EV 6 (safety copies)

[LBrignol]

Is there a reason on why to implement safe copies and what is the process on how and if emails are not getting journaled.    We were asked to implement safe copies and wanted to know affects on why and why not to do this as well as if there are any performance issues with doing this.  Thoughts?

[MichelZ]

Laura

As the name implies, it's a safety copy :)
Let me explain.

If you archive an Item without safety copy, it will:

- Archive the Item
- Remove it from Exchange

If your Archive Server dies after this, you may have this Item missing in Exchange/Outlook (i.e. an Orphaned Shortcut), because when you restore your archive server, the item will be missing.

If you have implemented safety copies, it will do the following:

- Archive the Item

If your Archive Server now gets blasted, you still have the copy in Exchange, and it will archive it again once the Archive Server got restored.

That's the clue :)

There should be a minimal performance penalty on this, as it has to delete the Shortcut content after Backup, but as said, it's minimal for some minutes.

Cheers
Michel

[LBrignol]

Hi Michel,

Now I have a question.  :)

We do not do backups on our servers until the weekend, how will that affect what is in Exchange? I am not sure I have enough space to hold a weeks worth of EV Mailbox data before the weekends backup takes place. 

What would I need to do, for this to ensure I have everything even in the event of a disaster? 

Thanks!

Laura  :)

[MichelZ]

Laura

So you are not even doing snapshots once a day?
I'm sorry to say this, but this is pretty bad design.

You should backup your *open* Vault Stores at least daily incemental and Full once a week.
You can backup your *closed* Vault Stores / Partitions only once a Week or even fewer, as they do not get changed.

Not doing Backup is a real no-no from my point of view.

And if you really want everything in a desaster event, you will have to use the safety copy, as anything else will result in possible data loss.

Hope this helps :)

Cheers
Michel

[jimbo2]

It is a good idea to keep the safety copies as MicheLZ implied. You can lose data if you do not implement safety copies.

There are tables on the SQL server such as the JournalArchive and the WatchFile table which track the items that will be deleted once the items have been backed-up on a File System or Replicated on Centera.

If you did not use safety copies then the SQL server may not be as busy.

As an Enterprise Vault Admin I would use safety copies.

Jim S.

[LBrignol]

Hello Michel,

We are doing backups, just on weekends and they are incrementals.  We do not do snapshots however.  We did talk about doing them, but the infrastructure currenly is not available to do so.  So I have what I have.

So, your thoughts are we should be doing safe copies on the open partition as they will assist us in the event of a disaster.  What will I see in Exchange (Journal Mailbox) daily, will it look like it is backlogged because of the safe copy?   We have three journal mailboxes for about ~300-400k messages a day.  so our ingestion is constant and steady.    Just wondering so I know what I can expect. 

Thanks!  :)

[MichelZ]

Laura

Yes, it will look like backlog.

Cheers
Michel

[jimbo2 · Accepted solution]

Laura,

Remember that you can setup your store to keep safety copies and exempt the journal archive the items will delete immediately from the journal mailbox.

Pro's - The journal is a copy so if you loss it the customer still has a safety copy in his/her inbox.

Con's - If you need you journal archive for legal compliance then you have a possibility of losing some data.

Jim S.