EV Backup

[jdewing]

I understand that we need to make sure that we don’t schedule the Exchange backup job during the mailbox archiving which will take place at night.  What about Journal archiving?  There is no way to set the schedule for Journal task.  Journal archiving happens all the time.  It is safe to run the Exchange backup while Journal archiving?

We will have 2 EV servers (one for Journal archiving and other for Mailbox archiving).  Should I backup both EV servers at the same time or separate them?

Mailbox Archiving:	Mon-Fri	9 PM – 4 AM
Journal Archiving:		24x7
Exchange Backup (incremental):	Mon-Thu	11:30AM – 1:30PM
Exchange Backup (Full):	Sat-Sun	it take full 2 day to complete full backup
EV Backup (incremental):	Mon-Thu	11:15 PM
EV Backup (full):	Fri	11:15 PM
SQL Database Backup (Full)	Sun-Sat	11:30 PM
SQL Tranasaction Log Backup (FULL)	Sun-Sat	every 2 hours between 8 AM - 9PM

If you would be kind to give me example on how you schedule your Archiving and Backup.  We are using HP DataProtector for Exchange, EV Store/Indexes and Native SQL maintenance for the databases.

Mine biggest concern is when the EV backup completed (will clear the backup mode to normal) before the SQL backup completed.  Is there a way to verify the status of the SQL database before the Backup script clear the backup mode?

[JesusWept3 · Accepted solution]

I think if you use a Backup program such as NBU or BE that has the EV plugin , it can ensure everythings backed up before taking EV out of backup mode, including the SQL Databases.

Putting EV in to backup mode whilst journaling is running is completely fine, it will just stop items from being removed from the journal mailbox until EV is put back in to online mode instead.

Also with the SQL stuff, what you could do is have a SQL Maintainance job that runs and backs up to disk right at the beginning of the schedule, and then have your backup tapes get a backup of the physical files

So that way by the time backup has completed, you should have had a SQL backup put to disk before it starts up again... one company i worked for did that, kept three days worth of database backups on disk and backed up those files and deleted anything older than three days

It worked out really well because if we ever needed the restored database, we didn't have to pull from tape, we had it right there on the disk, and if the disk went down, we had it on tape

[JesusWept3]

oh and you should back up both servers at the same time if at all possible, because it will be quicker to do it concurrently than consecutively

[jdewing]

Thanks JesusWept3..

It'll be tough to convince my boss to buy NBU or BE since we only have one big Tape Library for everything and they are using HP Data Protector to control that Tape Library.  The challenging is to find a best window time to backup all EV and SQL at the same time where there are like 20+ different backup jobs.

It is ok to run Exchange Backup while Journal archiving is running?  I read somewhere that you shouldn’t run the Exchange backup during the archiving but you can overlap EV backup with Exchange backup.

As for SQL, database administrator is backing up the SQL database locally to disk and keep it for 3 days before it backup to the tape.

How big can the SQL database get if we are archiving let say around 2 TB of data?

[JesusWept3]

Exchange backup, if you're worried about that you could run a command to evservices.exe to stop the journal task whilst you perform the backup For the databases, depends on how many users Take a look at this guide http://www.symantec.com/business/support/index?page=content&id=DOC5365

[jdewing]

I was able to create a script to place EV in backup mode and backup SQL database at the same time within HP Data Proector Backup job using Pre-exec and Post-exec command.  This worked for me

Pre-Exec script:

ECHO OFF
powershell invoke-command {powershell.exe -noprofile -executionpolicy bypass d:\scripts\for_backup\ev_Pre-backup-rstn-s-evmv01.ps1} -computername server01
powershell EV_SQL_backup.ps1
exit 

 EV_SQL_backup.ps1:

Add-PSSnapin SqlServerCmdletSnapin100
Add-PSSnapin SqlServerProviderSnapin100

$Server_Name="sqlv01"
$Destination_Folder="E:\SQLBackup_Pshell"

$Database_Name=$(Invoke-Sqlcmd -server $Server_Name "SELECT name FROM sys.databases wHERE NAME NOT IN ('TEMPDB')")

foreach ($db in $Database_Name){    
 $folder_Date=$(get-date -uformat "%Y-%m-%d")    
 $folder_Hour=$(get-date -uformat "%H")    
 $dbName=$db.Name    
 new-item "$Destination_Folder\$folder_Date" -type directory -force    
 $sqlcmd="BACKUP DATABASE [$dbName] TO DISK = N'$Destination_Folder\$folder_Date\$dbName.bak' WITH NOFORMAT, NOINIT,  NAME = N'$($dbName) FullBackup', SKIP, REWIND, NOUNLOAD,  STATS = 10"    
 Write-Host $sqlcmd    
 invoke-sqlcmd -query "$sqlcmd" -Server $Server_Name -QueryTimeout 1200 }

Post-Exec Script:

ECHO OFF

powershell invoke-command {powershell.exe -noprofile -executionpolicy bypass d:\scripts\for_backup\ev_Post-backup-rstn-s-evmv01.ps1} -computername server01
exit