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TrekOn's avatar
TrekOn
Level 2
9 years ago

Exchange GRT backups - where does the detail go - is the catalog bigger ?

Hello to all.

I have a couple of quick questions please, which I'll open in separate threads so they can be closed off easily.

 

I'm reading up on the subject of Exchange backups. What I'd like to know is, if I select the GRT option how/where is that data stored?

i.e. are there additional "f" file style files stored somewhere to track the individual mail items and/or does the size of the catalog increase to provide this feature?

If the feature does require additional space, is there a calculation to help with sizing?

Additionally I'd also like to get an idea for how much longer a GRT enabled backup would take?

 

The proposed environment is NBU 7.7.3 (hopefully NBU 8.0), to local MSDP replicating to Azure cloud.

 

Thanks for your time

 

 

 

 

 

 

7.7

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  • Lowell_Palecek's avatar
    Lowell_Palecek
    Level 6
    9 years ago

    There are some fuzzy questions here, to which the only answer is, your mileage will vary. Try it on your data.

    Some of the GRT detail does indeed get catalogued. Without GRT, we catalog some logical folders such as "Microsoft Information Store," a "Database" folder, and a "Logs_xxxxxx" folder, as well as the actual Exchange data files. This may typically number in the low 10's of thousands, depending on how many transaction log files you have.

    With GRT, we catalog the mailbox names. Each looks like a folder. How many you get depends on how many mailboxes you have.

    There is not an extra dot f style folder for GRT. The mailboxes are catalogued as though they were subfolders of the database.  The size of the dot f file is the same question as the size of the catalog. The dot f file is known internally as the files file. It is the cataloguing of the file list.

    Note that from NetBackup 7.5 forward, if the dot f file is large, it's actually a collection of files, where the file actually named xxxxx.f is just a holder of references into the other files. (Don't take that as a design statement; it's my black-box view of it.) This is important if Veritas Support or your Veritas Partner asks you for "the .f file."

    The extra processing time for a GRT backup depends on many variables in your environment. It would not be surprising for GRT to add 1/3 to the total backup time. The big savings is when you need to restore some mail.