Safety copies not turning into full placeholders after upgrade to EV 8.0

[BitBucket]

Ever since I upgraded from 7.5 to 8.0, my safety copies never get converted into full placeholders after a backup.  I have the backup option set to "Remove safety copies after backup", just like I had it in 7.5 where it used to work.

I'm doing backups by stopping the EV services, then performing the backup with Backup Exec (and clear the archive bit).  When the backup completes, I restart the services.  The Storage Service is one of the services that gets shut down and restarted.  As far as I know, when the storage service is started, it's supposed to go through the Vault files and check the archive bit.

When I manually restart the services, it works for some reason.  Not sure why.

Also, I cannot use the Powershell scripts to place EV into backup mode, so using them is not an option for me.  I've tried everything and always get an error from the powershell "Cannot load Windows PowerShell snap-in Symantec.EnterpriseVault.PowerShell.Snapin because of the following error: No Windows PowerShell Snap-ins are available for version 1."

According to what I've read, this has to do with the EV powershell scripts being 32-bit and I'm running Windows Server x64.  The scripts only work if you manually start the EV Powershell by double-clicking it's icon and typing the script in there.  Obviously that's no good if you want it to run automatically after a backup.

[Paul_Grimshaw · Accepted solution]

Regarding your backup script issue there is currently a technoe being written for this but here is the info for you:-

You need to run the 32-bit version of the Powershell Program because our Powershell Snap-in (Symantec.EnterpriseVault.PowerShell.Snapin.dll) is a 32-bit Snap-In.  For example from the Backup Procedures guide where it states this example:

powershell -psconsolefile "C:\Program Files\Enterprise Vault\EVShell.psc1" -command "& {set-vaultstorebackupmode –name 'Express Vault Store Group' -evservername server1 –evobjecttype vaultstoregroup}" 

We would then modify it by running the following:

C:\Windows\SysWOW64\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\powershell -PSConsolefile "C:\Program Files (x86)\Enterprise Vault\EVShell.psc1" -command "& {Set-VaultStoreBackupMode –name 'Express Vault Store Group' -evservername server1 –evobjecttype vaultstoregroup}"

Replacing ‘Express Vault Store Group’ with the appropriate Vault Store Group Name and server1 with the name of the Enterprise Vault Server.  In my lab I created a System Variable:

PS32      C:\Windows\SysWOW64\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0

Which allows me to then run a shorter command “%PS32%\powershell –PSConsolefile ……”.

[BitBucket]

Paul, thanks for the info about the backup script and how to run the 32-bit Powershell.

Your solution for the Powershell actually works and I'm changing my backup script to utilize it.

Still need to figure out why full placeholders aren't being created after backups though.

[A_Z_rcher]

to create placeholders: run the task and select "shortcut processing".

[BitBucket]

When you say "run the task and select shortcut processing".  Where exactly is that?  What task are you referring to?  There are no options for "shortcut processing" in any of the tasks.

How do I get this to run on a schedule so it creates shortcuts and placeholders after a backup like version 7.5 used to?

[Michael_Bilsbor]

Hi,

that's on the properties of an Exchange mailbox archiving task, FYI.

[Michael_Bilsbor]

sorry when I say properties, I mean right click and choose Run Now and it will appear on dialog box for exchange archiving task.

[BitBucket]

Yes, it appears on the dialog box when I choose "Run Now".  It's good to know how to do it manually if necessary.

However, it doesn't answer the question as to why it doesn't do it automatically?

Why must I restart all EV services to have to turn the items into full placeholders?

[fcbonn]

Did you ever find out what this issue was?

I have a similar problem as my placeholders are not being created unless I restart the Vault Storage Service.

This was on clean install of EV8.

[MichelZ]

fcbonn

This is the new "default" behaviour in EV8
EV8 creates placeholders if:

- You have set your safety copies to "after backup"
- You have set the backup to "Archive Bit" mechanism

EV then looks for the cleared archive bit once you do the following:

- Clear Backup mode
OR 
- Restart Storage Service

So, I believe you did not bring your store into backup mode?

Or did you do the same as the original poster, shutting down EV, doing backup, and starting EV up again?

Cheers

[Michael_Bilsbor]

yes, Michael is correct.  Previously it used to be on storage service start up and then every 12 hours after that which didn't quite make sense.  So now it's storage service startup and coming in and out of backup mode.

[MichelZ]

Mike

Just for me to clarify:
Wasn't the old behaviour that safety copies got removed almost immediately, without restarting storage service or waiting 12 hours?
Or did I imagine that in the old version...? ;)

Between, would be cool to have a scanning interval for the archive-bit, too.

Cheers

[Michael_Bilsbor]

yes, in addition to the mechanisms I mentioned we used to also listen to activity on the local disks and if the archive bit changed we received that notification  right away and processed the request and yes that's removed because it's now a whole lot more complicated with the new storage model.