Exchange 2010 and Veeam

[dekkar]

Hello,

I am currrently evaluating Veeam Backup and havent quite gotten my head around backing up Exch 2010. Was wondering if there was anyone here who was doing it.

I have 1 2010 server in production with a pilot group of users. I did run a backup with options: VMware vStorage API (SAN with Failover) with VSS enabled.

The backup worked with which ended up being 11Gb, the VM has 2 disks with a total of around 130Gb, so I presume that all that empty space and compression caused the backup to be so small...

I did get this error however:

Backing up file "[FBRS-EX10-LUN] FBRS-EX10/FBRS-EX10-flat.vmdk"
Unable to establish direct connection to the shared storage (SAN).
Please ensure that:
- HBA is properly installed in the Veeam Backup server computer, or software iSCSI initiator is configured correctly.
- SAN volume can be seen by operating system in the Windows Disk Management snap-in on the Veeam Backup server.
- Read access is allowed for the Veeam Backup server computer on the corresponding LUN (refer to your SAN documentation).

Direct SAN connection is not available, failing over to network mode...

Backing up file "[FBRS-EX10-LUN] FBRS-EX10/FBRS-EX10_1-flat.vmdk"
Direct SAN connection is not available, failing over to network mode...

Backing up file "[FBRS-EX10-LUN] FBRS-EX10/FBRS-EX10_2-flat.vmdk"
Direct SAN connection is not available, failing over to network mode...


Which I presume is becasue there is no iSCSI initiator connections on the veeam server at the moment.


My main question is how I go about restoring the backup. And is it able to recover individual mailboxes / items?

I have tested the Recovery Database 'method' in Exch 2010, which worked well, but I dont know how I would get the database out of the Veeam backup I created.

Anyone tested this before?

Thanks,
Dekkar

[Vitaliy S.]

Hello Nathan,

That's right, you should have direct connection to your SAN LUNs to use SAN mode. For this you should be using either HBA or iSCSI initiator. You have multiple restore options to perform. Please review our User Guide (page 65) for more information.

Right now it is not possible to restore Exchange individual items by using built-in funtionality. But you can do a file level restore from your backup files to restore an Exchange mailbox stores and then perform individual item restore.

Thanks!

[Gostev]

It is worth to note here that the upcoming v5 release will also provide built-in capabilities to recover individual mailboxes and mail items. But even right now, you can already use file level restore functionality to instantly get the mailbox database files out of Veeam Backup.

[TrevorBell]

I think most people are waiting for V5 to test that functionality i know i am, so at present im staying with Backup Exec for SQL ( physical box )/Exchange ( VM server )..

Trev..

[dekkar]

Hi, thanks for the confirmation. I have a Eql SAN, and will look into getting the iscsi initiator arrangement setup.