Backing up GroupWise 8 server VM using B&R v6 (SP3)

[rsargeant]

Hi there,

We need to backup a GroupWise 8 system running on a Windows 2003 server VM.

The Veeam job is currently running fine with VSS processing enabled for the Windows guest. However because GroupWise doesn't have a
VSS writer the only way to ensure we get a good 'consistent' GroupWise database backup is to either use a Novell utility DBCOPY to copy the
live databases to an offline staging folder or shutdown the GroupWise Agents during the backup.

Ideally what I'd like to do is the following:

When the Veeam job starts it somehow starts a script (i.e a batch file on the guest) that shutsdown the
GroupWise Agents, a Snapshot is then taken and then the GroupWise Agents are restarted (i.e using the batch file)
again as soon after the Snapshot is completed. Note: I don't have a problem with the GroupWise Agent stop/start
commands, it's the other stuff I'm not sure about.

How do I best achieve this?

Lastly, one other concern is will Veeam then update the Backup/Replication image (i.e the Snapshot) with changes that have occured within the
GroupWise VM whist the job has been running? Is so we have a problem because it is likely to corrupt the GroupWise database.

Thanks in advance for your help.

Cheers,

Richard.

[tfloor]

You can stop and start GW agents with the default VMware tools scripts.
See :
http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/micros ... Id=1006671

Regards
Tristan

[Vitaliy S.]

Yes, you can use VMware Tools pre-freeze and post-thaw scripts for that. I would say it is a pretty common technique for application that do not support VSS snapshots.

Lastly, one other concern is will Veeam then update the Backup/Replication image (i.e the Snapshot) with changes that have occured within the
GroupWise VM whist the job has been running? Is so we have a problem because it is likely to corrupt the GroupWise database.

No, your backup image will not have the changes that occurred after snapshot creation operation.

[Jfmoots]

I'm a GroupWise guy from waaaaay back My fondest memory of backing up Groupwise was figuring out the TSA wasn't working because I'd installed my post office in the root of an NSS volume. It took buying a different backup solution and it not working for me to figure that out... GRRRR!

I was never able to automate what you're talking about. The timing never worked out nicely and I was not ok with my GroupWise services being down during a backup. I ran DBCopy jobs to a network location and then backed those up. I knew that if I had a total failure of the server my restore was a two step process. Step 1. Restore the server, Step 2. Restore the DBCopy. I actually ran DBCopy much more often than I ran a complete backup of the server. DBCopy is a fairly efficient little utilty. A VSS writer would have been nicer... but that's Novell for you. Shouldn't you be running it on OES anyway?!

Good luck.

[tfloor]

We also have gwava reload for groupwise backups.
But take a backup of that server takes 4 hours because it has 14 days of grouPwise backups.
So maybe it's better to exclude and only backup GW server each night.

[briggs]

Hi,
I'm running a Novell NW6.5 server as a VM, NSS volumes, it's running GroupWise 8.
I've backed it up with Veeam initially, but now every subsequent incremental is taking longer to complete than the original backup. I'm setting the Enable VW quiescence option for the backup.
Can anyone give me some feedback on how to get this running properly, because right now the backups are running well over 12 hours, it's not workable at the minute.

Many thanks, Alan

[foggy]

Alan, please look through the topic above and there is also another existing topic on backing up Groupwise on Netware: Backup for Groupwise on Netware.

Hope this helps.

[briggs]

Thanks foggy, I'd spotted that thread before, I was after someone with real experience doing it. I'm finding that the backups really are not performing well, the incrementals are not small (I guess GroupWise's inherently secure mailstore is to blame) but the processing time on our 700GB Mail server is running on for over 7 hours - not ideal at all really. I may have to look into another option, really didn't want to go down that road though, the budget won't really stretch to a dedicated solution for GroupWise!
If anyone out there has the experience of doing GroupWise on NetWare with Veeam, please do let me know how it works out for you! Thanks, Alan

[veremin]

but the processing time on our 700GB Mail server is running on for over 7 hours

Can you confirm that CBT is being used during incremental runs (take a look at job statistics session, looking for [cbt] metric)? And what are the bottleneck statistics for this job? Thanks.

[briggs]

It is yes, though now incrementals are running fine again! I am clueless as to why!!!

[veremin]

If you need a deep investigation, feel free to open a ticket with our support team. Otherwise, leave it as it is, since nowadays everything works, as expected.

Thanks.

[briggs]

Many thanks, I initially didn't want to raise tickets with Veeam since I'm such a new customer, I realise these problems could be our own making initially. I will be right back if I can't get this performing consistently, though fingers crossed, the problem that I couldn't explain, went away all by itself!

[veremin]

I will be right back if I can't get this performing consistently

Surely. Don’t hesitate to contact us, should any help be needed or any additional questions arise. We are more than willing to help you. Thanks.