Storage Foundation 8.0.2 Quick Recovery Solutions Guide for Enterprise Vault - Windows

Last Published:
Product(s): InfoScale & Storage Foundation (8.0.2)
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

Creating a one-time EV snapshot set

SFW provides support for creating snapshots for the Enterprise Vault farm, sites, Vault StoreGroups, Vault Stores, or any component level. You can create snapshots of all volumes associated with the EV components without taking the databases offline and disrupting the database operations.

Creating a one-time snapshot or snapshot set is a two-step process:

  • Prepare the snapshot mirrors for the database volume or volumes. If you are creating a snapshot set after a snapback to refresh existing snapshot mirrors, you can skip this step.

    See Preparing an EV snapshot mirror.

  • Use either the Enterprise Vault Snapshot Wizard or the vxsnap create command to create the snapshot set by detaching the snapshot mirrors from the original volumes. This step creates separate on-host snapshot volumes as well as a snapshot set XML file to store the application and snapshot volume metadata.

Note:

The Enterprise Vault Snapshot Wizard and the vxsnap utility can be invoked from any node that has the Enterprise Vault Admin service running in the Enterprise Vault Configuration.

When you right-click an EV object and select Enterprise Vault Snapshot from the context menu, the EV objects and components within (subordinate to) the selected EV object are all included in the snapshot. You can also add more Enterprise Vault objects from the objects shown in Enterprise Vault Snapshot wizard.

Please note the following:

  • When an EV site is snapshotted, the Directory database is also snapshotted implicitly by the system.

  • When an Vault Store database is snapshotted, the Open Partition is also snapshotted implicitly by the system.

  • When an Open Partition is snapshotted, the Vault Store database is also snapshotted implicitly by the system.

Review the configuration prerequisites before proceeding with the create snapshot operation for EV.

See Configuration requirements for snapshots.

To create snapshots using the Enterprise Vault Snapshot Wizard

  1. On the VEA console, navigate to the Storage Agent in the tree-view and expand the Enterprise Vault nodes under Applications.
  2. Select the desired EV node for which you want to create a snapshot. Right-click and select Enterprise Vault Snapshot from the context menu.

    The menu option is also available at the EV site and any component level.

  3. The Enterprise Vault Snapshot Wizard is launched. Read the information on the Welcome page and click Next.
  4. On the Select Component page is select components for snapshot sets.

    Complete the information on this page as follows:

    Select Component for snapshot operation

    Select the component for the snapshot set

    Additionally, you can also use the keyboard shortcuts to select EV components.Ctrl+ A selects the entire EV farm along with sites and components. Use Ctrl+Click to select EV components of your choice. Use Ctrl+Shift+Arrow Up, Down keys to select components located at the upper and lower hierarchies in the EV farm.

    Directory

    The wizard creates the snapshot set metadata XML file. The XML metadata file is stored by default in the directory shown on the screen.

    Note:

    The XML file for the snapshot must be stored separately from the volumes that are included in the snapshots, otherwise a restore will fail.

    The XML file location can be changed in the following two ways:

    • First, edit the directory path in the Directory field for this wizard screen.

    • Second, change the XML file location. Use a text editor to create a text file named redirect.txt. This text file should contain a single text line specifying the Universal Naming Convention (UNC) path to the location of the XML file, for example, \\ServerName\SharedFolderName. Saves the redirect.txt file in the default directory C:\Program Files\Veritas\Veritas Volume Manager\VSSXML.

      If SFW/SFW HA is installed on the D drive, then the path will be the same as above, but on the D drive.

    Note:

    You must not use the volume name or volume path in the redirect.txt file that is involved in the snapshot. If the volume name or path for the snapshot is used, then a restore will fail.

    Select snapshot type

    Select the snapshot type.You can specify that snapshots to be created as either a Full Backup or Copy.

    • Full Backup

      Full Backup is used to restore an Enterprise Vault component. If you want a replay log for restoring a component, you should select the Full Backup option. When replaying logs, it replays from the last time of the last Full Backup.

    • Copy

      A Copy does not affect the sequence of log replay and therefore is often used as an "out of band" copy for purposes such as testing or data mining.

    Click Next.

  5. The summary page is displayed.

    Review the specifications of the snapshot set and click Finish to complete the snapshot operation for the selected components.

To create the snapshot set from the command line

  • Type the command, as in the following examples:
    > vxsnap -x test.xml create
        writer=EnterpriseVault
        site=site1/vsg=vsg1/vs=vs1
        site=site2
        /component=(Index Locations (V:))

    This example creates a snapshot of vault store "vs1" of site1/vsg1, "Index Location (V:)" of site2 and component "Directory DB". The XML file, test.xml, is used to store the VSS metadata that identifies the snapshot. This file is used in the command to reattach the snapshot to resynchronize it and in the command to recover the database using the snapshot.

    > vxsnap -x test.xml create
        writer=EnterpriseVault
        site=site1

    This example makes a complete snapshot of site1 (including the directory database).

    The complete syntax of the vxsnap create command is:

    vxsnap -x <filename> create writer=<WriterName>
    [site=<SiteName>[/VSG=<VSGName>[VS=<VSName>]]]
    [[/]component=<ComponentName>][backuptype=FULL|COPY] [-o]

    The WriterName and ComponentName are required. The component name is the name of the Enterprise Vault component. You can use either a Full backup or Copy backup for restoring from a snapshot (recovery). However, if you want to replay logs as part of restoring a database, a Full backup needs to have been created earlier. When replaying logs, you can replay from the time of the last Full backup. A Copy backup does not affect this sequence of log replay and therefore is often used as an "out of band" copy for purposes such as testing or data mining.

    Note:

    Any text string that contains spaces must be enclosed in quotation marks.