Storage Foundation 8.0 Quick Recovery Solutions Guide for Microsoft Exchange - Windows

Last Published:
Product(s): InfoScale & Storage Foundation (8.0)
Platform: Windows
  1. Introducing Quick Recovery for Microsoft Exchange
    1.  
      About Quick Recovery snapshot solutions
    2.  
      Advantages of Quick Recovery snapshots
    3.  
      Quick Recovery process
    4. About the components used in Quick Recovery
      1.  
        FlashSnap and FastResync
      2. Integration with Microsoft Volume Shadow Copy Service
        1.  
          The VSS framework
    5.  
      About the Solutions Configuration Center
    6.  
      Starting the Configuration Center
    7.  
      Solutions wizard logs
  2. Planning a Quick Recovery snapshot solution for Exchange
    1. System requirements
      1.  
        Storage requirements
    2. Methods of implementing Quick Recovery snapshots
      1.  
        About the Quick Recovery Configuration Wizard
      2.  
        About the VSS Exchange Snapshot Scheduler Wizard
      3.  
        About the VSS Snapshot and Snapback wizards and the vxsnap utility
    3.  
      Planning your Quick Recovery solution
    4.  
      Backup types for snapshot sets
    5.  
      About logs
    6. Recommendations and best practices
      1.  
        Recommendations for Exchange storage configuration
      2.  
        Recommendations for maintenance and backups
      3.  
        SFW cluster considerations
      4. Exchange 2010 Database Availability Group (DAG) considerations
        1.  
          Using snapshot schedules in a DAG
        2.  
          Guidelines for creating passive copy snapshots in a DAG
        3.  
          Recovery in a DAG
      5.  
        Microsoft cluster considerations
      6.  
        Volume Replicator considerations
  3. Configuring Exchange for Quick Recovery snapshots
    1.  
      Tasks for configuring Exchange storage
    2.  
      Reviewing the prerequisites
    3.  
      Reviewing the configuration for Exchange 2010
    4.  
      Creating dynamic disk groups
    5.  
      Creating dynamic volumes
    6.  
      Pointing the database and log paths to the SFW volumes
  4. Implementing Exchange snapshot sets with the configuration wizard
    1. About the Quick Recovery Configuration Wizard
      1.  
        About snapshot sets
      2. About snapshot templates
        1.  
          Templates and multiple components
        2.  
          Templates and schedule start dates
    2.  
      Tasks for implementing snapshot sets with the configuration wizard
    3.  
      Reviewing the prerequisites
    4. Scheduling Exchange snapshot sets
      1.  
        System Selection panel details
      2.  
        Instance Selection panel details
      3.  
        Mount Details panel details
      4.  
        Synchronizing Schedules panel details
      5.  
        Template Selection panel details
      6.  
        Number of Snapshot Sets panel details
      7.  
        Snapshot Volume Assignment panel details
      8.  
        Snapshot Schedule panel details
      9.  
        Specifying snapshot schedule details
      10.  
        Summary panel details
      11.  
        Template Implementation panel
    5.  
      Administering or troubleshooting scheduled snapshots
  5. Scheduling or creating an individual snapshot set for Exchange
    1.  
      About scheduling or creating an individual snapshot set
    2.  
      Tasks to schedule a new snapshot
    3.  
      Tasks to create a one-time snapshot set
    4.  
      Reviewing the prerequisites
    5.  
      Preparing the snapshot mirrors
    6.  
      Scheduling a snapshot set
    7.  
      Creating a one-time snapshot set
    8. Refreshing a snapshot set
      1.  
        Reattaching the split-mirror snapshots
  6. Maintaining or troubleshooting snapshots
    1.  
      Viewing the status of scheduled snapshots
    2.  
      Troubleshooting scheduled snapshots
    3.  
      Deleting or modifying schedules
    4.  
      Synchronizing schedules after adding a cluster node
  7. Recovering Exchange mailbox databases
    1.  
      About recovery using Quick Recovery snapshots
    2.  
      Tasks for recovery using Quick Recovery snapshots
    3.  
      Prerequisites for recovery
    4.  
      Recovery using an Exchange 2010 passive copy snapshot in a Database Availability Group (DAG)
    5.  
      Recovery for Exchange 2010 using the VSS Restore Wizard
    6.  
      Recovery for Exchange 2010 using the vxsnap utility
    7.  
      Post-recovery steps
  8. Recovering after hardware failure
    1. About recovery after hardware failure
      1.  
        Recovery scenarios
      2.  
        Recovery tasks
    2.  
      Tasks for recovering after hardware failure
    3.  
      Reviewing the prerequisites
    4.  
      Reviewing the sample configuration for Exchange 2010
    5. Scenario I: Database and transaction logs volumes are missing
      1.  
        Identifying the missing volumes (Scenario I)
      2.  
        Deleting missing volumes from Storage Foundation
      3.  
        Replacing hardware and adding disks to the dynamic disk group
      4.  
        Changing the drive letter or mount points of the snapshot volumes
      5.  
        Restoring the Exchange 2010 mailbox database to the point in time
      6.  
        Refreshing the snapshot set (Scenario I)
    6. Scenario II: Database volumes missing, transaction logs are available
      1.  
        Identifying the missing volumes (Scenario II)
      2.  
        Deleting missing volumes from Storage Foundation
      3.  
        Replacing hardware and adding disks to the dynamic disk group
      4.  
        Changing the drive letter or mount points of the snapshot volumes
      5.  
        Restoring the Exchange 2010 mailbox database to the point in time
      6.  
        Recovering the Exchange 2010 mailbox database to the point of failure
      7.  
        Refreshing the snapshot set (Scenario II)
    7.  
      Refreshing the snapshot set
    8. Refreshing the snapshot set on the current disks
      1.  
        Reattaching healthy snapshot volumes
      2.  
        Clearing the snapshot association for volumes whose drive letters or mount points were reassigned
      3.  
        Creating snapshot mirrors of volumes whose drive letters or mount points were reassigned
      4.  
        Creating the new snapshot set
    9. Moving the production volumes to different disks and refreshing the snapshot set
      1.  
        Reattaching healthy snapshot volumes
      2.  
        Clearing the snapshot association for volumes whose drive letters or mount points were reassigned
      3.  
        Adding mirrors to volumes whose drive letters or mount points were reassigned
      4.  
        Creating snapshot mirrors of volumes whose drive letters or mount points were reassigned
      5.  
        Creating the new snapshot set
  9. Vxsnap utility command line reference for Exchange
    1.  
      About the vxsnap utility
    2. Vxsnap keywords
      1.  
        vxsnap prepare
      2.  
        vxsnap create
      3.  
        vxsnap reattach
      4. vxsnap restore
        1.  
          Recovery after hardware failure

Creating dynamic disk groups

Create one dynamic disk group for each Exchange database.

If your Exchange production server is in a clustered environment, choose the cluster disk group option.

Note:

Disk groups must be of a Storage Foundation 4.0 or later version. You must upgrade any disk groups created using an earlier version of Volume Manager for Windows before implementing SFW snapshot solutions. Quick Recovery snapshots are supported only on volumes belonging to an SFW dynamic disk group. They are not supported on volumes belonging to a Microsoft Disk Management Disk Group. For more information, see Storage Foundation Administrator's Guide.

Note:

If User Access Control (UAC) is enabled on Windows Server operating systems, then you cannot log on to VEA GUI with an account that is not a member of the Administrators group, such as a guest user. This happens because such user does not have the "Write" permission for the "Veritas" folder in the installation directory (typically, C:\Program Files\Veritas). As a workaround, an OS administrator user can set "Write" permission for the guest user using the Security tab of the "Veritas" folder's properties.

To create a dynamic disk group from the VEA console

  1. Launch Veritas Enterprise Administrator from the Apps menu on the Start screen.

    Select a profile if prompted.

  2. Click Connect to a Host or Domain and in the Connect dialog box, specify the host name and click Connect.

    For the local system you can specify localhost.

  3. If prompted to do so, specify the user name, password, and domain for the system.
  4. In the tree expand the system name and expand the storage agent.
  5. Right-click Disk Groups, and click New Dynamic Disk Group.
  6. On the Welcome screen of the New Dynamic Disk Group Wizard, click Next.
  7. Enter a name for the disk group (for example, Exch-DG1).

    Note:

    A dynamic disk group name is limited to 18 ASCII characters. It cannot contain spaces, slash mark (/), backslash (\), exclamation point (!), angle brackets (< >), or equal sign (=). Also, a period cannot be the first character in the name.

  8. For an off-host or cluster environment, choose from the following:

    • For a cluster environment, check the Create cluster group check box.

    • For an off-host environment, check the Add private group protection check box.

  9. Select the appropriate disks in the Available disks list and click the Add button to move them to the Selected disks list.
  10. Click Next.
  11. Click Next to upgrade the selected disks.
  12. Click Finish to create the new disk group.

To create a dynamic disk group from the command line

  • Type the following command:

    For an on-host environment

    vxdg -gExch-DG1 init Harddisk1 Harddisk2 Harddisk3

    For an off-host environment

    vxdg -gExch-DG1 -R init Harddisk1 Harddisk2 Harddisk3

    For a cluster environment

    vxdg -gExch-DG1 -s init Harddisk1 Harddisk2 Harddisk3

    where Exch-DG1 is the name of the dynamic disk group you want to create and Harddisk1, Harddisk2, and Harddisk3 are the disks included in the dynamic disk group.