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Exchange 2010 backup to cloud

TrekOn
Level 2

Hello to all.


I have a couple of quick questions please, which I'll open in separate threads so they can be closed off easily.

I’d like to understand the impact of storing exchange data in the cloud.

Our plan is to provide a GRT enabled Exchange backup to a local MSDP pool and then replicate to the cloud. In this case, most likely Azure configured as an advanced disk.

The Veritas article “Everything you need to know to get Exchange Granular backups to work.”
http://www.veritas.com/docs/000068163


Suggests that the advanced disk should “appear as locally attached”. So my question is does this apply to data stored on the cloud?


i.e. if the local MSDP failed can I do a GRT restore directly from the advanced disk copy in the cloud?

The proposed environment is NBU 7.7.3 (hopefully NBU 8.0), to local MSDP replicating to Azure cloud.

Thanks for your time

7 REPLIES 7

Marianne
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MSDP is option 'c' in TN http://www.veritas.com/docs/000068163 
(NOT advanced disk)

You would deploy a master server with MSDP in the cloud and configure AIR between the local and cloud MSDP pools.
Once images have been replicated to cloud MSDP, the images will be available for restore.
You need to ensure that you have Exchange environment up and running in cloud environment to restore to. (Different topic...)

See this White Paper - option 2 - 'within the cloud'. 
NetBackup With and Within the Cloud

Hi Marianne

That's a useful additional article, thanks.

I agree, the sensible option would be to have onsite MSDP going to an offsite (or cloud based MSDP), but that's not what the business wants.... or rather thinks they want so far :)

The articles still seem to suggest that NBU can use a software based cloud connector to make the cloud storage into a appear as if it were an Advanced Disk.

The cloud in this case is being used to replace the need to ship tapes to an offsite location, there is no secondary site nor the intention to run servers/workloads in the cloud.... as you say that's a different conversation....

So I'm still interested to know if the native cloud connector is sufficient to run the GRT restores directly.

 

Thanks again.

 

 

 

manatee
Level 6

your  key phrase is “appear as locally attached”. which means if you can make that cloud connection appear as mapped to a local drive letter then i think it would work.

Marianne
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So I'm still interested to know if the native cloud connector is sufficient to run the GRT restores directly.

The Hardware Compatibility List is your friend.

Cloud storage is not classified as Advanced Disk. 
In the HCL you will find a list of supported cloud connectors and features that are supported.

The option is listed in the HCL..... so I guess Veritas will support the option.

Thanks everyone :)

 

 

Veritas NetBackup ™ Enterprise Server and Server 8.0 - 8.x.x Hardware Compatibility List

NetBackup supports Cloud-based storage providers using a variety of technology methods, described below.
1. S3 Storage - This method uses the NetBackup S3 Cloud Connector, a plug-in included with NetBackup.
2. OST - This method uses a third-party OpenStorage Technology plug-in.
3. AdvancedDisk Targets - This method uses third-party hardware or software to make the cloud appear as an AdvancedDisk storage unit to NetBackup.
4. VTL - This method uses third-party software to present the Cloud as if it were a VTL (Virtual Tape Library) to NetBackup.

Microsoft Azure NetBackup Azure Cloud connector
Microsoft Azure StorSimple NetBackup AdvancedDisk target

sdo
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Partner    VIP    Certified

Do you realize what you're asking for? Exchange GRT works by presenting the backup image to the Exchange database engine (JET) as though it were writeable random access storage. This requires an NFS-protocol connection to the media server and a process on the media server called nbfsd that traps the writes.

If we were to try to support this (see Marianne's post regarding cloud not being advanced disk), the I/O latency alone would kill us.

I see your post regarding 3rd-party software being able to present cloud storage as advanced disk. I don't have any experience with this, so I can't say it wouldn't work, but realize that NetBackup would have to put nbfsd and NFS in front of that 3rd-party software. I don't know that we've tried that inside Veritas.

rino19ny said, "if you can make that cloud connection appear as mapped to a local drive letter then i think it would work." No, it wouldn't. GRT doesn't work from mapped drives; it works from NFS protocol requests from the client to nbfsd on the media server.