Storage Foundation 8.0.2 Quick Recovery Solutions Guide for Enterprise Vault - Windows

Last Published:
Product(s): InfoScale & Storage Foundation (8.0.2)
Platform: Windows
  1. Introducing Quick Recovery for Enterprise Vault
    1.  
      About Quick Recovery snapshot solutions
    2.  
      About snapshot-assisted backups
    3.  
      Advantages of Quick Recovery snapshots
    4.  
      Quick Recovery process
    5.  
      Enterprise Vault components supported by SFW
    6. Methods of implementing Quick Recovery snapshots
      1.  
        About the Enterprise Vault Snapshot Scheduler Wizard
      2.  
        About the Enterprise Vault Snapshot and Snapback wizards and the vxsnap utility
    7. About the components used in Quick Recovery
      1.  
        FlashSnap and FastResync
      2. Integration with Microsoft Volume Shadow Copy Service
        1.  
          VSS framework
        2.  
          VSS process
  2. Preparing to implement Quick Recovery for Enterprise Vault
    1.  
      Tasks for preparing to implement Quick Recovery for Enterprise Vault
    2. Reviewing the prerequisites
      1.  
        Storage requirements and best practices
      2.  
        Configuration requirements and best practices
    3. Configuring Enterprise Vault storage with Storage Foundation for Windows
      1.  
        Creating dynamic disk groups
      2.  
        Creating dynamic volumes
      3.  
        Pointing the databases and log paths to the SFW volumes
    4. Preparing for Enterprise Vault snapshots
      1.  
        Invoking the Enterprise Vault Management Shell
      2.  
        Configuring the Veritas Scheduler Service
      3.  
        Starting services required for Enterprise Vault Quick Recovery
  3. Scheduling or creating a snapshot set for Enterprise Vault
    1.  
      About scheduling or creating a snapshot set
    2.  
      Tasks to schedule a new snapshot set
    3.  
      Tasks to create a one-time snapshot set
    4.  
      Configuration requirements for snapshots
    5.  
      Preparing an EV snapshot mirror
    6.  
      Scheduling a new snapshot set
    7.  
      Creating a one-time EV snapshot set
    8.  
      Refreshing an EV snapshot
  4. 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
  5. Recovering Enterprise Vault components
    1.  
      About recovering an Enterprise Vault Server component
    2.  
      Tasks for recovering an Enterprise Vault Server component
    3.  
      Prerequisites for recovering an Enterprise Vault Server component
    4.  
      Types of recovery
    5.  
      Recovering using snapshots without log replay
    6.  
      Restoring snapshots and manually applying logs
    7.  
      Post-recovery steps
  6. Vxsnap utility command line reference for Enterprise Vault
    1.  
      About the Vxsnap utility
    2. Vxsnap keywords
      1.  
        vxsnap prepare
      2.  
        vxsnap create
      3.  
        vxsnap reattach
      4.  
        vxsnap restore

Scheduling a new snapshot set

You can use the Enterprise Vault Snapshot Scheduler Wizard to schedule the initial snapshot set and to set up the schedule for keeping it refreshed.

The scheduling of snapshots can be done at the EV farm, sites, Vault Store Groups, Vault Stores, Partitions, or any component level. The wizard can be launched from any component of EV configuration.

When the scheduled snapshots occur, the snapshot mirrors are detached from the original volumes, creating separate on-host snapshot volumes as well as an XML file to store the snapshot volume metadata. The scheduled process integrates with VSS to quiesce the database and then simultaneously snapshot the volumes for EV components. This snapshot is done while the EV components are online and without disrupting the operations. It also allows the Enterprise Vault PowerShell cmdlet to put Enterprise Vault into backup mode. Backup mode ensures that no writes happen on Enterprise Vault components.

Before you run the Enterprise Vault Snapshot Scheduler Wizard to schedule a snapshot set for a database, you must prepare a snapshot mirror for each of the volumes in the database.

See Preparing an EV snapshot mirror.

In addition, ensure that you have met the configuration requirements before running the wizard.

See Configuration requirements for snapshots.

To schedule a snapshot for a selected component

  1. On the VEA, navigate to the Storage Agent node on the left-hand pane and click to expand Applications. Right-click Enterprise Vault and select Schedule Enterprise Vault Snapshot from the context menu.
  2. Review the information on the Welcome page. Click Next.
  3. On the Select Components page, select the EV components you want to snapshot. Select the snapshot type and give it a name.

    Complete the information on the Select Components page as follows:

    Select component for snapshot operation

    Select the EV components you want to snapshot. You can select EV Farm, sites, Vault Store Groups, Vault Stores, partitions or any component.

    Additionally, you can also use the keyboard shortcuts to select EV components. Ctrl+ A selects the entire EV farm along with sites and components. Use Ctrl+Click to select EV components of your choice. Use Ctrl+Shift+Arrow Up, Down keys to select components located at the upper and lower hierarchies in the EV farm.

    Directory

    The XML file is stored by default in the directory shown on the screen.

    In a clustered server environment, the XML file must be saved on shared storage to be available from all nodes in the cluster.

    Note:

    The XML file for the snapshot must be stored separately from the volumes that are included in the snapshots, otherwise a restore will fail.

    The XML file location can be changed in the following two ways:

    • First, edit the directory path in the Directory field for this wizard screen.

    • Second, change the XML file location. 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 XML file, for example, \\ServerName\SharedFolderName. Save the redirect.txt file in the default directory C:\Program Files\Veritas\Veritas Volume Manager\VSSXML.

      If the product is installed on the D drive, then the path will be the same as above, but on the D drive

    Note:

    You must not use the volume name or volume path in the redirect.txt file that is involved in the snapshot. If the volume name or path for the snapshot is used, then a restore will fail.

    Snapshot set

    Enter a name for the snapshot set, for example, billing or accept the default name. The wizard generates a default snapshot set name that includes the term "SnapshotSet", component name, date, and time. Example: SnapshotSet.EV.20091001.124837.

    Note:

    If multiple components are selected, "EV" is used in the default snapshot set name instead of the component name.

    Select snapshot type

    You can specify that snapshots be created as either a Full backup or Copy backup type.

    • Full Backup

      A full snapshot affects the sequence of backups and is used when replay logs are needed while restoring.

      If you want to replay logs in SQL Server as part of restoring a database, a Full backup needs to have been created earlier. When replaying logs, you can replay from the time of the last Full backup.

    • Copy

      A Copy backup does not affect this sequence of log replay and therefore is often used as an "out of band" copy for purposes such as testing or data mining.

    Click Next.

  4. In the Schedule Information panel, specify Schedule information for snapshots. This panel has the General Options, Days of Week, Days of Month, and Specific Dates tabs.