v5 Question on Exchange Server backup

[KiwiJJ]

Hi,
With v5 doing Exchange mail restores, does this mean that when it does the backup of the Exchange server it truncates the log files.
Currently we have to run another Exchange Backup Product just to truncate the log files.

thanks,

John

[tsightler]

That means your VSS isn't working correctly. Properly working Veeam with VSS enabled truncates Exchange logs even with Veeam 4.1 so if you're not seeing this behavior then something is wrong.

[Bunce]

Agreed - works for us also.

One occasion where the logs won't be truncated is for database members of a DAG (in XGE 2010) where the other members aren't 'In Sync'

Basically, XGE knows the logs need to be replayed an another server and so won't truncate them. You'll see messages to that affect in the Application log.

A

[KiwiJJ]

Hi,
I am running Exchange 2007 on a Windows 2008 Server and the Veeam 4.1 backup job has VSS enabled and has no errors.
The logs stay in the log directory until I run Microsoft's Windows Server Backup which then clears them.
Any idea where I can look to see why the logs are not getting cleared ?

cheers,

John

[Vitaliy S.]

Hello John,

With v5 you'll have an option either to truncate or leave logs untouched. With v4, the logs should always be truncated when Veeam VSS is enabled. If your Exchange logs are not truncated for some reason, I would recommend to send all the job logs to our technical team to get quicker assistance.

Thanks!

[Gostev]

I am running Exchange 2007 on a Windows 2008 Server and the Veeam 4.1 backup job has VSS enabled and has no errors.
The logs stay in the log directory until I run Microsoft's Windows Server Backup which then clears them.
Any idea where I can look to see why the logs are not getting cleared ?

I recommend running the following commands on Exchange VM, and investigating the output for any errors:

Code: Select all

vssadmin list writers
vssadmin list providers

[Bunce]

Just following up on the difference between truncated logs and those that aren't.. Below shows what is logged for two databases during a VSS backup (executed by Veeam):

• XGE-External which is a standalone DB and the logs are truncated
• XGE-National which is part of a dag that has a member which hasn't been seeded yet, and hence XGE will not truncate the logs

[KiwiJJ]

Hi everyone,
Thanks for your help, it was a Writer issue which has been resolved and the log files are being truncated.

thanks again,

John

[wentum]

FYI there is another reason why exchange vss might not be working and no error is logged.
There is a little Registry Parameter at HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\MSExchangeIS\ParametersSystem called "Disable Exchange Writer" and if this is set to 1 no exchange vss writer will even be loaded. You can check with "vssadmin list writers". Set it to 0 and reboot and there it is again (restarting information store might also be successfull). Thx to Clint Boessen who blogged this. Saved my day today

[Gostev]

Thanks for posting this here as well what version of Exchange does this key work with?

[wentum]

It works with exchange 2003.
Unfortunately, i have no other versions to test it.