BESR 8.0 and Exchange Transaction Logs

[N8Dawg]

I'm running Windows Server 2003 with Exchange 2003 and BESR 8. I have a full backup scheduled every Sunday and differentials in between. I received an alert on my server today that the Exchange transaction logs were at 19GB and I have 7% free on my C:\. I thought when you ran a full VSS backup that this deletes the transaction logs after they backed up? Have I missed a step somewhere in my setup? Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!! Thanks!

[David_F]

Running VSSADMIN LIST PROVIDER is the Symantec provider listed? Are all three of our services listed in Windows Services? http://support.veritas.com/docs/307378

[derekd]

I ran into this problem as well.  In my case it was because SBS 2003 disables the VSS writer for Exchange because it causes problems with the built in NTBackup.  To check for this run 'vssadmin list writers' and make sure it lists a writer for Exchange.  If it's not, you can find instructions on how to enable it here http://support.microsoft.com/kb/838183/en-us

I also had to enable the VSS Full Backup option in the advanced settings on the backup job.

[derekd]

Unless an integrity check is being done on the database (which I really doubt BESR is doing), Microsoft will not support this type of backup.  You can read about the requirements for doing VSS based exchange backups here http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=822896

Could Symantec confirm/deny BESR doing an integrity check while backing up Exchange? 

[Jon_R]

I've reviewed the document linked above and was unable to find where it lists an integrity check on the database as a requirement for truncating Exchange log files. I did, however, find the following.

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If transaction logs are not removed from an Exchange server, they will continue to accumulate until they fill all available disk space. Therefore, both the streaming and VSS backup APIs support "pruning" of transaction log files after completion of a Normal or Incremental backup. Log files older than those needed to recover the most recent backup are automatically deleted from the server after the backup applications signals Exchange that backup has completed successfully.

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 I can neither confirm nor deny that BESR performs an integrity check on the Exchange database. I can, however, verify that when a backup with the 'Perform Full VSS Backup' option selected, Exchange logs are truncated when it is behaving normally. If you are unable to get a backup to truncate the logs, verify that the Exchange VSS writer is functioning properly. 

-Open a command prompt
-Type "vssadmin list writers" and press enter
-Look for the writer named "Microsoft Exchange Writer"
-The status of this writer should be listed as "[1] Stable".

If the writer is not listed, sometimes a simple reboot will cause it to start working again.

After a reboot, if the writer is still not listed, or the status is not stable, the Exchange VSS writer is not functioning properly, contact Microsoft Technical Support for further assistance.

[derekd]

From http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=822896

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2.  The backup application must validate the integrity of the shadow copy backup set.

Microsoft recommends, but does not require, that this be done before the backup application notifies Exchange that backup has completed. The reason for this recommendation is that Exchange performs two important tasks after a successful backup:

• Exchange updates the headers of the backed up databases to reflect the last successful backup time

• Exchange removes (“prunes”) transaction logs from the server that are no longer required to roll forward from the last successful backup.

If a backup application postpones integrity verification until after these tasks have completed, then special care must be taken to preserve the last verified backup along with copies of all log files required by that backup. Although the backup may have already been reported as successful to Exchange, the backup should not be relied on until the backup application has actually completed integrity verification.

Please refer to the "How to Perform Integrity Verification for VSS backups" section of this article for complete details about how to perform the integrity checks and how to determine which database and transaction log files must be preserved until integrity verification has finished.

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[Jon_R]

Have you verified that the Exchange writer is functioning normally? If the exchange writer is not in status [1] Stable, it will not truncate the logs.

[derekd]

My logs are being truncated as they should.  My most recent response was just quoting the section of the KB article that states an integrity check is required (the section you said you couldn't find).

[Symanticus]

Does this error means that the BESRO 8.5 is not suppoesed to be use for Exchange Server 2007 or Windows DOmain Controller ?

please shed some light on this matter.

thanks.

[Jon_R]

This occurs only in specific instances where the VSS functions of Exchange or Windows are not functioning properly or are disabled.