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

SFW cluster considerations

In a SFW cluster environment, observe the following precautions:

  • The XML metadata file for each snapshot set along with files that store snapshot schedule information are created in a folder on the local drive by default. In a cluster environment, store these files on shared storage so that the files are available from all nodes in the cluster. The snapshot XML files should be stored separately from the volumes that are included in snapshots.

    • If you use the Quick Recovery Configuration Wizard to create the snapshot set, you can use the wizard to specify the file path to the appropriate volume.

    • If you use a VSS wizard to create the snapshot set, you can store the XML files in a location of your choice using one of the following methods:

      • Edit the directory path in the Directory field in the VSS wizard.

      • Use a text editor to create a text file named redirect.txt. This text file should contain a single text line specifying the Universal Naming Convention (UNC) path to the location of the metadata file, for example, \\ServerName\SharedFolderName. Save the redirect.txt file in the default VSS XML file directory C:\Program Files\Veritas\Veritas Volume Manager\VSSXML on each node of the cluster.

    • When using vxsnap utility commands that require the filename attribute, specify the full path to the location of the XML metadata file.

    • If an Exchange 2010 mailbox database is configured under a SFW cluster, you can store the snapshot set metadata file in a file share path by configuring a file share resource. This is to avoid configuring extra shared volumes to store the snapshot set file, which is available once the mailbox database fails over. In the case of a scheduled snapshot. even though schedules are visible on all nodes, the snapshot will happen only on a node where the mailbox database is present. There can be a large number of mailbox databases in Exchange 2010 and each database may have independent schedules. Hence the number of different paths required for storing the snapshot metadata files is higher, which is achieved by configuring a file share resource. You can also specify the file share path in the redirect.txt file, for example, \\MySystemName1\share1\QRDir.

      In the case of a SFW clustered setup with more than one node, configure the Veritas Scheduler Service with any user account (other than the Local System account) which is valid on all the nodes of the cluster. This user account should have read-write permissions to the file share path.

      If a schedule is created on a file share, it is visible on all nodes of the cluster and can be deleted from any node irrespective of where the Exchange mailbox database component is online.

  • If you plan to use the Quick Recovery or VSS Snapshot Scheduler wizard to specify scripts (commands) to be run before or after a snapshot, store the scripts on shared storage so that they are available to all nodes.

  • If you need to restore an Exchange 2010 database from a snapshot, running the VSS Restore Wizard brings the SFW resource for the database offline, dismounting the database before beginning the restoration. You can if necessary bring the resource offline in SFW manually to dismount the database. Once the wizard successfully restores the database, the wizard brings the resource back online, mounting the database; if not you can bring the resource online manually. If you are using the CLI, specifying the -a option in the vxsnap restore command offlines and onlines the resource automatically.

    See Tasks for recovery using Quick Recovery snapshots.

  • If you set up a snapshot schedule with the Quick Recovery wizard and later add a node to the cluster, you can run the wizard again to synchronize schedules on the existing nodes with the new node.

  • If you set up a snapshot schedule with the VSS Snapshot Scheduler wizard, before adding or removing a node from a SFW cluster setup, delete the schedules and then recreate the schedules on the required node.

  • Exchange must be installed on all cluster nodes.