Backing Up Symantec Enterprise Vault with Veeam

[habibalby]

Hi Guys,

We are running Symantec EV in two VMs. One runs the EV server and one runs SQL to host the DBs. Does Veeam Backup will be able to backup Symantec Vault?

Thanks,

[Vitaliy S.]

Hello Hussain,

Yes, we'll be able to backup it up, though I am not aware about specific EV backup requirements, but you can always enable application-aware image processing (provided that Symantec EV has VSS providers and writers). If doesn't support VSS, then please use VMware Tools quiescence with pre-freeze and post-thaw scrips that would put this application into maintenance mode for the snapshot and then resume once the snapshot is created.

Thanks.

[habibalby]

Hello,
I have selected the Application-aware and VMTools Quiescence, but it doesn't after backup, it EV doesn't show that those emails are Archived emails. The things is different when it comes to the EV I believe.

EV will create Vault Store, creates folders and emails as files. When Backup runs on those files, the file Attributes should change from Selected "File is ready for Archiving" to Unselected. Then, EV will consider them as Archived emails and will be delete them from Exchange Server. Now, if Veeam Backup runs and Veeam VSS, or VMTools VSS doesn't have the ability to change those files Attributes, EV doesn't consider them as Backed up eMails. Icons in MS Outlook should change from Pending for Archive to Archived.

[Gostev]

Of course, Veeam Backup will not set or change any EV parameters. Our solution does image-level backup of whole VM running EV, and nothing more than that. Thanks.

[habibalby]

Thanks, then my option is only to have a companition of both backup product, Symantec Backup Exec to backup EV and Veeam to Backup the VM-image...

Hope Veeam will consider this to be part of their next major release.

Thanks,

[icebun]

We are looking to deploy Enterprise Vault in the hope of reducing the size of our EDB files and improve our chances of replication to another site on our Exchange 2003 server.

Does anyone know if this is the case or the fact that having journalling switched on counter acts the advantages.

Any advice would be helpful.

[icebun]

[merged]

We are using Exchange 2003 and are considering using an archiving solution such as Symmantec Enterprise Vault.

I understand to do this the Journalling feature will be have to be turned on (we need the e-discovery tool).

Has anyone found an improvement in replication time due to the reduced size of EDB files, or if this countered by the fact that journalling has been turned on causing more changes to the underlying VMDK files.

Any advice would be helpful.

[TheVirtualDude]

Has anyone succeeded in implementing this backup for enterprise vault using veeam? I am having the same issue.

[kennyt2000]

[merged]

We are using Exchange 2003 and are considering using an archiving solution such as Symmantec Enterprise Vault.

I understand to do this the Journalling feature will be have to be turned on (we need the e-discovery tool).

Has anyone found an improvement in replication time due to the reduced size of EDB files, or if this countered by the fact that journalling has been turned on causing more changes to the underlying VMDK files.

Any advice would be helpful.

Hi there, we implemented Enterprise Vault and it has 2 impacts on the environment for a VM, first off it will for a short period of time increase the size of the exchange DB files but once you have vaulted the emails off to disk you will find that the edb files become very empty (Dependant on the aggressiveness of your archiving policy) you will then have to manually defrag and compact the edb files. This will hit your veeam backups for a few days as there will be a lot of changes but the net result will be the full backups will reduce in size. With replication as the edb files are notably smaller (we had a reduction of 70% in size) when the files are changed and blocks updated we noticed the incremental changes were much smaller for this particular VM. Enabling the journaling didnt seem to have any impact for us.

The question however is will the EV server also be a VM as it is very intensive with file transactions and indexing services so you may want to consider this when looking at the backup method for the server.

when looking at backing up an EV server symantec do provide scripts for putting the EV server into backup mode, we use a scheduled task to do this before the veeam job starts and then the once the job has completed. You have to use the same scripts with other backup vendors such as CA also.

[icebun]

Thanks for the response KennyT.

[lobo519]

[merged]

We are in the process of researching a new Email archive product for out Exchange servers. Most of them use the journaling feature. I am concerned the effect the journaling mailbox will have on Replication and Backup jobs - Does anyone have any experience? I was thinking about creating a separate database and putting it on it own virtual disk and then excluding that virtual disk in the jobs.

Thoughts please!

[jeremyh8]

i am currently testing veeam and probably going to purchase. i am backing up symantec vault which is 1.2 tb in size and it took 4 hrs for first backup and very little dedupe. The backups after this took 8 minutes or less. This uses journaling but we have NOT backed up exchange with veeam yet. We should be doing that and replicating it in the next week or 2. feel free to send me a private message if you want more info.

[jeremyh8]

here is a good link for backing up vault. http://stackoftech.blogspot.com/2012/02 ... using.html

[habibalby]

here is a good link for backing up vault. http://stackoftech.blogspot.com/2012/02 ... using.html

Hello Jeremy,
Now the Pre-Job and Post-Job scripts goes into one script.ps1?

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EV-VEEAM Pre-job

    #Send command to toggle vaultstore backup mode
    C:\Windows\SysWow64\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\powershell -psconsolefile "c:\Program Files (x86)\Enterprise Vault\EVShell.psc1" -command "& {set-vaultstorebackupmode -name '[SITENAME]' -evservername [SERVERNAME] -evobjecttype site}"
    #Send command to toggle index locations backup mode
    C:\Windows\SysWow64\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\powershell -psconsolefile "c:\Program Files (x86)\Enterprise Vault\EVShell.psc1" -command "& {Set-IndexLocationBackupMode [EV DIRECTORY SERVER NAME] -EVSiteName [SITENAME]}"
    #Start Veeam BackupJob
    add-pssnapin veeampssnapin
    get-vbrjob | where {$_.name -eq "[JOB NAME]"} | start-vbrjob -FullBackup

EV-VEEAM Post-job

    #Send command to toggle vaultstore backup mode
    C:\Windows\SysWow64\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\powershell -psconsolefile "C:\Program Files (x86)\Enterprise Vault\EVShell.psc1" -command "& {clear-vaultstorebackupmode -name '[SITENAME]' -evservername [SERVERNAME] -evobjecttype site}"
    #Send command to toggle index locations backup mode
    C:\Windows\SysWow64\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\powershell -psconsolefile "C:\Program Files (x86)\Enterprise Vault\EVShell.psc1" -command "& {clear-IndexLocationBackupMode [EV DIRECTORY SERVER NAME] -EVSiteName [SITENAME]}"


[habibalby]

Hello Once Again,

I found the solution to backup Symantec Enterprise Vault 9.0.2.1061 with Veeam Backup and Replication 6.1.0.205.

Every environment is differ to another with regards to the Veeam Setup and Symantec Enterprise Vault Setup and Configuration.

When Symantec Enterprise Vault is configured with the Site and Storage Groups "Vaults", there is a PowerShell script automatically will generate the Transform Backup Scripts for your environment. The Transform-Backup.PS1 script is located under C:\Program Files (x86)\Enterprise Vault\Reports\Templates.

Once the script runs, it will generate an HTML file which will have all the PowerShell cmdlet to set he Enterprise Vault/Site/Vaults 'Storage Groups' into Backup Mode and scripts to Exit/Clear the IndexLocation and Vault 'Storage Groups'.

Out of this you will have to create two scripts or more, in my environment with my basic knowledge of scripting, I have created four scripts, two PowerShell and two Windows Batch files that calls the powerShell scripts.

Note: You have to install the Enterprise Vault Console on the Veeam Backup & Replication Server in order to invoke and run the scripts.
Note: Permission you will require to run the Veeam Job and the Enterprise Vault Console. If the Veeam Services runs under Service Account, this service account need to be granted permission as Local Administrator on the Enterprise Vault Server and as a Power Administrator "Or create a new Authorization Group under that have definition of;
EVT Manage Index Location Backup Mode
EVT Manage Vault Store Backup Mode
Then add the user to the newly group created. And configure the Task Schduler to run the task under this user which manages the Veeam Services "Veeam"
This KB from Symantec can help you out with the permission: http://www.symantec.com/business/support/index?page=content&id=TECH67812
Note: The PowerShell has to run on the 32bit; c:\Windows\SysWOW64\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\powershell.exe
Note: Do not configure the Schduler on Veeam Backup Job, let the Task Scheduler handle this instead.

Pre Script:
This script will include the Power cmdlet which will set the Enterprise Vault in backup Mode and will invoke the Veeam Backup Job to run.

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# Pre-job to set the Symantec Enterprise Server and Site into Backup Mode.

#Site: EV Site
#Set backup mode on site
c:\Windows\SysWOW64\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\powershell.exe  -psconsolefile "C:\Program Files (x86)\Enterprise Vault\EVShell.psc1" -command "& {Set-VaultStoreBackupMode -Name 'EV Site' -EVServerName evserver -EVObjectType Site}"

#VaultStoreGroup: Staff VSG
#Set backup mode on vault store group
c:\Windows\SysWOW64\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\powershell.exe -psconsolefile "C:\Program Files (x86)\Enterprise Vault\EVShell.psc1" -command "& {Set-VaultStoreBackupMode -Name 'Staff VSG' -EVServerName evserver -EVObjectType VaultStoreGroup}"

#VaultStore: Low VS
#Set backup mode on vault store
c:\Windows\SysWOW64\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\powershell.exe -psconsolefile "C:\Program Files (x86)\Enterprise Vault\EVShell.psc1" -command "& {Set-VaultStoreBackupMode -Name 'Low VS' -EVServerName evserver -EVObjectType VaultStore}"

#VaultStore: Over VS
#Set backup mode on vault store
powershell -psconsolefile "C:\Program Files (x86)\Enterprise Vault\EVShell.psc1" -command "& {Set-VaultStoreBackupMode -Name 'Over VS' -EVServerName evserver -EVObjectType VaultStore}"

#VaultStore: Normal VS
#Set backup mode on vault store
c:\Windows\SysWOW64\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\powershell.exe -psconsolefile "C:\Program Files (x86)\Enterprise Vault\EVShell.psc1" -command "& {Set-VaultStoreBackupMode -Name 'Normal VS' -EVServerName evserver -EVObjectType VaultStore}"

#VaultStore: High VS
#Set backup mode on vault store
c:\Windows\SysWOW64\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\powershell.exe -psconsolefile "C:\Program Files (x86)\Enterprise Vault\EVShell.psc1" -command "& {Set-VaultStoreBackupMode -Name 'High VS' -EVServerName evserver -EVObjectType VaultStore}"

#SetIndexLocations:  EV Site
#Set backup mode on indexes in site
c:\Windows\SysWOW64\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\powershell.exe -psconsolefile "C:\Program Files (x86)\Enterprise Vault\EVShell.psc1" -command "& {Set-IndexLocationBackupMode -EVServerName evserver -EVSiteName 'EV Site'}"

#Start Veeam Backup Job SymantecEV;
Add-PSSnapin VeeamPSSnapin

# Add the name of the backup jobs to be included in the $chainedjobs array.

$chainedjobs = ("SymantecEV")

foreach ($jobname in $chainedjobs){
$job = Get-VBRJob -name $jobname
$jobtry = 0
start-VBRJob -job $job

$job.GetLastResult()
if($job.GetLastResult() -eq "Failed"){
    do{
        Start-Sleep 480
        Start-VBRJob -job $job -RetryBackup
        $jobtry++
    }
    while(($jobtry -lt 3) -and ($job.GetLastResult() -eq "Failed"))
}
}


The start job script it will start and it will loop through for 3 times as RetryJob till it gets the result Success/Warning other than Failed.
Call this script in the Task Schduler either using PowerShell.PS1 or you can create a Windows Batch file to call the script

Code: Select all

PowerShell.exe G:\Script\PreJob.ps1


Then in the Veeam Backup Job configuration in the Storage Section -> Advanced Settings you have to put the Post-Job Script under the Post Job Activity Section.

Post-Job Script:
This script will include the Power cmdlet which will clear the Enterprise Vault from backup Mode once the Veeam Job Succeeded.

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#Post-job to Clear the Backup Mode on the Enterprise Site and EVServer.

#Clear backup mode from site
c:\Windows\SysWOW64\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\powershell.exe -psconsolefile "C:\Program Files (x86)\Enterprise Vault\EVShell.psc1" -command "& {Clear-VaultStoreBackupMode -Name 'EV Site' -EVServerName evserver -EVObjectType Site}"

#Clear backup mode from vault store group
c:\Windows\SysWOW64\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\powershell.exe -psconsolefile "C:\Program Files (x86)\Enterprise Vault\EVShell.psc1" -command "& {Clear-VaultStoreBackupMode -Name 'Staff VSG' -EVServerName evserver -EVObjectType VaultStoreGroup}"

#Clear backup mode from vault store
c:\Windows\SysWOW64\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\powershell.exe -psconsolefile "C:\Program Files (x86)\Enterprise Vault\EVShell.psc1" -command "& {Clear-VaultStoreBackupMode -Name 'Low VS' -EVServerName evserver -EVObjectType VaultStore}"

#Clear backup mode from vault store
c:\Windows\SysWOW64\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\powershell.exe -psconsolefile "C:\Program Files (x86)\Enterprise Vault\EVShell.psc1" -command "& {Clear-VaultStoreBackupMode -Name 'Over VS' -EVServerName evserver -EVObjectType VaultStore}"

#Clear backup mode from vault store
c:\Windows\SysWOW64\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\powershell.exe -psconsolefile "C:\Program Files (x86)\Enterprise Vault\EVShell.psc1" -command "& {Clear-VaultStoreBackupMode -Name 'Normal VS' -EVServerName evserver -EVObjectType VaultStore}"

#Clear backup mode from vault store
c:\Windows\SysWOW64\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\powershell.exe -psconsolefile "C:\Program Files (x86)\Enterprise Vault\EVShell.psc1" -command "& {Clear-VaultStoreBackupMode -Name 'High VS' -EVServerName evserver -EVObjectType VaultStore}"

#Clear backup mode from indexes in site
c:\Windows\SysWOW64\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\powershell.exe -psconsolefile "C:\Program Files (x86)\Enterprise Vault\EVShell.psc1" -command "& {Clear-IndexLocationBackupMode -EVServerName evserver -EVSiteName 'EV Site'}"


When the Pre-Job Script runs, you will notice on the Enterprise Vault Server that an Event IDs will be generated which indicates that the Enterprise Vault Server is Set for Backup Mode and all the Storage Groups;

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Successfully set Backup Mode on all the Vault Stores that are managed by the Storage Service on this computer. Event ID 7060
Computer Name: evserver.domain.com


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Successfully set Backup Mode on all the Vault Stores in the Vault Store Group that are managed by the Storage Service on this computer.  Event ID 7059

Vault Store Group Name: Staff VSG


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Disabling additions, deletions, and updates to the following index locations because they are in backup mode: Event ID 7319

E:\Index\index1
E:\Index\index2
E:\Index\index3
E:\Index\index4
E:\Index\index5
E:\Index\index6
E:\Index\index7
E:\Index\index8

Status: Success  (0)


Once the Backup Job in Veeam Server finished, the Post-Script will be triggered and will clear out the Backup Mode and Symantec Enterprise Vault will generate an Event IDs
as successful cleared Backup Mode for all the Storage Groups Vault.

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Successfully cleared Backup Mode from Vault Store. Event ID 7079


It's successfully implemented and runs fine without any issue. Hope someone else will benefit from this;

Thanks,