Can I do a weekly full backup with GRT and a incremential backup without GRT?

[AndiMPT]

Hi.

We are running a Backup Exec 2012 and performing backups from our Exchange 2010. Because of our size of our database and the problem of the duration of the backup and the index-cataloging we want to do it that way:

- full backup once a week to DeDup with GRT

- incremential backup during weekdays to B2D without GRT

When I create a job I can chose different backuplocations (DeDup, B2D) but only chose GRT/ none GRT for the whole Backupjob.

Does this mean I only can do GRT or none GRT?

Regards

Andreas

[Gurvinder]

yes, that is correct

[CraigV]

...what would be your logic for wanting to use 2 different methods to backup Exchange, when Symantec recommend GRT due to the ease of backing up and restoring individual items amongst other things? THanks!

[AndiMPT]

it´s all about time :)

when we perform a backup with GRT we get rates from about 2400 kbit/min, without GRT we get rates greater then 8800 kbit/min.

because we want to do a everyday backup, we thought we get the benefit from GRT only from the weekend backup, which takes moore than 1 day. weekdays we get a everyday a incremental backup for the safety of the data and accept the inconvenience of not having a GRT.

Any ideas are welcome :)

[pkh]

The difference in time is due to the fact that with GRT, each individual item needs to be enumerated.  Suppose what you want is possible, then when you need to restore something from your incremental backup, you would need to restore the entire information store.  Do you really want to do this?

[CraigV]

...how large is your Exchange backup that a GRT backup takes more than a day?

[AndiMPT]

Good morning form Austria.

Sorry for my mistake in the rates-  correct 2400 MB/min with GRT on DeDup and 6800 MB/min without GRT on DeDup

@pkh  -  yes, we have to because

@CraigV  -  our Exchange databases are keeping about 5.5 TB on Data. A backup of this took some time. Specially when the job is taking a longer time VSS errors also are upcoming.

@pkh  -  but it is not possible to get a job with GRT on weekends and without GRT on weekdays, isn´t it?

[Kiran_Bandi]

Hi Andi,

Looks possible to me with some manual intervention..

But first things first, as already said by other members what you are trying to achieve is not a recommended practise.

Create job with GRT, let it run FULL backup and then edit it to Non-GRT till next FULL. I have never done this (i beleive no one did) and no idea whether it will work or not. You can try as you wanted it and make sure you are able to get the restores properly after one cycle of backups. Afterall it is RESTORE of data what matters not just backups.

Thanks....

[AndiMPT]

Hi Kiran Bandi.

This would not work fine, because when I change the settings of the backup job i get errormessages that the settings changed since the last full backup.

Also I want to do a FULL backup weekly, so I don´t want to change it every week by hand.

I´m doing now backups without GRT and the performance is fine, but I think I´ll miss the GRT soon at my next recovery task...

Tank you so far.

[pkh]

I would lke to quote from some of the other users on the forum, "You backup to restore, you don't backup for the sake of backing up"

Have you thought about the situation when an user requests for his mailbox to be restored?  How are you going to do this without GRT and without disrupting the other mail users.  What is the point of having a good backup without GRT if you practically cannot use it in a restore?

[CraigV]

Does Exchange 2010 even allow a brick-level, non-GRT backup? I remember seeing something like this not being allowed from Exchange 2007 and up...

Thanks!

[AndiMPT · Accepted solution]

We choose Symantec BE because of the GRT and the usally easy-going restore. But if we don´t get enough datasets of our Excahnge databases I feel uncomfortable about the savety of our data.

The granularity of the restore form a non-GRT backup is only on database level.

But to give you a clearify my problem:
- Backup without-GRT 5 TB Exchange DB backup in 17 h
- Backup with GRT 5 TB Exchange DB backup in 1 d 12 h PLUS  Data Indexing DeDup  7 h  and longer

And because of VSS-troubles we can not secure a weekly dataset.

Actually we do full backup without GRT and set the Exchange "Deleted Item Retention Time"  to 60 days, so we usally can do a restore of single items.. but not a whole folder -  I know.

Any suggestions how to increase the performance of DeDup are welcome :)