Enterprise vault backup issues

[atlant315]

Hello,

we are using Enterprise Vault 10.0.4 for email archiving and Netbackup 7.5.0.6 running on Linux for the EV backups.

The EV environment consists of two clustered windows machines with a two node clustered SQL server underneath.

The NBU backup policies are configured according this article:

  http://www.symantec.com/business/support/index?page=content&id=TECH176623

Since introduction of email archiving the EV in 2010  the data grew that we have now about 5.5 TB in closed partitions.

We now have the problem that we exceed the given backup windows.

Especially the closed partition full backups became a problem as they take about 30 hours now.

Is there any recommendation / instruction how to improve this scenario also considering the impact for restores and disaster recovery?

Any help, recommendations, hints, links to technotes, shared experiences etc. are most welcome.

With kind regards,

atlant315

[AAlmroth · Accepted solution]

In theory you could skip re-occuring backups of the closed partitions, as they really don't change. Just use a very long retention on the one backup you make of a newly closed partition, so that you can always restore it.

I however usually choose to make a quartly or annual backup of the closed partitions, together with the long-term at rest backup of the other databases, indexes, directory database etc.

This way you minimize the the number of times you need an extended backup window.

/A

[atlant315]

Hi AAlmroth,

thanks for the feedback.

We tried this already or had a similar situation due to failing closed partition backups.

The effect was however, that we could not clear the critical alerts in EV and opened a support case.

Support strongly recommended to run FULL followed by INCR closed partition backups without any other EV backup running simultaneously. So we did and the EV alerts disappeared.

There is also another aspect: we roll-over the open partition to closed every week.

If we don't run the FULL closed partition backups these newly closed partition will not be treated by the incremental closed partitions as they refer to the last FULL partition backup only.

This results in a backup backlog and items that did not have been backed up since last open partition backup and roll-over (potential data loss).

As far as I know also closed partitions are not static and can change, if users for instance remove archived items.

I am looking for technology to improve backup speed or to freeze and exclude closed partitions from the weekly backups or to off-load partitions (if these off-loaded partitions can be accessed quickly).

Any idea is much appreciated.

Thanks,

atlant315

[Mark_Solutions · Accepted solution]

For your closed partition backups just leave those out of your EV policy and for those drives use Flashbackup-Windows to get them backed up quickly .. you can then use trigger files to notify of the backup and keep yoru alerts clear.

On the other hand, if you have de-dupe, try using accelerator on the closed ev partitions to speed things up.

The EV policy is notoriously slow on the partitions so look for another way where possible ,, it is best to get your timing about right though so that you can get a consistent restore should you have a DR.

In relation to how often you back up closed partitions it depends on your retention settings in EV and when you actually have the cleanup run scheduled .. because when things expire and get removed from EV those closed partitions can actually change .. collections can have a similar affect too depending on your collection settings.

Hope this gives a few ideas

[atlant315]

Hello Mark_Solutions,

thanks alot - indeed some ideas to think of and brainstorm.

However, I do not know how to

" just leave those out of your EV policy"

as we just have the recommended directives

  EV_READY_PARTITIONS=VaultStore1
  EV_CLOSED_PARTITIONS=VaultStore1

in the Backup Selection List. The EV agent resolves the items to be backed up at run time.

Can you please explain more specificly?

Here is the relevant portion of the policy:

root@nlsrvuc-bck01 # bppllist EV_4_CLOSED_PARTITIONS-VS1 -U
------------------------------------------------------------

Policy Name:       EV_4_CLOSED_PARTITIONS-VS1

  Policy Type:         Enterprise-Vault
  Active:              yes
  Effective date:      04/14/2014 10:30:47
  Mult. Data Streams:  yes
  Client Encrypt:      no
  Checkpoint:          no
  Policy Priority:     5000
  Max Jobs/Policy:     Unlimited
  Disaster Recovery:   0
  Collect BMR info:    no
  Residence:           nlsrvuc-bck01-EV
  Volume Pool:         EnterpriseVault
  Server Group:        *ANY*
  Keyword:             (none specified)
  Data Classification:       -
  Residence is Storage Lifecycle Policy:    no
  Application Discovery:      no
  Discovery Lifetime:      0 seconds
ASC Application and attributes: (none defined)

  Granular Restore Info:  no
  Ignore Client Direct:  no
Enable Metadata Indexing:  no
Index server name:  NULL
  Use Accelerator:  no
  HW/OS/Client:  Windows-x86   Windows2008   evserver1

  Include:  EV_READY_PARTITIONS=VaultStore1
            EV_CLOSED_PARTITIONS=VaultStore1

...

Dedupe is currenty not configured - to be considered.

According to the frequency of the closed partition backups I will align once again with the EV admins based on your hints.

Thanks a lot,

atlant315

[Mark_Solutions]

You just delete the EV_CLOSED_PARTITIONS=VaultStore1 directive from the policy.

Then create a new Flashbackup-Windows policy (assuming you have an Enterprise Client Licenses free or are on a capacity licensing model) with evserver1 as the client and the closed partitions as the selection list:

\\.\H:

\\.\J:

etc.