Storage Foundation 8.0.1 Quick Recovery Solutions Guide for Enterprise Vault - Windows

Last Published:
Product(s): InfoScale & Storage Foundation (8.0.1)
Platform: Windows
  1. Introducing Quick Recovery for Enterprise Vault
    1.  
      About Quick Recovery snapshot solutions
    2.  
      About snapshot-assisted backups
    3.  
      Advantages of Quick Recovery snapshots
    4.  
      Quick Recovery process
    5.  
      Enterprise Vault components supported by SFW
    6. Methods of implementing Quick Recovery snapshots
      1.  
        About the Enterprise Vault Snapshot Scheduler Wizard
      2.  
        About the Enterprise Vault Snapshot and Snapback wizards and the vxsnap utility
    7. About the components used in Quick Recovery
      1.  
        FlashSnap and FastResync
      2. Integration with Microsoft Volume Shadow Copy Service
        1.  
          VSS framework
        2.  
          VSS process
  2. Preparing to implement Quick Recovery for Enterprise Vault
    1.  
      Tasks for preparing to implement Quick Recovery for Enterprise Vault
    2. Reviewing the prerequisites
      1.  
        Storage requirements and best practices
      2.  
        Configuration requirements and best practices
    3. Configuring Enterprise Vault storage with Storage Foundation for Windows
      1.  
        Creating dynamic disk groups
      2.  
        Creating dynamic volumes
      3.  
        Pointing the databases and log paths to the SFW volumes
    4. Preparing for Enterprise Vault snapshots
      1.  
        Invoking the Enterprise Vault Management Shell
      2.  
        Configuring the Veritas Scheduler Service
      3.  
        Starting services required for Enterprise Vault Quick Recovery
  3. Scheduling or creating a snapshot set for Enterprise Vault
    1.  
      About scheduling or creating a snapshot set
    2.  
      Tasks to schedule a new snapshot set
    3.  
      Tasks to create a one-time snapshot set
    4.  
      Configuration requirements for snapshots
    5.  
      Preparing an EV snapshot mirror
    6.  
      Scheduling a new snapshot set
    7.  
      Creating a one-time EV snapshot set
    8.  
      Refreshing an EV snapshot
  4. Maintaining or troubleshooting snapshots
    1.  
      Viewing the status of scheduled snapshots
    2.  
      Troubleshooting scheduled snapshots
    3.  
      Deleting or modifying schedules
    4.  
      Synchronizing schedules after adding a cluster node
  5. Recovering Enterprise Vault components
    1.  
      About recovering an Enterprise Vault Server component
    2.  
      Tasks for recovering an Enterprise Vault Server component
    3.  
      Prerequisites for recovering an Enterprise Vault Server component
    4.  
      Types of recovery
    5.  
      Recovering using snapshots without log replay
    6.  
      Restoring snapshots and manually applying logs
    7.  
      Post-recovery steps
  6. Vxsnap utility command line reference for Enterprise Vault
    1.  
      About the Vxsnap utility
    2. Vxsnap keywords
      1.  
        vxsnap prepare
      2.  
        vxsnap create
      3.  
        vxsnap reattach
      4.  
        vxsnap restore

Refreshing an EV snapshot

Once a snapshot set has been created, it can be refreshed quickly since you do not have to prepare a mirror in order to refresh it. To refresh the snapshot set you need to perform the following tasks:

  • Reattach (snapback) the snapshot

    This operation reattaches and resynchronizes an existing snapshot set so that it matches the current set of its original database.

    You can perform this operation from either the VEA GUI, using the Enterprise Vault Snapback Wizard, or from the command line, using vxsnap reattach. See the following procedures.

    Note:

    The Enterprise Vault Snapback option on the VEA is available only on the Enterprise Vault node in the Application view. Other EV nodes such as the Vault Store Group, Vault Store, Partition, Index etc. do not have this option.

  • Create the refreshed snapshot set using either the Enterprise Vault Snapshot Wizard or the vxsnap create command

    See Creating a one-time EV snapshot set.

Note:

The Enterprise Vault Refresh option available in the VEA console from the Application object refreshes the display of the application and components. It does not refresh the snapshot set.

To reattach snapshot sets using the VEA wizard

  1. Except the VEA GUI, close all Explorer windows, applications, or any third-party system management tools that may be accessing the snapshot set.
  2. On the VEA console, navigate to the Storage Agent node in the tree-view and expand the Enterprise Vault node under Applications.
  3. Right-click the Enterprise Vault node and select Enterprise Vault Snapback from the context menu.
  4. The Enterprise Vault Snapback Wizard is displayed. Review the information on the Welcome page and click Next.
  5. On the Select Snapshot Set page, select the snapshot set that needs to be snapbacked or reattached.

    Complete the information on this page as follows:

    Directory

    Displays the directory where snapshot sets are stored. It shows the XML files from either the default XML file location or path mentioned in the redirect.txt. However, if you want to change the directory then specify the directory and click Update to refresh the XML or snapshot set files.

    Snapshot Sets

    The XML metadata file contains all required information needed to snapback the snapshot set, including the names of the database and transaction log volumes. Click the appropriate header to sort the list of available files by File Name or Creation Time. This file is deleted after the snapback operation has completed successfully for all components. If there is partial snapback, the file will get updated with rest of the components.

    Click Next.

  6. From the Select Components page, select the components.

    Complete the information on this page as follows:

    Snapshot set

    The selected snapshot set name is displayed. Example: EVFarm.xml

    Select components

    Select the components that need to be snapbacked. The volumes of selected components are snapbacked.

    Force the Operation

    Enable this checkbox:

    • to override open handles of the volumes in the selected components

    • if any of the selected volumes overlaps with the non-selected components in the snapshot

  7. Verify that the snapback specifications are correct on the summary page and click Finish to complete the reattach operation.

To reattach an EV snapshot set from the command line

  1. Close all Explorer windows, applications, or third-party system management tools that may be accessing the snapshot set.
  2. Type the command, as in the following example:
    > vxsnap -x snapdata.xml reattach
writer=EnterpriseVault
site=site1/vsg=vsg1/vs=vs1 site=site2
/component=(Index Locations (V:))
/component="Directory DB"

    This command uses the information in the XML file to reattach and resynchronize all the volumes for the vault store vs1 of site1/vsg1, "Index Locations (V:)" of site2 and "Directory DB".

    Note:

    To reattach all the components in the snapshot set, use vxsnap -x snapdata.xml reattach writer=EnterpriseVault. The XML file is deleted after the reattach operation has reattached all the components in the snapshot set.

    The snapshot volumes remain synchronized with the original volumes until the vxsnap create command is issued.

    The complete syntax for the vxsnap reattach command is:

    vxsnap -x Filename [-f] [-b] reattach 
writer=<WriterName>[site=<SiteName>
[/VSG=<VSGName>[VS=<VSName>]]]
[[/]component=<ComponentName>]