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Managing Partition Rollover in Enterprise Vault

Article: 100020524
Last Published: 2014-09-22
Ratings: 4 0
Product(s): Enterprise Vault

Problem

Managing Partition Rollover in Enterprise Vault

Solution

Each vault store must contain at least one partition, which is the physical location where Enterprise Vault stores archived data. As the data in a vault store grows, you can create more partitions to provide additional capacity.

You can manually change the open partition in a vault store. For example, when the disk that hosts the open partition reaches capacity, close the partition and open a partition on a different disk.

Enterprise Vault also provides an automatic partition rollover feature. This feature lets you configure partitions so that archiving rolls over from one partition to another when certain criteria are met. For example, you can configure a partition to roll over to the next available partition when the host disk has only 5% free space. You can also configure a partition to roll over on a specific date.

In support of both these features, each partition can exist in one of three states:
 
  • Closed. A partition that is closed, is not available for archiving until you manually open it, or make it ready for partition rollover.
     
  • Open. Each vault store can have only one open partition. Enterprise Vault archives data into the open partition. Without partition rollover, Enterprise Vault automatically closes a partition when the disk that hosts it becomes full, but does not open another. However, if the open partition is rollover enabled, and a ready partition exists, Enterprise Vault automatically opens the ready partition when the open partition meets its rollover criteria.
     
  • Ready. Each vault store can have any number of ready partitions that are available to Enterprise Vault when partition rollover occurs.
     
Configuring partition rollover

In each vault store where you use partition rollover, the open partition must be rollover enabled, and there must be at least one ready partition. For partition rollover to work for an extended period without intervention, each ready partition in a vault store must also be partition rollover enabled. If not, partition rollover stops at the first partition that is not rollover enabled. In summary, for Enterprise Vault to roll over through a series of partitions, each must be both ready for partition rollover, and partition rollover enabled.

Note: Centera partitions cannot be rollover enabled, which means Enterprise Vault cannot roll over from a Centera partition. However, Centera partitions can be rollover ready.

You can enable and configure partition rollover for each partition when you create it using the New Partition wizard. For more information on creating a new vault store partition, see the Setting up storage chapter of the Installing and Configuring manual. You can also configure partition rollover for existing vault store partitions, using the Vault Store Partition Properties page.

Each partition can be configured to roll over using any of the following options:
 
  • Enabled based on volume. Partition rollover is enabled for this partition, and occurs according to the amount of free space on the volume that hosts the partition.
     
  • Enabled based on time. Partition rollover is enabled for this partition, and occurs according to the time criteria you specify.
     
  • Enabled based on time or volume. Partition rollover is enabled and occurs according to whichever of the volume criteria or time criteria are met first. For example, you can configure the partition to roll over when its host volume falls below 5% free space, or on a specific date, whichever comes first.
  
Depending on the choice you make, you can then set appropriate rollover criteria. If you choose either Enabled based on volume or Enabled based on time or volume, you can make appropriate settings to trigger partition rollover according to the remaining free space on partition's host volume. Set one of the following criteria to trigger rollover:
 
  • A percentage of free space.
     
  • A specific amount of free space in MB, GB, or TB.
       

If you chose either Enabled based on time or Enabled based on time or volume, you can make appropriate settings to trigger partition rollover. Set one of the following criteria to trigger rollover:

  • An elapsed period of time, in days, weeks, months, or years.
     
  • A specific date and time for rollover to occur.
     

This flexibility enables a number of approaches to the management of partition rollover. You can take a purely volume-based approach , in which you configure a series of partitions that roll over when their host disks approach capacity. Normally, this approach would require you to create the partitions on separate physical disks. However, it is still possible to host partitions on a single disk when you mount multiple physical volumes in one file system. In this case, Enterprise Vault rolls over based on the free space on the physical volume, rather than on the host file system.

The time-based approach to partition rollover lets you roll over according to any time criteria that suit your environment. For example, you can configure partitions to roll over at the end of each week, or on a specific date each month.

Note: When you use date-based partition rollover, you must ensure that each partition has sufficient storage capacity for period it is open.

Enterprise Vault also lets you use a mixture of volume and time criteria.

To enable and configure partition rollover on an existing partition

  1. In the left pane of the administration console, expand the VaultStoreGroups container and select the vault store in which you want to configure partition rollover.
     
  2. In the right pane, right-click a partition and click Properties.
     
  3. Click the Rollover tab.
     
  4. From the Partition Rollover list, select one of the following options:
     
    1. Enabled based on volume
       
    2. Enabled based on time
       
    3. Enabled based on time or volume
       
     
  5. Use the options that are available to you to set appropriate rollover criteria for this partition.
     

Changing rollover order
 
As you create and configure rollover ready partitions, the order in which they are used depends on the rollover criteria you set. By default, partitions configured with volume-based criteria are used in the same order they are made ready for rollover. Partitions configured with time-based criteria are used in the order the rollover dates determine.

You can change partition rollover order using the Partition Rollover tab on the Vault Store Properties page.

Note: You can place the partitions that are configured for volume-based rollover in any order. However, you cannot break the rollover order for any partitions that are configured for time-based rollover. For example, you cannot move a partition that is configured to roll over on 10 October before one that is configured to roll over on 3 October.

To change rollover order

  1. In the administration console, right-click a vault store and click Properties.
     
  2. Click the Partition Rollover tab.
     
  3. From the list of ready partitions, select the one whose position you want to change.
     
  4. Click Move Up or Move down until the partition is in the correct position.
     
  5. Repeat the previous two steps until the ready partitions are in the correct order.
      

Forcing partition rollover
 
You can force partition rollover using the PowerShell cmdlet Start-PartitionRollover. This cmdlet forcibly closes the open partition in the vault store you specify and, if one is available, opens the first ready partition.

Note: Start-PartitionRollover forces partition rollover irrespective of the rollover criteria on the current open partition.

To force partition rollover

  1. Open the Enterprise Vault management shell.
     
  2. Run Start-PartitionRollover.

    The syntax for this cmdlet is:

    Start-PartitionRollover -EVServerName server -VaultStore vault_store

    where:
    server is the Enterprise Vault server that runs the storage service for the vault store in which you want to force partition rollover.
    vault_store is the name or ID of the vault store in which you want to force partition rollover.

    For example:
    Start-PartitionRollover EVServer-Win2k3 VS1

    This connects to the Enterprise Vault server EVServer-Win2k3 and verifies that vault store VS1 uses the storage service on this server. If it does, Start-PartitionRollover forces partition rollover in vault store VS1.
     

For additional information on Managing Partition Rollover refer to the documents in the Related Articles Section.


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