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Properly Implementing EV Database maintenance window

John_Santana
Level 6

Hi Folks,

Can anyone please shed some light in implmenting the EV SQL Server databse maintenance plan best practice as per http://www.symantec.com/business/support/index?page=content&id=TECH74666 ?

1. When is the best time window to do it ? should I put it outside the EV archive task period ?

2. How to stop the all EV services safely ? doe s this means that during the EV maintenance period, there will no EV file recall from both email and file servers ?

13 REPLIES 13

Pradeep-Papnai
Level 6
Employee Accredited Certified

During SQL maintenance period, EV should be in backup mode which means only read activity can be perform.CA/DA services should be stop during that period.

Recalling of placeholder will still work but no new file will turn to placeholder.

You can accomdate SQL maintenance period during off production hours and the time when your backup runs. If you EV server doing heavy archiving then it's recommendation to run it on daily basis otherwise you can sechedule it twice in week.

Additionally please make archiving schedule out of backup schedule ( & SQL maintenance time)

 

EV_Ajay
Level 6
Employee Accredited

Hi John,

Answers for your questions :

1. When is the best time window to do it ? should I put it outside the EV archive task period ?

Ans : The best time windows should be at night and not at the time archiving is running. You should put outside the EV archive task period.

2. How to stop the all EV services safely ? doe s this means that during the EV maintenance period, there will no EV file recall from both email and file servers ?

Ans : You can stop the EV Services from Services console. After stopping the EV services no any item will be archived / any archvied item will be recall and restore for both Email and file server.

 

 

John_Santana
Level 6

Ajay,

So does this means I can schedule a batch job script to stop the EV Admin service so that theSQL maintenance window can be performed outside the archiving task period ?

 

John_Santana
Level 6

Many thanks for the clarification so in this case I got three window as follows:

  1. Archiving task window: Monday 9:00 AM - Friday 7 PM
  2. Application / Open VaultStore backup window: Saturday 12:00 AM - Sunday 12:00 AM
  3. SQL Server maintenance window: Sunday 12:01 AM - Monday 8:00 AM

is that correct and can be implemented safely ?

The reason I propose task number #1 for such long hours is that because I need to archive File servers (FSA), Exchange Journal mailbox and also the Exchange Mailboxes as well.

Up until now, the ex-employee that has been put into the 0-Day archive is not archived properly unless they have been in that OU for more than one years, then it gets processed. ANy new company leaver won't get archived until 1 year or soangry

Pradeep-Papnai
Level 6
Employee Accredited Certified

Hi John,

Backup stretegy completely depends on environment to environment however I would suggest to take incremental backup in 2-3 time in week + full backup on weekend, the benifit of using this strategy is first recovery of recent data in case of disaster and secondly watchfile - JournalArchive tables would not have much load if it is clearing regularly thus provide optimum database performance.

Some of information mentioned also given in below guide.

http://www.symantec.com/docs/DOC5365

You can also reduce archiving schedule for 1-2 hours for backup as new backup schedule, SQL maintenance can also be schedule at the same time.

I don't think 0 day archiving for leavers is anywhere related with backup / maintainence (as it works if users are in 1 years policy). Some of useful link for 0 day leavers mailbox.

https://www-secure.symantec.com/connect/articles/archiving-terminated-users-and-automation
https://www-secure.symantec.com/connect/forums/archive-leavers


Regards
EV-C
 

EV_Ajay
Level 6
Employee Accredited

Yes John, You can schedule a batch job script to Stop the EV Admin Service.

A_J1
Level 6
Employee Accredited Certified

Hi John,

 

Just a correction when you create batch file, you need to stop all services according to there dependencies.

If you just stop Ev Admin service in the batchfile it won't work..

You need stop the service by the below order.

EV Taskcontroller Service

EV StorageService

EV Shopping Service

EV Indexing Service

EV Directory Service

EV Admin Service

And start the services in the Reverse order from the above.

NOTE: Once you stop the EV Services, remember that file or mail item recall will not happen.

 

EV_Ajay
Level 6
Employee Accredited

Hi John,

If you Stop only "Enterprise Vault Admin Service" it will stop all Enterprise Vault Services those dependent on the Admin service.

I tested in my lab. I created batch file (EV_Stop.bat) with line NET STOP "Enterprise Vault Admin Service" /y and ran it. It stop all the other EV services. Please refer screenshot from my lab.

 To Start the EV Services we require the following order :

EVService start EVSERVER "Enterprise Vault Admin Service"
EVService start EVSERVER "Enterprise Vault Directory Service"
EVService start EVSERVER "Enterprise Vault Storage Service"
EVService start EVSERVER "Enterprise Vault Indexing Service"
EVService start EVSERVER "Enterprise Vault Shopping Service"
EVService start EVSERVER "Enterprise Vault Task Controller Service"

 

EV_Stop.JPG

 

PeterWendell
Level 4

Here's thepowershell script I run every week through the task scheduler. It is run on the SQL server. It stops the services on the EV server, runs the SQL maintenace plan, and restarts the services. It has been running without any issues for a while now. Hope it helps.

 

#Stop all EV services
Stop-Service -InputObject $(Get-Service -ComputerName "entvault" -Name "AcceleratorManager") 
Stop-Service -InputObject $(Get-Service -ComputerName "entvault" -Name "EnterpriseVaultAdminService") -force
 
Start-Sleep 60
#run SQL Maintenance Plan
DTEXEC.EXE /SQL '"Maintenance Plans\EVDatabaseMaintenance"' /Server localhost /SET '"\Package\Subplan_1.Disable";false'
 
Start-Sleep 60
 
#Start EV Services 
$EVservicesStart =@()
$EVservicesStart += "EnterpriseVaultAdminService","Enterprise Vault Directory Service","EnterpriseVaultIndexingService","EnterpriseVaultShoppingService","EnterpriseVaultStorageService","EnterpriseVaultTaskControllerService","AcceleratorManager"
 
foreach ($EVService in $EVServicesStart) {
    Start-Service -InputObject $(Get-Service -ComputerName "entvault" -Name $EVService) 
    }

GabeV
Level 6
Employee Accredited

Peter,

Question about the script ... Start-Sleep 60 will sleep the PS script for 60 seconds, right? And then you start the services after that. that means that the maintenance will be running and the services might be running at the same time. I'd run the maintenance manually first to determine how long it takes to complete and then adjust the Start-Sleep command.

Also, if the SQL fragmentation is under control (i.e. it's not over 30%), you shouldn't stop the Enterprise Vault services every time you run the maintenance, using the PS cmdlets to set/clear backup mode in the vault stores and indexes should be enough. However, in order to check the fragmentation, read this TN:

http://www.symantec.com/docs/TECH168905

I hope this helps.

PeterWendell
Level 4

GabeV,

 

Actually the Start-Sleep won't run until after the maintenance task has finished. The script waits for the maintenance task to complete before continuing. The start-sleep commands are probably not strictly necessary, but I'm old and have old habits.

 

I'm going to be leaving this position soon, and I doubt that my successor wil dig any deeper than absolutely necessary into EV -- until there is a problem. If the fragmentation gets really bad, like during a DA case with analytics enabled, the script will be able to correct that. There's no harm in sutting down the services instead of simply putting the the stores and indexes into backup mode. Currently the system is only unavailable for about 15 minutes in the wee small hours of a weekend morning.

 

Please let me know if my assumptions are incorrect.

GabeV
Level 6
Employee Accredited

If the Enterprise Vault services are unavailable for just 15 minutes, it's OK then. I suggested the PS cmdlets to set/clear backup mode just in case the services were unavailable for a long period of time (due to databases size) and the users wouldn't be able to retrieve any messages from the server.

John_Santana
Level 6

Thanks for the reply and clarification people,

I've also read this article: http://www.symantec.com/business/support/index?page=content&id=TECH160065

  • Document 5 (database maintenance) should be performed daily on the Vault Store databases, and weekly for the EnterpriseVaultDirectory database. (Minimum) --> I know that this is can be done with the automated SQL maintenance task.

  • On a monthly basis, perform the database maintenance with all Enterprise Vault services stopped on all Enterprise Vault servers. Note: This will prevent users from accessing archived items, so this should be performed during a well-known maintenance window. --> what about this one ? which document and which steps do I need to do monthly during the EV service account stoped for maintenance ?