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Backup Exec/VMWare Replication/MS Exchange

joelrob
Not applicable

We are attempting to copy our mission critical vms to an offsite server for high availability in the event of disaster at our HQ office. All of the vms have replicated without issue so far (AD Domain Controller, print/file share server, terminal server, etc.) But with Exchange 2010 we've encountered an error. With VSS quiescing enabled, our BackupExec backups fail every time. BackupExec is configured to backup the Exchange server directly, through the Backup Exec Remote Agent for Exchange, so it should have no knowledge of it even being a virtual machine, yet it's still taking a snapshot of the machine before backing up. Currently Advanced Open File is enabled on the backups, so that may be what's causing the snapshot to happen each time. We've tried replication with VSS enabled and with it disabled, and the backups only run when it's disabled. I've also tried to configure the replication with VSS enabled and then pause replication before the backup starts, and it still fails.

 

My question is, has anyone gotten Backup Exec backups to run on Exchange with quiescing enabled? If so how? Does anyone run Exchange backups without Advanced Open File enabled? Do the backups run successfully and able to restore?

 

If not, does anyone run Exchange replication without quiescing? If so, have you recovered the Exchange machine successfully and does it come up as a dirty shutdown?

 

We're currently running Backup Exec 2010 R3 and Exchange 2010. The Exchange runs on Server 2008 R2 and VMware replication is the 5.5 appliance on vSphere 5.5.

 

Thank you for any help in this.

2 REPLIES 2

pkh
Moderator
Moderator
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1. You should not enable AOFO when you backup Exchange using the remote agent 2. BE 2010 R3 does not support vSphere 5.5. See the SCL below http://www.symantec.com/docs/TECH137682

Colin_Weaver
Moderator
Moderator
Employee Accredited Certified

Exchange 2010 Agent backups use VSS whether or not AOFO is enabled (as VSS is how the Microdeosft API protects Exchange 2010)

As VMware tools installs a VSS component it is possible that a VSS request to Exchange might be affacted by it being a VM especially is something special is installed or enabled when you use VMware's appliance for replication. It is possible that you might have implemented an untested scenario from a Backup Exec point of view as I doubt we have done specific testing with VMware's replication product enabled.