Pre freeze scripts with Domino Server

[yves]

Hello,

I want to backup a Lotus Domino Server with Windows 2008 R2 and that the Domino service stopped before the backup and restart after.
So I used Pre Freeze scripts and it's not working, the snaphot is created but my service don't stop.
I'm using these pre freeze scripts with others servers for domino or databases and it's working but not for the servers with OS Windows 2008 R2.
Someone have an idea ?

[Gostev]

Hello, I would check VMware log file for this VM to see if pre-freeze scripts are even called... may be you are not placing the scripts to correct place in guest OS (which varies depending on Windows version). Thanks!

[NightBird]

I have had the same behavior.
Windows 2008R2 use the old way for placement of pre freeze script, why ? I don't know


Try with : C:\Windows\pre-freeze-script.bat

instead of script in : C:\Program Files\VMware\VMware Tools\backupScripts.d\

Boris

[yves]

Thank you NightBird, it's working with the old placement.

Yves

[Vitaliy S.]

Yves, thanks for updating the topic with the resolution!

[robertson]

[merged ]

All

I was wondering if anyone could provide assistance with using Veeam B&R with Lotus Domino servers. From reading other posts in the forum I understand I need to use pre and post thaw scripts to stop and start the domino services. Can anyone provide me with example scripts that other domino houses have used in there environments?

any assistance would be greatly appreciated.

[dcbower]

Just create a script in the following location : c:\Program Files\VMware\VMware Tools\backupScripts.d\pre-freeze-script.bat inside the bat file we have the following code. I have to disable "application-aware image processing" and "Enable VMware tools quiescence" I did have issue with Window 2008 R2 servers but since we upgraded to Ver 5 we haven't had any issues.

@echo off
if %1 == freeze goto freeze
if %1 == thaw goto thaw
if %1 == freezeFail goto freezeFail

:freeze
Net Stop "Lotus Domino Server (LotusDominodata)"
exit
:thaw
net start "Lotus Domino Server (LotusDominodata)"
exit
:freezeFail
net start "Lotus Domino Server (LotusDominodata)"
exit

[robertson]

Thankyou for that response David.

I presume the script will stop the domino server,a veem snapshot will be generated and then lotus domino server will start back up?

I have a smaller domino server I can use to test in my enviroment. The Stage im at is currently investigating creating the initial replication job via USB as the domino server is 400GB+ and will take too long to replicate over to my DR SAN.

thanks

[Guillaume47]

When "application-aware image processing" is disable and "Enable VMware tools quiescence" enable,

is the Windows services backup consistent ? (AD, dhcp, sql server, regristry, ...)

[Vitaliy S.]

If you're not using custom pre-freeze and post-thaw scripts to backup SQL Server or DC, then your backups are not in consistent state. Generally we recommend to use "application-aware image processing" whenever possible and keep "VMware tools quiescence" enabled for applications that do not have VSS writers and providers.

[Guillaume47]

Ok. I have to use "VMware tools quiescence" to stop/start Domino server, oracle databases and other process.
They are not displayed by command "vssadmin list writers". So I believe I cannot use "application-aware image processing" to get a consistent state for those process.

Is there a command to "manually" execute the Windows VSS job during the pre-freeze and post-thaw scripts ?
Or some classical scripts to backup SQL, DC, windows registry and so as VSS does ?

[Vitaliy S.]

They are not displayed by command "vssadmin list writers". So I believe I cannot use "application-aware image processing" to get a consistent state for those process.

Yes, that's right. "Application-aware image processing" should be enabled for Windows based VMs with VSS-aware applications deployed, see our sticky F.A.Q. for more info.

Is there a command to "manually" execute the Windows VSS job during the pre-freeze and post-thaw scripts ?
Or some classical scripts to backup SQL, DC, windows registry and so as VSS does ?

There should be some scripts available for SQL Server, not sure about the other ones. You may want to search for them on Microsoft TechNet.

[Guillaume47]

Thank you for explanations.

To get reliable backup, I have to use the "Application-aware image processing" in Veeam, AND to stop/start the lotus and oracle services during the backup job by using the windows task scheduler.
It means the services stop period is over-sized : in a job with several VM, when the lotus VM backup starts and stops ? No one can tell it, so I have to get a large services stop period to ensure it include the VM backup period.
It means too I have to update the windows task scheduler when I modify the Veeam job schedule.
This is complicated. My backups could not be reliables if all the Veeam jobs schedule and the windows task scheduler are not properly synchronized. This is a real risk, and no alarm could prevent it.

To prevent this it would be so nice to be able to launch scripts during a backup process, in the same way VMware tools quiescence do, in addition to the "Application-aware image processing".
So I could automatically stop services just before the job backup snapshot, and start them again when the snapshot creation is finished. Services stop period is then minimal. No more boring and risky windows task schedule to use.
And we continue to get the better of the "Application-aware image processing".

[Vitaliy S.]

But why can't you use just VMware Tools quiescence for VMs running Oracle or Domino server? Provided that you do not have any other mission critical applications (Exchange, SQL etc.) deployed on the same VM, it should be enough to have VM backups in consistent state. Anyway, thanks for the feedback, much appreciated.

[Guillaume47]

Right, in a perfect world all critical applications should be in different VM.
But even in this case, using only VMware Tools quiescing, and then not using VSS, would not guarantee me that Windows backup is created during a safe/secure state.
And this not my real case.

Isn't there an undocumented functionality to activate both VMware Tools quiescence AND Application-aware image processing during the same backup job ? :]

[Gostev]

No, this is not possible.

[tc.gan]

Hi Gostev,

Can Veeam provide an Official Document on how to perform backup for Domino server (windows 2003/2008)?Instead of search it at forums, we may miss out some topics.It's a huge of enterprise company are using Domino server instead of Exchange. So far what i found are:

1)pre-freeze script for Domino server and use VMware tools quiescence instead of “Application-ware image processing”
http://forums.veeam.com/viewtopic.php?f ... lit=domino

2) Some tips to avoid backing up changes that You don't need on Domino. (forum topics is Lotus notes leads to big incremental files) http://forums.veeam.com/viewtopic.php?f ... 972#p38972

That mean i need to perform both step meation above? Is Symantec Backup Exec able to backup without stop & start Domino services? My customer is using BE2010 now. Thank you very much

Best Regards,
Andy

[kjc3303]

Hi Andy

re BE2010, BE offers an agent (Paid For)which enables the Domino server to be backed up without the db being stopped and started.(see below)

Veeam Guys - is this something that may possibly be incorporated into Veeam? This is the only issue/drawback that I have found with veeam my main concern is that I can not replicate regularly enough as can not afford the down time.


3. How are applications that are not VSS-compliant protected?
Answer-
Applications installed in Windows or Linux Guest virtual machines that are not VSScompliant
such as Lotus Domino, Oracle, SAP, DB2, etc cannot be properly quieisced
using the VMware or Backup Exec VSS Requestor/Provider. It is recommended that
Backup Exec Database or Application Agents be used inside of the Guest virtual
machine to protect these applications.
Alternatively, Backup Exec pre-post job scripts can be created and used in conjunction
with VMware’s VCB scripting to shut down these applications prior to backup.

Kev

[Vitaliy S.]

Hello Gan Tien Chor,

If you need to create a pre-freeze/post-thaw script for the application that does not have VSS writers and providers, then you need to refer to the documentation of the vendor of your application, since only vendor knows exactly how to prepare its application for the backup process.

Could you please tell me if you had a chance to take a look at Domino Community Forums for some script examples?

Thank you!

[tc.gan]

Hi Kev & Vitaliy S.

Thanks for your information. By the way, customer not allow to down the domino services, they also wondering the services fail to start(in case). They will remain using BE2010 as the BE agent can backup it without down the services. I would like to suggest Veeam to develop agent like BE done for domino server, it's huge of enterprise prefer domino instead of Exchange.Thanks.


Best regard,
Andy

[dellock6]

Really? I've seen in many years many Notes/Domino customers migrating to MS Exchange...

[tsightler]

This problem doesn't impact only Veeam, but any image based backup solution. You should really be asking IBM/Lotus to address this issue and provide a hot-backup option for Domino (if using DB2 as the backing store this is more possible already).

Domino databases with transaction logging enabled can be backed up reasonably with snapshot based technologies and simply rely on log replay when performing restores. I do not recommend using snapshots without transaction logging because you would need to run the manual database consistency check tool on each database which would be too time consuming. Some information about using snapshot based backups to backup Domino is available here.

[PKaufmann]

Hi Guys,

we are switching from IBM TSM to Veeam and I already searched the forum and used google,
but no success..

So Is there anybody that is doing DB2 Backups with Veeam and like to share their pre-freeze/post scripts ?

[Ollo]

Hello,
we have a lot of VMs (linux/Windows) where a IBM DB2 is installed, often as a cluster.
We didn't have a solution yet, how to backup the OS of these machines, not the DB2 data.
In past, however we made an VMTool quiesing of this VMs, often the DB2 crashes.

Every solutions we think out, as some disadvantages:
- Make a Storage Snapshot -> have have no storage system which support it yet
- Backing up with Veeam Agent -> License, Should some directories excluded?
- Snapshoting without VMTool quiesing -> Could a DB2 crash also happens?

I can't find some best practices of this.

Regards
Ollo

[foggy]

Hi Ollo, you need to use pre-freeze/post-thaw scripts to properly quiesce the application. You can find some examples here. Thanks!

[Ollo]

Hello, that was not my question. I don't need a solution to backup the database data. I need a solution for backing up the operating system.
And Foggy, try a freeze script on large DB2 Cluster is a very, very bad decision.

And merging the post with Domino Server Backups are also not correct.
Thanks

[foggy]

As far as I got from your initial post, your concern with backing up the operating system previously was DB2 crash. To prevent this, you need to quiesce it properly prior the entire OS backup and start when the backup is over. This task is performed with the help of pre-freeze/post-thaw scripts. And I've merged your post in this thread since this approach is common for applications that do not support VSS.

[Ollo]

Ok. You have no solution. You can't freeze a DB2 Cluster with a lot of databases. That's no option.

[Stibo]

Hello community,

my company is looking to replace our current backup solution (TSM) with Veeam B&R. So far we're already using B&R for some VM backups and replications (sic!). What we're evaluating now is the possibility to fully replace TSM with B&R, which is looking pretty nice. The only caveat seems to be our DB2 databases.

They're running inside VMs and backing/replicating these VMs does work. However, after restoring or booting one of these backups/replicas, the DB2 itself is somehwat corrupted. The job itself did run successfully. What I'm wondering right now if DB2 is supported, anyway? I can't find anything in B&R's product overview, Veeam's best practices guide or on the web.

Thanks in advance and stay healthy,
Stibo

[tdewin]

There is no explicit support for DB2 in B&R but you can set the database in a consistent state with pre and post scripts. I found this info that might be useful:
https://www.ibm.com/support/knowledgece ... 06423.html

The scripts can be configured in B&R here:
https://helpcenter.veeam.com/docs/backu ... ml?ver=100