Question around EV Fail-Over Server

[Bruce_Cranksh1]

Hi Guys

I am busy with a new EV installation of single Mailbox Archiving server ,version 9.0 sp1

The customers wants a DR box on a VM that can be used temporarily for Shortcut Retrieval only

The Vault Store Partition is a Centera but the customer doesn't have enough storage in the DR environment to restore the Indexes in the event of USL being required

So what would the result be of the DR box taking over the Active EV server and not seeing all the Index data

I was thinking  I just create the same Index  Folder Structure on the DR box but not restore any Index Data and the following would happen

• Search wouldn't work
• AE wouldn't work
• Users would still be able to access shortcuts..this doesn't require Index data to be there ?
• We disable any archiving temporarily while the original server is fixed  so there is not Index inconsistencies

I know we would get errors logged but when we fail back then the Index Data would be accessible and then everything should work as before ?

Have  I missed something serious that may occur if the customer doesn't restore the Index data in the case of a required Fail-Over

[Mohawk_Marvin · Accepted solution]

Hi Bruce

If EV sees the indexes are not there it will freak out, and try to help you by triggering rebuilds, and if 10'000 indexes are missing, it will breach the error limit and shut down EV, or if the drive it attempts to rebuild indexes runs out of space it will fail again.

So, I would set ALL indexes offline as part of the failover something like this:

USE EnterpriseVaultDirectory

UPDATE iv

SET iv.offline = 1

FROM indexvolume iv

INNERJOIN indexrootpathentry ir on ir.indexrootpathentryid = iv.indexrootpathentryid

WHEREir.indexrootpath NOT IN ('your indexes paths here')

Just remember to not allow manual archiving as well or it might cause a brain fart there too.

This way when EV goes looking for an index it will see its offline and not go all freaky on you

[Bruce_Cranksh1]

Hi Marvin

Brilliant

What about if I stopped and disabled the Index Service once Fail-Over occurs to prevent any inconsistencies ?

Or would EV already start trying to help the moment the Fail-Over occurs and USL is successful ?

[Mohawk_Marvin]

I think EV would try to help, and if for some odd reason it starts (and the indexes are not offlined) you are boned.

[Bruce_Cranksh1]

Okay ...so then the best solution would be to take the Index offline through SQL before Fail-Over

Thx Marvin :)

[Bruce_Cranksh1]

Sorry  one more idea ...you see I'm worried that the customer wont actually remember to run the SQL command in the event of fail-over

What if I don't create any Index Folders at all on the DR box ?

Then wouldn't the  Index service fail when USL starts   and EV would  just not be able to help at all with Rebuilding Indexes  ?
 But the other Services would continue to run and allow users to access Shortcuts

[Mohawk_Marvin]

I knew I had seen a post saying killing indexing was bad some where on here:

https://www-secure.symantec.com/connect/forums/disabling-indexing

The post from Wayne Humphreys is fairly definative.

Tell them as part of the USL for them (as the want no indexing in DR) is to run a SQL script, otherwise the DR is going to FUBAR