Exchange 2007 GRT backup rate and Some general questions about Exchange backup

[atos]

Im have set our Backup exec 2010 r2 sp1 to backup our Exchange 2007 using GRT

The rate of the backup to the dedup store on the backup server is Very slow, like 120 - 230 mb/min.

Our first storage group database is over 260 GB so the backup will take forever, and the after the backup is taken to the dedup store the policy is set to duplicate to tape, so 24 hours is not nearly enough.

If i set the destiantion for the backup directly to tape it goes very fast, any sugestions?

Because of this, i have temporary set the backup policy for the Exchange like this:

Fridays: Full to dedup store and then duplicate to tape

Saturdays - Thursdays: Differential every night to dedup store and the duplicate to tape

How do i do a restore in those scenarios:

1. i need to restore a single mail from a differentail backup thats on tape from 6 month ago?

2. i Need to restore the whole storage group from a Mondays backup, do i first need to restore the latest Full backup (doesnt mather if it lays on disk or tape?) and the restore the differential backup taken on monday

Is the differential method on Exchange the same as the SQL differential backup method?

When im duplicating the Differential backup to tape, will the only data be the differential data or will it be the whole storage group.

if someone could help explain this to me it would be very usefull!

Please don refer to some Admin guide or somethig, i have read those but i dont feel like i understand it 100%. ;)

thank you!

//Johan

[DominikG]

Hello Johan,

1. The rate to the dedup storage is way to slow. Many question come across troubleshooting this issue:

- Which speed is the NIC of the Exchange server

- What size is your dedup folder, and what kind of disk system is under it (RAID type, disk type, etc.)

- Are you backing up only the information store in this job? if not, try to do so, as backing up the system state (if in your job, too) dramatically slows down your backup

- Check the LAN-transfer and the disk queue in windows perfmon to see where the bottleneck is

- Try to run the backup into a simple backup-to-disk folder to check if teh deduplication engine is causing your problems

- Check the system monitor for memory or CPU leaks (very uncommon)

2. Restore of single items

- No chancce to do a restore of a single item from diff or inc. backups. You only can do that from full backups

- You are right regarding the full restore. You first need to restore the full and then the differential

- Diff only backs up the transaction logs

- Copy to tape of diff backups only copies the differential data

Hope this is helpful for you.

best regards

[atos]

Hello Johan,

Hi, Thanks for helping, i have answered your questions Below your comments.

1. The rate to the dedup storage is way to slow. Many question come across troubleshooting this issue:

- Which speed is the NIC of the Exchange server
- 2 GB (teamed NIC)

- What size is your dedup folder, and what kind of disk system is under it (RAID type, disk type, etc.)
 - Size of dedup folder =20TB (currently using 5TB), RAID5 with 12 2TB SAS drives, HP Smart Array P410i, 12GB RAM,

- Are you backing up only the information store in this job? if not, try to do so, as backing up the system state (if in your job, too) dramatically slows down your backup
 - Yes, Only the information store

- Check the LAN-transfer and the disk queue in windows perfmon to see where the bottleneck is

- Try to run the backup into a simple backup-to-disk folder to check if teh deduplication engine is causing your problems
 - I set up a Temp B2D folder and tested to do a Diff Backup, Rate was 558MB/min (2,5 GB data)
 - After that i ran the Differential backup to the Dedup store, Rate was 140MB/Min
 

 - Check the system monitor for memory or CPU leaks (very uncommon)

2. Restore of single items

- No chancce to do a restore of a single item from diff or inc. backups. You only can do that from full backups
 - Ok, but when im going in under "Restore Job", i can browse to a single mail, why is that? its a picyure attached below!
 Is it possible that its possible to restore individual mails when the Full and Diff jobs are in a backup policy?

- You are right regarding the full restore. You first need to restore the full and then the differential

- Diff only backs up the transaction logs

- Copy to tape of diff backups only copies the differential data

Best regards

Johan

Hope this is helpful for you.

best regards

[DominikG]

regarding the single restore out of the differential backup: I am a bit confused right now, as I do not get this restore option in my test environment. :D Can anyone give a hint?

Please try running a Exchange backup without GRT to see, if the job rate improves. (I know, that is no option for general use, but I want to see, what slows your backup down like that)

I also noticed in several customer environments, that using RAID 5 is slowing down the dedup folder, too.

The results of the following would be very interesting:

"- Check the LAN-transfer and the disk queue in windows perfmon to see where the bottleneck is"

best regards

Dominik