Exchange 2013 DAG support

[mlott@gie.com]

We have a 5 server DAG with 4 databases live on each of 3 hosts. The remaining 2 servers are passive in our DR location.

I just wanted to make sure that this configuration will work. My plan is to backup the 3 servers with active databases. Worst case, that should give us 3 copies of each database per cumulative backup. I have already asked tech support and this was their recommendation. Is anyone actually doing this who can comment on the results?

[mlott@gie.com]

FYI, the target repo is Veeam B&R. So far this is working great for SQL and SharePoint.

[Mike Resseler]

Hi Miles,

The problem with this kind of setup is the log handling... Only one backup is allowed to purge the logs... So if you are going to do this, you need to make sure that VEB is purging the logs on the node that actually is responsible for it, and that it doesn't do that on the other nodes. You can do that with the following procedure:

1. run regedit
2. go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREVeeamVeeam Endpoint Backup
3. create DWORD value VSSForceCopyOnly = 1
4. re-start Veeam EndPoint Backup service

That being said... VAW 2 (the new name for VEB) server edition is going to fully support a single protection node scenario on a passive node. I frankly always propose to protect the passive node because it is not operational and does not affect server performance. This is actually what most people recommend.

My 2 cents

[Dima P.]

Hi Miles,

May I ask how this DAG is configured? Thanks!

[mlott@gie.com]

Mike, that would be difficult. Three servers have four active databases each. All five servers have a copy of the twelve databases. So, setting that registry key on any one server would prevent log truncation there. Since it is global we cannot select which databases are handled or not handled.

I suppose I should wait for a more advanced backup client. We're trying to get away from DPM asap, although the Exchange backups with DPM have been mostly working for a couple of years.

[Mike Resseler]

Miles,

Understood. I hope that we have a VAW 2 beta soon so you can test it out

Thanks

Mike

[mlott@gie.com]

I could backup one of the passive nodes, if that works with the registry key set. Then I would have to find a way to handle log truncation on the active servers, if that makes sense.

[Mike Resseler]

Miles,

The registry key will make sure that the logs are not being truncated. So that would work but you would indeed need to find a way to handle log truncation.

[Dima P.]

Miles,

Thanks for the clarifications. If you have all the databases copied between all the nodes, why do you want to backup every node separately? I’d rather install VEB on a single passive node, perform transaction log backup if required and that’s it.

[rjaworski]

Thank you Gentlemen for these valuable comments!!!

[marc.rousseau]

Hello,

I would like to know if backup of Exchange 2013 DAG and Exchange 2016 DAG are officially supported now by VAW 2 ?
Is there some limitations ? Is there some best practices to follow (timeouts, regkey to change, prefer to backup a single passive node,...) ? I found nothing really relevant in veeam official documentation,release notes, what's new...

Thanks
Marc