disable the cataloging of Exchange backups using Granular Recovery Technology

[grigori]

Hello,
I am backing up my exchange environment using GRT, one week ago the staging failed with the following error code 191 (no image were processed), I have been told once to disable message-level cataloging during duplication, that really solved my problem:

To disable the cataloging of Exchange backups using Granular Recovery Technology
1 On the master server, open the NetBackup Administration Console.
2 In the left pane, expand Host Properties.
3 Click Master Servers.
4 In the right pane, right-click the master server click Properties.
5 Click General Server.
6 Uncheck Enable message-level cataloging when duplicating Exchange images that use Granular Recovery Technology.
7 Click OK.

I want to know what are the effects of doing so? is there any bad effects on the backup of my exchange?

thank you.

[V4]

I guess no issue with that.  GRT works with Disk only, for reason those images requires to be presented to exchange using NFS share.. Tape cannot  be presented, hence during duplication you have to uncheck message level cataloging

[Marianne]

Hi grigori 

My post in your previous thread was a direct copy & paste from the NBU for Exchange Manual (I normally provide the link - not sure why I have not done so in that post...)

If we look at the paragraph directly above this section, it explains why disabling Cataloging is a good idea:

Unlike a duplication of a backup that uses Granular Recovery Technology (GRT)

from tape to disk, duplication of the same backup from disk to tape takes extra

time. NetBackup requires this extra time to catalog the granular Exchange

information. You can choose not to catalog the granular information so that the

duplication is performed more quickly. However, then users are not able to browse

for individual items on the image that was duplicated to tape if the disk copy

expires.

During the duplication process, NetBackup writes log entries periodically to show

the progress of the job.

[grigori]

HI Marianne,
what I have is the following:

1- disk staging area is 500GB
2- two policies are being configured; one is for staging "DSSU" that runs each day at 9:00pm to move the data from staging disk to tapes. the other policy is for GRT itself that took the backup for the "mailboxes" at 2:00 am.
3- GRT policy write approximately 342GB each day to the staging disk, and I have set  the high water mark value to be 70%, so each day at approximately 3:00 am the image on the disk is being "cleaned up" so that the new image can be written to the staging disk

so from what you mentioned above "However, then users are not able to browse for individual items on the image that was duplicated to tape if the disk copy expires"

does that mean that I cannot  restore individual mailboxes if I have too? in all cases as I know, the image is expird from staging disk but it is on tapes so if I have to restore individual mailboxes from it I can duplicate it to disk again and restore from it, no?
 

[Marianne]

Please increase disk staging area.

Symantec recommends (see Admin Guide I) to size Basic Disk STU to hold at least 2 full backups.

The idea is to always have 1 disk copy to restore from. With only 500GB STU and HWM of 70% you will always have a problem to backup and have space to duplicate tape copy back to disk for GRT restore.

In your environment where disk copy is expired soon after duplication, 'disabling Cataloging' is going to pose a problem as you will not be able to browse.

It is unfortunately a choice you need to make...
Best to increate DSU size...
 

[grigori]

I am considering to increase the DSU in a later stage, I ordered new disks for the staging area.

lets consider the following scenario:
if someone in my company deleted his mails  3 days ago and want to restore the mails back, what should I do? can't I restore the mails of this person? as I understood you said that I cannot browse inside the GRT image then I cannot restore individual Items! please correct me if I am wrong
as I know, if I want to restore individual Items from an old GRT image,  I have to search for the image in catalog (the image should be on tape), i have to duplicate this image to disk and restore individuals mail back.
the thing that I understood from your last post is that I will not be able to restore individual mails from the image since I "disabled cataloging"