Exchange DAG queries

[ferrus]

After struggling for a long time trying to resolve VMware/VSS snapshot issues with our ESXi 6.5 hosted Exchange 2016 DAG, we're now considering switching our mail backups from Veeam B&R VM based - to Veeam Agent.

Before we deploy the Agents to the servers, do you know if the Agent installation will install SQL2012 Express on our servers, if they already have SQL2014 installed - or will it reuse the existing SQL installation?

Any idea what to expect in terms of backup performance, compared with VM backups? (our network is 10 Gbe, current VM backups use Direct SAN over FC)

[Dima P.]

Hello ferrus,

If you plan to protect your DAG servers with agent managed by Veeam B&R then local sql is not required: managed by backup server job type will use backup agent without UI and SQL components since agent will be controlled by backup server. Cheers!

[ferrus]

Thanks, Dmitry. That's reassuring.
It'll help us get the authorization to install the Agent, and try backing up the live system.

Incidentally - I've been reading up on users' experience on here, backing up Exchange DAGs with the Agent.
Seems there's a very mixed response to the performance vs VM backups.

We have 3x 21TB VMs. Incremental backups currently take 40mins, with another 40mins for the ReFS merge.
Full backups will always be slow, but I'm slightly concerned about the length of time the guests will be affected, compared with storage snapshots for VM backups - which are transparent to the guest.

Add my name to those requesting only passive DB DAG backups via the Agent, and actually - why not through the VM Guest processing too?

[Dima P.]

ferrus,

I've been reading up on users' experience on here, backing up Exchange DAGs with the Agent.

That's true, currently it's not possible to backup only passive copies of DAG's DB, so consider your vote being added to this feature request!

[ferrus]

Just wanted to feedback some positive results, that may help anyone looking to try it out.

With the Veeam Agent installed on the Exchange Server VMs for the last week - we've probably had our best, hassle-free Exchange backups in years.
The single disk performance is much, much, much quicker than our standard VM backups (looking into a possible VDDK bottleneck in our system). There are no VMware snapshots, so no DAG failovers or VSS errors, so no issues truncating logs, or filling up log partitions.

The first few backups occurred in office hours - with no noticeable effect to the live system, and following the CBT install/server reboots - the backup window is back down to 40 minutes.

Definitely worth a try, for anyone with an on-premise VM based Exchange DAG. Wish we could have done it a long time ago.

[Dima P.]

Hello ferrus,

Thank you for the kind words, I'll gladly share your feedback with the team. Cheers!