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Ayes's avatar
Ayes
Level 4
11 years ago

Exchange DAG 2010 Transactional Logs Truncation

Exchange DAG 2010 transactional logs truncation not working.

 

Firstly,Is instant recovery backup same as full backups for Exchange DAG.I need a clarification on Instant Recovey Backup.

Attached is my configuration from the Exchange clients DAG members group for trncation of transactional logs.

Is there anything I am missing please.

Many thanks to the house for all

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  • RiaanBadenhorst's avatar
    RiaanBadenhorst
    11 years ago

    Hi,

     

    Log truncation is actually handled by exchange, not NetBackup. When ever the NetBackup reports that the backup is "done/successful" Exchange starts truncating the logs.

     

    See the note from MS.

     

    http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/office/bb204080%28v=exchg.140%29.aspx

     

    Instant recovery would be a backup that use some type of storage snasphot technology. It makes a snapshot / point in time copy of the exchange databases which you can restore from. This copy can then be transfered to tape of kept for....instant recovery.

     

    What is the problem?

  • Mark_Solutions's avatar
    Mark_Solutions
    11 years ago

    My only other thought, although it is an oldish tech note is that it also says:

    NetBackup supports Instant Recovery backups with Exchange 2007 or later for non-clustered and non-replicated environments. Instant Recovery requires a separate Snapshot Client license key

    Which means it wont work with a DAG anyway!

    The 7.6 Exchange Admin Guide says exactly that too.

    #edit# Page 114

  • Marianne's avatar
    Marianne
    11 years ago

    -Exchange Dag 2010 TLOGS truncation will not work when configured from NBU

    No. That is not what we are saying.
    We are saying that NetBackup will notify Exchange when backup has completed successfully.
    It is then up to Exchange to truncate the logs.

    To understand more about Instant Recovery, read up about it in NetBackup for Microsoft Exchange Server Administrator's Guide http://www.symantec.com/docs/DOC5172 
     

    If your questions were answered, please mark most helpful post as Solution. Or select 'Request split solution' to mark more than one post.

  • RiaanBadenhorst's avatar
    RiaanBadenhorst
    Level 6
    11 years ago

    Hi,

     

    Log truncation is actually handled by exchange, not NetBackup. When ever the NetBackup reports that the backup is "done/successful" Exchange starts truncating the logs.

     

    See the note from MS.

     

    http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/office/bb204080%28v=exchg.140%29.aspx

     

    Instant recovery would be a backup that use some type of storage snasphot technology. It makes a snapshot / point in time copy of the exchange databases which you can restore from. This copy can then be transfered to tape of kept for....instant recovery.

     

    What is the problem?

  • Ayes's avatar
    Ayes
    Level 4
    11 years ago

    Thanks Riann,

    I am grateful .

    From your inputs .it implies Exchange DAG Full Snapshot backup taken to disk is an Instant Recovery Backup.

     

    For the log truncation I hope all the exchange client configuration attached in my earlier post is enough.

    Thanks for all

  • INT_RND's avatar
    INT_RND
    Level 6
    11 years ago

    If you haven't truncated your logs yet then they might be too big. To manually clean up Exchange you must turn on circular logging. This will commit the tlogs and start over. You must then disable circular logging later if you want to use backup jobs to truncate the logs.

    NOTE: Only incremental backup jobs will truncate the logs. The function of a full and incremental backup are fundamentally different with Exchange backups.

    Here are instructions for using circular logging to clean up the mess you are in:

    http://blogs.technet.com/b/scottschnoll/archive/2011/06/27/circular-logging-and-mailbox-database-copies.aspx

     

     

    Here are instructions for moving away from using traditional backups:

    http://www.msexchange.org/articles-tutorials/exchange-server-2010/high-availability-recovery/eliminating-traditional-backups-using-native-exchange-2010-functionality-part4.html

    The Exchange DAG is fairly robust and has recovery features built-in.

  • Mark_Solutions's avatar
    Mark_Solutions
    Level 6
    11 years ago

    I dont agree with the above .. a full backup should trigger a log truncation .. many people never do incremental backups of exchange and they are fine!

    Take a look here and the associated tech notes linked from this one:

    http://www.symantec.com/docs/HOWTO47348

    Note the lines:

    By default, transaction logs are not truncated for Instant Recovery backups. You can enable the truncation of logs for this type of backup or you can perform a backup to a storage unit

  • Ayes's avatar
    Ayes
    Level 4
    11 years ago

    Thanks Mark and Co for all.

    I need clarification on Exchange Instant Recovery backup.Is it same practically as taking a full exchange database backup (snapshot) to DSU as often the case of Exchange 2010 DAG GRT.

     

    Also confirm the configuration settings for exchange client attached to enable truncating TLOGS for the exchange DAG 2010.This is done across all the DAG nodes.Is there any more configuration to truncate logs ont the exchange nodes/clients

    Thanks for all.

     

    Regards

  • Mark_Solutions's avatar
    Mark_Solutions
    Level 6
    11 years ago

    My only other thought, although it is an oldish tech note is that it also says:

    NetBackup supports Instant Recovery backups with Exchange 2007 or later for non-clustered and non-replicated environments. Instant Recovery requires a separate Snapshot Client license key

    Which means it wont work with a DAG anyway!

    The 7.6 Exchange Admin Guide says exactly that too.

    #edit# Page 114

  • Ayes's avatar
    Ayes
    Level 4
    11 years ago

    Thanks,

     

    In summary , are we syaing:

     

    -Exchange Dag 2010 TLOGS truncation will not work when configured from NBU and backup finish successfully with status 0

    -Also note that microsoft has disable circular loggin by default in exchange 2010 and recommend not enabling it.

    Awaiting response from the kind house.

    Thanks for all

  • Marianne's avatar
    Marianne
    Level 6
    11 years ago

    -Exchange Dag 2010 TLOGS truncation will not work when configured from NBU

    No. That is not what we are saying.
    We are saying that NetBackup will notify Exchange when backup has completed successfully.
    It is then up to Exchange to truncate the logs.

    To understand more about Instant Recovery, read up about it in NetBackup for Microsoft Exchange Server Administrator's Guide http://www.symantec.com/docs/DOC5172 
     

    If your questions were answered, please mark most helpful post as Solution. Or select 'Request split solution' to mark more than one post.

  • INT_RND's avatar
    INT_RND
    Level 6
    11 years ago

    Circular logging is an option. You can leave it on and then you wouldn't need to truncate your TLOGs. There is a process for that. Or you can turn circular logging temporarily on to clean up your TLOGs. Once the cleanup is complete you can turn circular logging off and resume traditional TLOG truncation procedures. Either way you may need to use the feature to get out of the situation you are in. I recommend reading up on the topic.