EV6 restore and Indexes question

[orik]

Hello all,

We've migrated our EV6 to EV9, after we were sure that we finished this long migration, I have deleted all EV6 server LUNs from the storage to reclaim space. After a few months we have discovered that few archives were not migrated  and we need to restore the whole server...

I have very little knowledge about EV, so I'll really appreciate anyone's help:

This is a physical server with the operating system and EV installation still in place, but it lacks all its other drives. The EV database is on a seperate SQL server and it still sitting there untouched since we shut down this old EV server in May this year. I have recreated the Stores and Indexes LUNs and attached them to the server and started the restore. I have noticed that the Index folders retoration is taking forever since there are a lot of small files and the backup software needs to locate them on the tapes.

So my question is: Is there an option not to restore the indexes and start the EV services without them, maybe let it rebuild them or even use it without indexes at all? All I need to do is export 3 or 4 archives to PST and forget about this server..

[MichelZ]

UUh... EV6 :) Usually, the index can be rebuilt, so it is not necessary to have it. I don't have an EV6 system lying around, so i'm not sure how the index rebuild was done in that version, but try the UI on the Archive, look for the Index tab...

[Arjun_Shelke]

Its IndexVolumeReplay.exe which can be found under EV installation directory.

[FreKac2]

As far as I can remember the Index worked in the same way all up to EV10 when the new indexing engine replaced the old one.

If you know which archvies that you have not migrated then you can restore just the index for those archives but that will take a bit of time to explain.

Basically all archives have their own index and they are located in the folders which names match the ArchiveID of the archive.

If you do an index rebuild that could take quite a bit of time depending on the size of the archive.

If you decide to just restore some archive indexes the downside is, if you start to do searches in other archives that will then trigger a rebuild of those indexes.

Which method are you using in migrating the archives?

[orik]

Thanks all,

I have done the entire migration using a software called TransVault, but for these 4 mailboxes I do not need migration, an export to pst will suffice. Do you guys think I can do the export without indexes at all? if not I will rebuild them with IndexVolumeReplay.

But my concern is whether the EV servies will even start without the Index folder in the location they know about when the server was operational.. 

[Rob_Wilcox1]

I personally don't have an EV 6 system, but if you have another EV system in a lab, try stopping the indexing service, then see if you can do an Export Archive from the VAC.

If yes .. you're good to go.

If no .. then you'll need the indexes, probably.

[Arjun_Shelke]

You might need to create dummy index location path as it was previously.

[FreKac2]

As Advisor says, you probably need to create the index root path (meaning, index locations) but you don't need to create/restore the index volumes (the archive specific subfolders). To get the Index Service started.

Though I don't think Transvault uses the indexes to create the list of items to migrate, you may want to double check with them but I don't think so.

[orik]

Thank you all for your feedback.

I will create empty index folders and hope for the best.

FreKac2, I won't be using transvault, but a normal pst export. I wanted to know if the pst export requires the indexes but it seems I just need to wait and see.

[JesusWept3]

yup, absolutely right, indexing definitely not needed, did a few DR's back in support when people have deleted the wrong archive and restored an entire system, so not having the index restored saved a lot of space, and not having the indexing service at all, saved a lot of processing, because if the indexes dont exist but the service is started and locations are open, then EV will take it upon itself to update the indexes etc which takes up Storage Crawler processing and indexing as well, for no benefit

[Prone2Typos · Accepted solution]

I have some long time expirence with EV6. IME you do not need teh indexing service running at all or any indexes to use the Export archive feature. I would not even bother starting the Indexing service.

I hope this went well. If you need further assistnace please let us know and if you do not please flag the posting which helped you to resolve this issue so that people trying to assist can assist those most in need.

Regards.

j