability Groups:\DAGNAME\Microsoft Information Store\DB01 - by the way I have 40 databases (DB01-DB40), I cant resolve dag name only node name.

      Another thing, Should I checked the option "Perform snapshots" in the attributes tab as long I try to backup exchange as standalone?

      • Lowell_Palecek's avatar
        Lowell_Palecek
        Level 6

        I have tested a backup on one of my DAG nodes and confirmed that it works. Here's what you need to do:

        1. Name the node as the policy client. The policy type should be Exchange. Snapshot backups should be selected. You have to configure the snapshot, but really all you have to do is open the configuration dialog box and ok it. "VSS" should already have been selected as the snapshot type.

        2. The backup selection needs to be just "Microsoft Information Store:\". Nothing more.

        3. You need to set a parameter in the Registry to tell NetBackup to ignore the DAG.

        Key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Veritas\NetBackup\CurrentVersion\Agents\Exchange
        Name: Exchange_DAG_Info
        Type: DWORD
        Value: 1

        The Exchange_DAG_Info probably already is there, with a value of 3. That means NetBackup treats the client as a member of a DAG. As such, a backup selection of "Microsoft Information Store:\" is invalid. Before I changed the value to 1, my snapshot failed in bpresolver with status 72. After I changed it, bpresolver wasn't called, and my backup succeeded.