Archiving location

[SamChougule]

Greetings: Can the Enterprise Vault write data to two locations while archiving. Also Is it possible to hold the data on the Disk before committing it to Centera. Just using one Centera.

[smart2011]

I'm afraid that EV cannot write to two different locations at a same time. In vault store you can open one partition at a time only.

May i know what is the exact thought behind that question?

For centera we normally create collection folders but again there is no mechanism of disk staging in EV server.

I hope that will work for you.

[JesusWept3]

Like Smart said, if you use Centera with collections EV will write the items to a temporary NTFS location and then move them to the centera, they will not be deleted until the Centera confirms the item has been written.

Also if you use Replicas the items will not be deleted until the replication occurs.
And to add on to that, items won't change from a pending item to a fully shortcutted item in the users mailbox until the centera has confirmed it has been written.


In terms of a centera, the best way for you to go forward is to have replicas in the environment, in case that the Primary centera goes down or has disk corruption where you lose items, teh replica will store those messages as well.

Just by the very nature of how EV is designed it cannot store the same item in multiple places and decide where to pull it from. There are alternative solutions you can use such as glasshouses NearSync (or is it near site? can never remember , but michelz will correct me :) that will replicate items from one location to another allow some form of HA for your EV Storage in case it goes down....but again this does not relate to your Centera solution.

Oh and if you are not using Centera collections, then items will remain pending whilst an item is written to your temp location and that item gets stored on the Centera, once the centera confirms that it has written the item it will delete the temp file and then post process the shortcut and turn it in to a full shortcut

[SamChougule]

Smart  and JesusWept2 Thanks for your comments.

 The current backup solution for Centera using CBRM is not very useful, it takes weeks to complete backup and our data is exposed to loss.

If we are alble to delay the write to centera for lets say 24 hours, we further protect ourselves against data exposure in situations where a person manually archives data the day they receive it. In this case, the data is written to the centera before it is backed up by the exchange backup and if the centera was lost and we needed to restore from tape, we would effectively lose that data. If we delayed the write to the centera, the data would be backed up by the EAV application level backup since it is stored there for 24 hours. We would have then captured it on tape.

The ability to write to multiple data sources such as the centera and SAN/Standard File System would allow us to use the traditional backup method for backing up the data as it would be written to a standard file system allowing us to take advantage of the current backup speeds.
hence i was looking if we can write to two location, or delay the commit into centera.

I have looked at EV Nearsync and StorFirst Altus solution.

Nobody from EV nearsync got back to me when i requsted more info from them, the limitation with StorFirst Altus , it can only wirte to tape or vtl.

Thanks for the comments...

[JesusWept3 · Accepted solution]

Yeah in NetBackup to backup a centera you would use NDMP and it wouldn't be any faster than your current backup solution, so the suggestion is to use a Replica centera as that is the preferred method.

Unfortunately though with what you want to do, EV is unable to do this as the functionality just does not exist, you can add it to the ideas section, but i'm not sure it will get much transaction based on the solutions available (such as tertiary migration and centera replication) and the mechanics of making a solution work.

[AndresMunoz]

Several of our clients use it... and it works a treat. and the way it works with EV is second to none. We have never been reported any issues. Critical for this, is keep your hotfixes for centera up to date.

[Tim710]

Hey Everyone,

First time commenter. Wanted to jump in and note that my organization, Seven10, develops enterprise archiving software that can write to three platforms at the same time - any type of disk, Centera, NAS, tape, VTL, or cloud. We natively integrate to the Centera API.

Also, regarding the back-up of Centera, CBRM has been EOL'd by EMC and they are going to stop offering support for it come April of this year. They'll encourage you to replicate your Centera systems. While this option certainly is viable, it requires a remote data center, more floor space, more HW to manage, and a $$$ price tag.

With StorFirst Altus, it's software-only, 30-minute install and configure, and very low-cost. Keeps all Centera data in C-clip format. It does only write to tape/VTL, and was designed that way so compliant, WORM Centera data wasn't exposed on disk.

Happy to help if anyone wants to dig deeper. Shoot me a note.

Tim Pitta,

Seven10 Storage Software

[JesusWept3]

I guess my question would be is Seven10 a symantec partner and are they looking to be certified against EV?

[Arc101]

Another option that backs up Centera in its native format VBR (View, Backup, Recover) from DataTrust Solutions. Unlike the Altus option which stores data in a proprietary format on tape only, VBR writes to disk (local or networkded) and does not store the data in a proprietary format. Plus there are more recovery options and it is much faster.