Exchange 2019 question

[Per_Holmgren]

Backing up Exchange 2019 DAG in a four node environment using Netbackup 8.2.
Two nodes entered in the "Preferred server list" and they are both used for backing up with the "passive copy and if not available the active copy" setting. The problem I have is that from one node 9 passive databases are backed up while on the other node 27 passive databases are backed up. Needless to say, this unbalanced load makes one node finish the job a lot sooner than the other one, especially snapshot jobs. Is there a way to rebalance the load?

/Per

[Lowell_Palecek]

This question applies to all supported Exchange versions.

Your master server has a folder for each client under NetBackup\db\client. This is part of the NetBackup database, so you're not supposed to edit these files. However...

Here's the folder for my little 2-node 4-database DAG:

Directory of C:\Program Files\Veritas\NetBackup\db\client\vm562dag

05/24/2019 11:21 AM <DIR> .
05/24/2019 11:21 AM <DIR> ..
09/03/2019 09:02 AM 71 exdb_info.Mailbox Database 1101669447
09/03/2019 08:55 AM 71 exdb_info.Mailbox Database 1576542060
09/03/2019 08:48 AM 71 exdb_info.SplitRock
09/03/2019 08:57 AM 71 exdb_info.Temperance

The files are plain-text. Here's the one-line content of the SplitRock file:

EX_SRVR: RSVLMVC01VM563 EX_TIME: 1567522005 EX_COUNT: 12 EX_STATUS: 0

NetBackup's bpresolver checks the backup history for each database by looking at this file. It says the database was last backed up on server RSVLMVC01VM563 with status 0. Bpresolver will choose this server so long as the status is 0, the server is in the preferred server list, and the passive copy on that server is healthy.

If I change the server name in this file to my other DAG node, bpresolver will choose that node, so long as the node satisfies the policy requirements.

There is a CLI to edit the backup history, documented in the NetBackup for Exchange admin guide. The documentation may only tell you how to clear the history. I'll look up the admin guide info and post it here.

[Lowell_Palecek · Accepted solution]

Here's the right way to edit the backup history:

https://www.veritas.com/content/support/en_US/doc/19475139-133416699-0/v33737175-133416699

In the last line of this article:

>bpclient -client DAG_Name -update -exdb DAG_DB3:EXSRV1:0:0:0

My example to change the history to my other server would be:

>bpclient -client vm562dag -update -exdb SplitRock:RSVLMVC01VM562:0:0:0

I did that. My SplitRock file content now is this:

EX_SRVR: RSVLMVC01VM562 EX_TIME: 0 EX_COUNT: 1 EX_STATUS: 0

Don't worry about the EX_TIME and EX_COUNT fields. They aren't used.

[Per_Holmgren]

Perfect, I will try this in our reference environment and then hopefully in production.

/Per