Granular Restore Technology (GRT) support for NetBackup with 3rd-party OpenStorage Secondary Storage Solutions

Problem

Statement of support for
Granular Restore Technology (GRT) for NetBackup with 3rd-party OpenStorage Secondary Storage Solutions

Solution

Support for Exchange, SharePoint, and Active Directory GRT backups using third-party OpenStorage Secondary Storage Solutions begins with the following NetBackup version: 

• NetBackup 7.5

Please refer to the NetBackup 7.x Hardware Compatibility List (HCL) for information on OpenStorage Secondary Storage Solutions that have been qualified with GRT (described as 'Granular_Recovery' functionality)

Note:   Beginning with NetBackup 7.6, VMware type backup policies with Application Protection options enabled for Exchange or SharePoint are supported with 3rd-party OpenStorage solutions when that support is shown on the HCL.

Exchange recommendations:  

The number of Exchange transaction logs that are being backed up on a given Exchange system directly impact the duration of the granular processing portion of the backup job. 

To minimize the number of transaction logs that are included in the data set operated on during granular processing, only Exchange snapshot backups should be used when using an OpenStorage-based storage unit. This can include basic local snapshot backups, replication backups (using CCR or Exchange 2010 DAG passive copies), off-host backups and in combination with any of the supported VSS providers. 

During a snapshot backup, the set of logs that will be backed up remains fixed.  Of this set of transaction logs, only a small subset of logs are not yet committed to the Exchange database and would be required to create a consistent database.  For a snapshot backup, NetBackup can track and use only this required subset when performing these granular operations.  This greatly decreases the duration of the granular processing at the end of the backup. 

Selecting the Exchange client options Back up only uncommitted log files or Back up all log files should not greatly impact the granular processing portion of backup or restore.  The set of transaction logs needed for granular processing will be similar.

SharePoint recommendations:

If the total SharePoint GRT content (that is, the sum of all Web Application content databases plus Shared Services Application content) is above 500 GB, it is recommended that GRT backups of SharePoint resources be staggered.  This can be accomplished by configuring multiple policies with different schedules.  Wildcards can be used to set up these policies.

Examples:

Suppose policies need to be created to back up a Web Application with over thirty (30) content databases.  The following Backup Selections could be specified in separate MS-SharePoint policies:

Note:  The Backup Selections in these policies are file directives for SharePoint 2007:

Policy 1:

Microsoft SharePoint Resources:\Windows SharePoint Services Web Application\<Web Application Name>\Content-DB 1*

Policy 2:

Microsoft SharePoint Resources:\Windows SharePoint Services Web Application\<Web Application Name>\Content-DB 2*

Policy 3:

Microsoft SharePoint Resources:\Windows SharePoint Services Web Application\<Web Application Name>\Content-DB 3*

Policy 4:

Microsoft SharePoint Resources:\Windows SharePoint Services Web Application\<Web Application Name>\Content-DB 4*

Microsoft SharePoint Resources:\Windows SharePoint Services Web Application\<Web Application Name>\Content-DB 5*

Microsoft SharePoint Resources:\Windows SharePoint Services Web Application\<Web Application Name>\Content-DB 6*

Microsoft SharePoint Resources:\Windows SharePoint Services Web Application\<Web Application Name>\Content-DB 7*

Microsoft SharePoint Resources:\Windows SharePoint Services Web Application\<Web Application Name>\Content-DB 8*

Microsoft SharePoint Resources:\Windows SharePoint Services Web Application\<Web Application Name>\Content-DB 9*

With the above configuration, Policy 1 will capture content databases 1, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18 and 19.

Policy 2 will capture content databases 2, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28 and 29.

Policy 3 will capture content databases 3, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38 and 39 (presuming they all exist).

Policy 4 will capture content databases 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9.

This example is similar to the above example but uses SharePoint 2010 file directives:

Policy 1:

Microsoft SharePoint Resources:\Windows SharePoint Foundation Web Application\<Web Application Name>\Content-DB 1*

Policy 2:

Microsoft SharePoint Resources:\Windows SharePoint Foundation Web Application\<Web Application Name>\Content-DB 2*

Policy 3:

Microsoft SharePoint Resources:\Windows SharePoint Foundation Web Application\<Web Application Name>\Content-DB 3*

Policy 4:

Microsoft SharePoint Resources:\Windows SharePoint Foundation Web Application\<Web Application Name>\Content-DB 4*

Microsoft SharePoint Resources:\Windows SharePoint Foundation Web Application\<Web Application Name>\Content-DB 5*

Microsoft SharePoint Resources:\Windows SharePoint Foundation Web Application\<Web Application Name>\Content-DB 6*

Microsoft SharePoint Resources:\Windows SharePoint Foundation Web Application\<Web Application Name>\Content-DB 7*

Microsoft SharePoint Resources:\Windows SharePoint Foundation Web Application\<Web Application Name>\Content-DB 8*

Microsoft SharePoint Resources:\Windows SharePoint Foundation Web Application\<Web Application Name>\Content-DB 9*

With the above configuration, Policy 1 will capture content databases 1, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18 and 19.

Policy 2 will capture content databases 2, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28 and 29.

Policy 3 will capture content databases 3, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38 and 39 (presuming they all exist).

Policy 4 will capture content databases 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9.

Note:   To avoid typographical errors when entering Backup Selections, it is recommended that SharePoint resources be selected using remote browse capability in the Windows NetBackup administration console and then modified with the wildcard character ("*").