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

Recovery using an Exchange 2010 passive copy snapshot in a Database Availability Group (DAG)

For Exchange 2010 mailbox databases, if you used SFW to create a snapshot of a passive copy of the database, the passive copy snapshot can be used to restore an Exchange mailbox database.

Refer to the Microsoft Exchange documentation for additional information on Microsoft Exchange Management Shell and cmdlets.

An example of a PIT recovery procedure from a snapshot of a passive replica copy of an Exchange mailbox database MB1 on an active mailbox database TestServer1 and replica copy on TestServer2 would be as follows:

  • Take a snapshot of the replica copy of the mailbox database on TestServer2.

  • Use the Move-ActiveMailboxDatabase cmdlet to perform the active mailbox database MB1 switchover from TestServer1 to TestServer1.

    Move-ActiveMailboxDatabase MB1 -ActivateOnServer TestServer2

    Now TestServer1 has the active mailbox database and TestServer1 has the replica copy.

  • Use the Suspend-MailboxDatabaseCopy cmdlet to block replication and replay activities (log copying and replay).

    Suspend-MailboxDatabaseCopy -Identity MB1\TestServer1 
    [-Confirm:$False]

    Use -Confirm to prevent user intervention.

  • Use the Set-MailboxDatabaseCopy cmdlet to configure the properties of a database copy and set the checkbox for "This database can be overwritten by Restore".

    set-mailboxdatabase -identity MB1\TestServer2 
    -allowfilerestore:$true
  • Use the dismount-Database cmdlet to dismount the database

    dismount-Database -Identity MB1\TestServer2 [-Confirm:$False]

    Use -Confirm to prevent user intervention.

    For a VCS cluster setup, offline the VCS resource for the Exchange 2010 database manually if automatic offlining fails.

    Specifying the -a option with the vxsnap restore utility dismounts the database automatically. For a cluster setup, it offlines the resource automatically.

  • Now perform the VSS restore operation using either the VEA wizard or the vxsnap CLI utility with the active writer (Microsoft Exchange Writer) to restore the passive copy snapshot.

    vxsnap -x snapdata.xml restore RestoreType=PIT writer="Microsoft
    Exchange Writer"

    For this example, assume that the snapshot of the replica was performed with

    vxsnap -x snapdata.xml create writer="Microsoft Exchange writer 
    Replica" component=MB1 backupType=COPY -E -O
  • Use the mount-Database cmdlet to mount the database.

    mount-Database -Identity MB1\TestServer2

    For a VCS cluster setup, online the VCS resource for the Exchange 2010 database manually if automatic onlining of the resource fails.

    Specifying the -a option with the vxsnap restore utility mounts the database automatically. For a cluster setup, it onlines the resource automatically.

  • Use the Update-MailboxDatabaseCopy cmdlet.

    Update-MailboxDatabaseCopy -Identity MB1\TestServer2 
    -SourceServer TestServer1 -DeleteExistingFiles [-Confirm:$False]

    Use -Confirm to prevent user intervention.