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DESIGN AND IMPLEMENTATION GUIDE

EMC VSPEX

January 2014

EMC® BACKUP AND RECOVERY OPTIONS FOR VSPEX FOR VIRTUALIZED MICROSOFT ® EXCHANGE 2013

Design and Implementation Guide: VSPEX with EMC Backup and Recovery Options for Virtualized Microsoft Exchange 2013

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Copyright © 2014 EMC Corporation. All rights reserved. Published in the USA.

Published January 2014

EMC believes the information in this publication is accurate of its publication date. The information is subject to change without notice.

The information in this publication is provided as is. EMC Corporation makes no representations or warranties of any kind with respect to the information in this publication, and specifically disclaims implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. Use, copying, and distribution of any EMC software described in this publication requires an applicable software license.

EMC2, EMC, and the EMC logo are registered trademarks or trademarks of EMC Corporation in the United States and other countries. All other trademarks used herein are the property of their respective owners.

For the most up-to-date regulatory document for your product line, go to the technical documentation and advisories section on the EMC Online Support website.

Design and Implementation Guide: EMC Backup and Recovery for VSPEX for Virtualized Microsoft Exchange 2013.

Part Number H12306

Design And Implementation Guide: VSPEX with EMC Backup and Recovery for Virtualized Microsoft Exchange 2013

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Contents Contents ......................................................................................................... 3

Chapter 1: Introduction ..................................................................... 5

Purpose of this guide ...................................................................................... 5

Business value ................................................................................................ 5

Scope .............................................................................................................. 6

Essential reading ............................................................................................ 7 Solution Overviews.......................................................................................... 7 Implementation and Design Guides for Exchange ............................................... 7 VSPEX Proven Infrastructure ............................................................................. 7

Chapter 2: Solution overview and sizing ............................................. 8

Solution architecture....................................................................................... 8

Microsoft Exchange Server 2013 Overview ...................................................... 9

EMC Powered Backup and Recovery Overview .............................................. 10 EMC Avamar Deduplication Backup Software and System.................................. 10 EMC Data Domain Deduplication Storage System ............................................. 12 VMware vSphere Data Protection .................................................................... 13 Backup and Recovery Solution Sizing .............................................................. 14

Chapter 3: Exchange backup and recovery considerations .................. 16

Avamar Multistreaming backups ................................................................... 16

Incremental backups..................................................................................... 16

Scratch space recovery requirements ............................................................ 18

Chapter 4: Configuring Exchange Server Backups ............................... 19

Avamar backup strategies overview .............................................................. 19 On-demand backups in a stand-alone environment .......................................... 19 On-demand backups in a high-availability environment .................................... 20

VDP Advanced 5.5.5 backup strategies overview .......................................... 25 Configuring Exchange Server 2013 backups by using VDP Advanced .................. 25

Avamar with Data Domain backup strategies overview ................................. 26

Chapter 5: Solution Verification Methodologies ................................. 27

Backup and recovery verification methodology ............................................. 27 Recovery steps for Avamar ............................................................................. 27 Recovery steps for VDP Advanced................................................................... 27


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Chapter 6: Reference Documentation ............................................... 29

Product documentation................................................................................. 29

Other documentation .................................................................................... 29


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Chapter 1: Introduction

Purpose of this guide This Solution Guide describes how to design, implement, and size EMC Powered Backup and Recovery solutions for VSPEX Proven Infrastructure for Virtualized Exchange Server.

EMC VSPEX for Virtualized Microsoft Exchange Server 2013 solution:

• Provides customers with a validated solution, capable of hosting a virtualized Exchange solution at a consistent performance level.

• Enables customers to quickly and consistently deploy and protect a virtualized Exchange Server 2013 organization in the VSPEX Proven Infrastructure.

• Runs on a VMware vSphere or a Microsoft Hyper-V virtualization layer.

• Leverages the highly available EMC VNX® family, which provides the storage.

• Leverages EMC Powered Backup and Recovery products, including: EMC Avamar®, EMC Data Domain®, and VMware® vSphere Data Protection Advanced (VDP Advanced).

Business value Email is an indispensable lifeline for communication within a business, which connects you with customers, prospects, partners, and suppliers. IT administrators who support Microsoft Exchange Server face challenges to maintain the highest possible levels of performance and application efficiency. At the same time, most administrators struggle to keep up with relentless data growth while working to overcome diminishing budgets. Most IT departments experience major challenges when administering, auditing, protecting, and managing an Exchange environment for a modern, geographically diverse work force.

Many businesses try to address these challenges by adding physical servers and inefficient direct attached storage, which further compounds the problem. Traditional backups cannot complete backup operations within available windows and businesses struggle to control backup data growth.

EMC has joined forces with industry leading providers of IT infrastructure to create a complete virtualization solution that accelerates the deployment of a private cloud and Microsoft Exchange Server.

VSPEX enables customers to accelerate their IT transformation with faster deployment, more simplicity, greater choice, higher efficiency, and lower risk. Validation by EMC ensures predictable performance and enables customers to select technology that leverages existing IT infrastructure while eliminating planning, sizing, and configuration burdens. VSPEX provides Exchange infrastructures for customers


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who are looking to simplify the environment while at the same time gaining more choice in individual stack components.

EMC Powered Backup and Recovery solutions – EMC Avamar, EMC Data Domain and VDP Advanced deliver the protection confidence needed to accelerate deployment of virtualized Exchange.

Figure 1. EMC Powered Backup and Recovery solutions covered in this Guide include EMC Avamar deduplication software and system, EMC Data Domain deduplication storage system, and VMware vSphere Data Protection Advanced.

Scope This Solution Guide describes how to design, implement, and size EMC Powered Backup and Recovery solutions for VSPEX Proven Infrastructure for Virtualized Exchange Server environments by using the following configurations:

• EMC Avamar to protect Exchange Server 2013 that runs within VMware vSphere or Microsoft Hyper-V.

• EMC Avamar and EMC Data Domain systems to protect Exchange Server 2013 that runs within VMware vSphere or Microsoft Hyper-V.

• VDP Advanced and Data Domain systems DD2500 to protect Exchange Server 2013 that runs within VMware vSphere with up to 300 virtual machines.


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Essential reading EMC recommends that you read the following documents, available on EMC.com and the Powerlink website.

Review the following VSPEX Solution Overview document:

● EMC VSPEX Proven Infrastructure for Virtualized Exchange 2013

Review the following VSPEX Design and Implementation Guides:

● Design Guide: EMC VSPEX for Virtualized Microsoft Exchange 2013

● Implementation Guide: EMC VSPEX for Virtualized Microsoft Exchange 2013 with VMware vSphere

● Implementation Guide: EMC VSPEX for Virtualized Microsoft Exchange 2013 with Microsoft Hyper-V

Review the VSPEX Proven Infrastructures documents on the EMC Community website.

Solution Overviews

Design and Implementation Guides for Exchange

VSPEX Proven Infrastructure

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https://community.emc.com/docs/DOC-16196�


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Chapter 2: Solution overview and sizing

This chapter provides an overview of the VSPEX Proven Infrastructure for virtualized Exchange Server 2013, the EMC Powered Backup and Recovery products used in this solution, and critical guidance about backup and recovery solution sizing.

Solution architecture Figure 2 illustrates the architecture that characterizes a VSPEX Proven Infrastructure, which supports Exchange Server 2013.

Figure 2. Solution architecture that includes VSPEX Proven Infrastructure for virtualized Microsoft Exchange and the supporting infrastructure components


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This example has the following components:

• Two Exchange mailbox servers on a VMware vSphere cluster.

• Two Exchange Client Access servers.

• EMC VNX series that has been validated as part of the VSPEX Proven Infrastructure provides the back-end storage functionality.

• NFS datastores contain the Exchange Server virtual machine boot volumes in virtual machine data file (VMDK) format.

• iSCSI native disks store the Exchange Server database and log in RDM format.

• EMC Powered Backup and Recovery systems that have been validated as part of VSPEX Proven Infrastructure provide the backup and recovery functionality.

Essential reading provides more information.

Microsoft Exchange Server 2013 overview Microsoft Exchange Server 2013 is an enterprise email and communication system that enables businesses and customers to collaborate and share information. EMC enhances Exchange Server 2013 with a selection of storage platforms, software, and services. With Exchange Server 2013, Microsoft presents a new, unified approach to high availability (HA) and disaster recovery (DR) by introducing features such as Database Availability Group (DAG) and online mailbox moves. With a DAG configuration, you can:

• Implement mailbox servers in mailbox resiliency configurations with database-level replication and failover.

• Configure two or more copies of each mailbox database. DAG protects Exchange during Mailbox server failure or maintenance but does not provide protection from logical database corruption, which can replicate to other database copies.

• Protect the environment from logical corruption by implementing a VSS backup with point-in-time recovery solution.

An Exchange Server 2013 organization includes the following server roles:

• Mailbox server: Hosts mailboxes and public folders.

• Client Access server: Hosts the client protocols. For example, Post Office Protocol 3 (POP3), Internet Message Access Protocol 4 (IMAP4), Secure Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTPS), Outlook Anywhere, the Availability service, the Autodiscover service, and Web services.

• Hub Transport server: Routes mail within the Exchange organization.

• Edge Transport server: Resides at the perimeter of the topology and routes mail in to and out of the Exchange organization.

• Unified Messaging server: Connects a Private Branch eXchange (PBX) system to an Exchange Server 2013.

The first three server roles are the essential components in every Exchange organization.


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EMC Powered Backup and Recovery overview This section provides backup and recovery options, as well as recommended EMC Powered Backup and Recovery configurations and sizing for the EMC VSPEX Virtualized Microsoft Exchange 2013 solution.

Optimized for virtualized application environments, EMC Powered Backup and Recovery solutions:

• Deliver the confidence and efficiency that accelerates a VSPEX Private Cloud with Exchange 2012 deployment.

• Use software that is proven to reduce backup times by 90% and improve recoveries times by 30x, for worry-free protection.

• Use EMC protection storage to add another layer of reliability by providing end-to-end verification and self-healing, which ensures successful recoveries.

• Deliver big savings. With industry-leading deduplication, you can reduce:

• Backup storage by 10-30x,

• Backup management time by 81%,

• WAN bandwidth by 99% for efficient Disaster Recovery (DR)

• Deliver up to a 7-month payback. With EMC Powered Backup and Recovery, you can simply and efficiently scale backup and recovery configurations, as your environment grows.

EMC Avamar provides fast, efficient backup and recovery through a complete software and hardware solution. Equipped with integrated variable-length deduplication technology, Avamar facilitates fast, daily full backups for virtual environments, remote offices, enterprise applications, network-attached storage (NAS) servers, and desktops/laptops.

EMC Avamar® Virtual Edition (AVE) is a single-node server that runs as a VM in a VMware® ESX/ESXi 4.1 or ESXi 5.0/5.1/5.5 environment.

Note: VMware ESX/ESXi 5.5 requires AVE 7.0 SP1 or later.

AVE provides the following features:

• Integrates the latest version of the Avamar software with SUSE Linux.

• Runs autonomously as a target for all Avamar client backups and performs replication to a physical Avamar system or another AVE.

• Cannot scale to a multi-node Avamar server and does not support VM resizing. To increase storage capacity, perform one of the following actions:

Deploy additional AVE VMs, and then divide the backup workload on the VMs.

Replicate the data to another Avamar server and delete the smaller VM. Create a larger VM, and then replicate the data from the Avamar server to the larger VM.

EMC Avamar Deduplication Backup Software and System

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The Avamar plug-in supports backup and recovery operations of Exchange data that range from entire databases to various object levels, such as mailboxes or individual email items. The plug-in also includes the ability to define a preferred server order list (PSOL) that specifies the preferred cluster node to perform the backup. If the first server in the PSOL is not available, Avamar uses the next server in the PSOL to perform the backup. Back up the other components in the Exchange environment with the Avamar Client for Windows, to enable Exchange databases and related Exchange servers recoveries.

When you use Avamar Virtual Machine Image Protection to protect a virtual machine, you can restore the virtual machines without installing the Avamar client on the destination hosts. If the destination host has the Exchange Mailbox Server role, then you can restore the databases from an Exchange Volume Shadow (Copy) Service (VSS) backup.

The Avamar Exchange VSS plug-in performs the database backup but relies on the base Avamar Windows Client. For disaster-level recovery, recover the operating system (OS) from a virtual machine image recovery by using the Avamar Windows Client. After the OS-level recovery completes, use the Avamar plug-in to recover the Exchange database.

Note: The implementation of VMware or Hyper-V image-level protection is beyond the scope of this guide, but you can use this option to recover the base operating system.

Figure 3 provides a high-level overview of the Avamar installation and configuration process in an Exchange environment.


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Figure 3. Installation map for Exchange 2013

EMC Data Domain deduplication storage systems continue to revolutionize disk backup, archiving, and disaster recovery with high-speed, inline deduplication for backup and archive workloads.

EMC recommends that you use Data Domain systems as a backup target for Avamar in the following configurations:

• VSPEX Private Clouds with VMware

• VSPEX Private Clouds with Hyper-V for 300 VMs or greater

Install the Avamar client and plug-ins in the same way as when you use an Avamar device as the backup target. If you use a Data Domain system as the backup target for Avamar, then after the Data Domain system has been discovered within the Avamar Manager software application, specify the backup target by checking the appropriate box in the Avamar data set definition interface. Install the Avamar client and plug-ins in the same way as when you use an Avamar device as the backup target. If you use a Data Domain system as the backup target for Avamar, then after the Data Domain system has been discovered within the Avamar Manager software application, specify the backup target by checking the appropriate box in the Avamar data set definition interface.

EMC Data Domain deduplication storage systems


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For 300 VMware-based VSPEX deployments or less, VSPEX offers VDP Advanced for Exchange. Powered by EMC Avamar technology, VDP Advanced delivers fast and efficient image-level backups and recoveries combined with Exchange-specific plug-ins, to make deployments as simple as possible.

VDP Advanced enables you to protect up to 10 VDP Advanced system in each vCenter instance. A VDP Advanced system:

• Provides up to 8 TB of capacity.

• Supports up to 400 concurrent VM backups.

• Operates independently from other VDP Advanced virtual appliances within the vCenter server instance. Individual deduplication of each VM occurs in a VDP Advanced virtual appliance. To take advantage of global deduplication, implement Data Domain Protection Storage Architecture.

• Provides high efficiency. VDP Advanced uses an industry-leading and patented variable length deduplication algorithm that minimizes storage and bandwidth consumption. The use of CBT reduces backup and recovery times, which minimizes the cost of application downtime.

• Provides resiliency. VDP Advanced provides agentless, image-level backups to disk and guest-level, application-consistent protection for Microsoft Exchange (including granular Exchange mailbox recovery), SQL Server, and SharePoint. Network efficient, encrypted backup data replication enables you to back up data offsite, which ensures business continuity and compliance.

• Provides simplicity. VDP Advanced provides full integration with vCenter Server and end-to-end management by using the vSphere Web Client provides:

Familiar user interface, which makes the product easy to use and manage.

Flexible and simplified schedules, which reduce operational overhead for vSphere administrators.

With VDP Advanced, you will benefit from fast, efficient image-level and file-level backup, recovery, and replication combined with reliable, scalable, and efficient storage protection.

Built-in Data Replication

The vSphere Replication feature provides an offline copy of a VM by copying changes in the vmdk for a running VM to a vmdk file at a secondary location. Each copy operation creates a replica of the VM at the secondary location and vSphere Replication supports up to 24 concurrent point-in-time replicas. User-defined Recovery Point Objectives (RPOs) determine the frequency of the replication operation. You can set RPOs to occur at intervals between 15 minutes and 24 hours.

VDP Advanced provides a built-in replication solution that supports the replication of deduplicated, encrypted backup data to a secondary location. The replication solution in VDP Advanced provides longer retention periods with less aggressive RPOs than vSphere Replication. When you use VDP Advanced replication, you can store replicas at the secondary location for periods in the range of 30 and 60 days and use RPO intervals of 24 hours and higher.

VMware vSphere Data Protection


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VDP Advanced replication supports the following destination storage types:

• VDP Advanced

• EMC Avamar

• EMC Avamar with Data Domain

Table 1 represents a possible sizing for this Solution based on assumptions contained within the Design Guide: EMC VSPEX for Virtualized Microsoft Exchange 2013.

Table 1: Recommended configurations for EMC Backup and Recovery solutions for VSPEX Virtualized Exchange deployments

50VM 100VM 300VM 600VM 1000VM

VSPEX Private Cloud with VMware vSphere

VDP Advanced VDP Advanced VDP Advanced Avamar Avamar

Data Domain

DD2500

Data Domain

DD2500

Data Domain

DD2500

Data Domain DD2500

Data Domain DD4200

VSPEX Private Cloud with Microsoft Hyper-V

Avamar Business Edition (M1200)

Avamar Business Edition (M1200)

Avamar Avamar Avamar

Data Domain DD2500

Data Domain DD2500

Data Domain DD4200

Note: Sizing can vary significantly depending on initial and day-over-day commonalities, application change rates, retention periods that are required for the business.

For example, based on assumptions within the Design Guide: EMC VSPEX for Virtualized Microsoft Exchange, a drastic change in the retention period alone can result in the need to use a higher capacity Data Domain appliance:

• If a configuration uses a retention period of 30 days for 300 VMs, then you can use a Data Domain DD2500.

• If a configuration uses a retention period of 3 years for 300 VMs, then use a Data Domain DD4200.

Backup and recovery solution sizing


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Note: You cannot upgrade a VDP virtual appliance; ensure that you carefully consider sizing requirements for this solution. Always use the DPAD Sizing tool to provide formal sizing metrics for any environment.

The remainder of this document focuses on design and implementation for Avamar, Avamar and Data Domain, and VMware VDP Advanced deployments for EMC VSPEX for Virtualized Microsoft Exchange 2013 solution.

https://community.emc.com/docs/DOC-19252�


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Chapter 3: Exchange backup and recovery considerations

This section provides an overview of backup strategies when you use Avamar, Avamar with Data Domain, or VDP Advanced with Data Domain to back up a VSPEX Private Cloud environment with VMware vSphere for Exchange.

Avamar Multistreaming backups Avamar Multistreaming enables parallel processing of up to six backup jobs by using multiple processors. Each stream requires a separate processor core. Avamar Multistreaming improves backup performance when you store backup data on the Avamar server or on a Data Domain system. You can configure multistreaming to group backups by volume or by database. If volumes have varying database sizes, for example 500 GB on G:\, 100 GB on H:\, and 100 GB on Z:\, then the time to release the volume is slower for streams that back up bigger databases.

To balance backup performance, back up data by:

• Volume when all volumes are similar in overall size.

• Database when all databases are similar in overall size.

Note: If you balance the databases across volumes so that each database is about the same size, and each volume contains about the same number of databases, then backup performance by database or by volume is the same.

Avamar Multistreaming places additional demands on computer hardware and resources beyond the base requirements for the Windows Exchange VSS plug-in. Use multistreaming with caution.

Note: EMC recommends that you use a clustered or DAG environment when you use Avamar Multistreaming because CPU usage is higher than when you back up data as a single stream. If you perform a multistreamed backup of an active Exchange server node, then the backup process can impact the email server performance and the end users.

Incremental backups In most environments the administrator configures daily full backups. In larger scale environments, the length of time to complete a backup might exceed the available backup window.

The backup completion time might exceed the available backup window for one or more of the following reasons:

• Databases are too large to complete in the required time.


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• The number of databases that multistream on each server exceeds the backup maximum of 6, resulting in a doubling of the backup time.

• The available server resources are insufficient for the size of the server, resulting in a slower backup.

The VADP Advanced and Avamar products provide features that enable you to back up the Exchange data incrementally and complete the backup within the available backup window.

When you configure an incremental backup schedule, EMC recommends that you configure as many full backups as possible. To minimize the frequency of incremental backups, identify the reason that the backup time exceeds the backup window, and then adjust the backup configuration.

When the number of databases or the sizes of the databases are too large to allow you to run concurrent backups within the backup window, you can create a schedule that minimally incorporates incremental backups.

For example:

1. Create two backup groups, group1 and group2 that each contain half the databases.

2. Schedule group1 to perform an incremental backup and schedule group2 to perform a full backup every second day.

3. Schedule group2 to perform an incremental backup and schedule group1 to perform a full backup on alternate days.

Configuring a full database backup every two days has the following benefits:

• Greatly reduces the need to restore from an incremental backup. For example you only need to perform an incremental restore when:

A major failure occurs.

The last backup was the incremental backup.

You need to restore the full database.

• Enables you to use Avamar Granular Level Recovery (GLR ) to recover data from a Full backup. After you recover the data by using Avamar GLR, use the Exchange Shell to extract granular items from the Recovery Database (RDB) that were backed up during the incremental backup.

• Enables you to perform an RDB restore without applying incremental restores to that RDB.

Note: Frequent recoveries from incremental backups are unlikely except in very large Exchange environments.


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Scratch space recovery requirements Before you restore a backup into an RDB, ensure that there is a volume (scratch space) available with enough free space for the Exchange database and the log files.

When you assign a volume as scratch space, EMC recommends that you:

• Ensure that the volume supports the largest database instance and the associated log files.

• Consider dedicating a single standby volume that is always available.

• Restore data to a RDB and perform granular level restores by using the Avamar GLR feature (or the Exchange Management Shell).

• Create the scratch space on the SAN/NAS device that each Exchange server can mount. This prevents you from allocating reserved disk space on each server.


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Chapter 4: Configuring Exchange Server Backups

This chapter provides an overview of backup strategies when you use Avamar, VDP Advanced, or Avamar with a Data Domain system, to back up an Exchange Server.

Avamar backup strategies overview The Exchange Information Store contains the following data:

• Exchange database (.edb) files. This includes mailbox databases and public folder databases.

• Transaction log (.log) files. These log files store database operations such as creating or modifying a message. After Exchange commits these operations, Exchange writes the operations to the .edb file.

• Checkpoint (.chk) files. These files store information about successful operations that Exchange saved to the database on the hard disk.

The backup strategy for a Microsoft Exchange environment can include the Information Store or any database on a Stand-alone Exchange server or DAG configuration. When Avamar backs up the database file, the backup includes the accompanying .log and .chk files.

The backup strategy for a Microsoft Exchange environment should include the following Exchange Server 2013 data objects:

• Databases

• Stand-alone (non-DAG) databases

• Active or passive databases in a DAG environment

When you perform an on-demand backup in a stand-alone environment, you can back up the entire Exchange Server or selected Exchange Server 2013 data objects.

Figure 4 illustrates the backup workflow for a stand-alone Exchange Server.

On-demand backups in a stand-alone environment


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Figure 4. Backup workflow for Exchange Server

The Windows Exchange VSS plug-in can back up both the active node and the passive node in a high-availability Exchange configuration.

In Exchange Server 2013, a physical server (node) can contain both active and passive databases, but cannot contain active and passive copies of the same database. To back up all passive databases on a node, select all databases on the physical node, and then select the option to only back up the replicas (passive copies). To back up all active databases on a node, select all databases on the physical machine, and then select the option to only back up the active databases.

You can perform two types of on-demand backups in a high availability Exchange environment, a federated or a non-federated backup. These backup types describe Avamar backups and do not apply to the concept of federated trusts, identity, authentication or private clouds as described by Microsoft. These backup types describe how a backup administrator segregates the backup jobs in a combination of passive and active copies.

Non-federated backups of Exchange Server 2013 DAG environment

In a non-federated backup environment, the administrator manually segregates Exchange backup jobs. If a server or database is not available, then the backup of the database fails. The backup administrator must perform a backup against another copy of the database. EMC recommends that you configure a federated Exchange environment to avoid manual intervention when the server or database is not available.

Figure 5 illustrates a non-federated backup of all of the databases in an Exchange Server 2013 DAG that contains three Exchange servers: MBX1, MBX2, and MBX3.

On-demand backups in a high-availability environment


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Each Exchange server hosts active and passive copies of four mailbox databases.

Figure 5. Non-federated backup of all databases in the DAG

In this example:

• Configure each Exchange server as a separate Avamar client.

• Each target Exchange database is passive.

• You must perform a backup of each Exchange server to ensure that a backup of all passive mailbox databases takes place. This results in multiple passive database backups of the same database (DB1). While this does not cause any errors for Avamar, this configuration has the following disadvantages:

Consumes extra server and storage resources to backup.

Stores duplicate copies of the same database. Adversely impacts deduplication results for that database by up to 60 percent or more. This is a


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direct result of the fact that Microsoft uses log replay to create these copies – the database copy is not a block-level copy of the database. So, when Avamar scans these log replay-created Exchange databases, the byte order is different, which results in new and unique data.

Note: EMC recommends that you back up the passive node in any configuration to reduce the impact on Exchange server performance and mail users.

Federated backups of Exchange Server 2013 DAG environments

In an Exchange Server 2013 DAG environment, you can replicate passive and active databases across multiple nodes for high availability. You can create a backup from the passive databases, to reduce the impact on production servers and resources.

To back up all databases in the DAG environment by using a conventional backup method, you must backup all passive databases on each Exchange server, even if the same database has multiple passive copies replicated across several nodes. However, with the Avamar federated backup solution for Exchange Server 2013 DAGs, you must perform the following tasks:

• Back up Exchange databases under the DAG name rather than each server.

• Specify the order that Avamar polls each server in the DAG for passive copies of each Exchange database. This is the Preferred Server Order List in the Dataset (PSOL).

To back up the passive or replica copies of each database in the DAG by using the Avamar client, create an Avamar client resource that subsequently points to the DAG name. Use this client resource instead of the individual Exchange server client resources to back up the DAG. You can specify a PSOL to define the order of Exchange servers that Avamar uses to back up the Exchange databases. When the backup order starts, Avamar backs up each database from the [preferred] Exchange servers in the order specified in the PSOL.

NOTE: Before you configure the Avamar Federated backup, you must assign the Avamar Cluster name to a unique IP and DNS name. The DNS name for the Avamar Cluster is not the DAG name. Pay particular attention to step 3 immediately below.

To configure the Avamar Federated Backup, perform the following steps:

1. Install the Avamar Windows client and Windows Exchange VSS plug-in on each Exchange server in the DAG. The EMC Avamar 7.0 for Exchange VSS User Guide describes how to install both the client and plug-in to each server in the Exchange environment.

2. Run the Backup User Configuration tool. This tool provides the Avamar services access to and privileges on Active Directory and Exchange servers. The chapter ”Installing the Avamar client software” in the EMC Avamar 7.0 for Exchange VSS User Guide describes how to run the tool.

3. Run the Avamar Cluster Client Configuration tool to create an Avamar Cluster resource name and IP that is used to communicate with the Exchange DAG name . The EMC Avamar 7.0 for Exchange VSS User Guide provides step-by-step instructions.


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Figure 6 illustrates an example of a federated backup of a DAG cluster with three Exchange servers: MBX1, MBX2, and MBX3. The cluster contains four Exchange databases: DB1, DB2, DB3, and DB4.

This example has the following components:

• Two passive copies of DB1 exist, on MBX2 and MBX3.

• One passive copy of DB2, DB3, and DB4 exists in the cluster.

• Only one copy of each database requires a backup.

• PSOL specifies that Avamar performs database backup by using the Exchange servers in the following order: MBX2, MBX3, and MBX1.


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Figure 6. Avamar Federated backup of a DAG cluster


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VDP Advanced 5.5.5 backup strategies overview Use the VMware vSphere Web Client interface to select, schedule, configure, and manage backups and recoveries of virtual machines.

During a backup, VDP creates a quiesced snapshot of the virtual machine and automatically deduplicates the backup data. To configure Exchange Server 2013 backups:

1. Select the job type:

− Virtual machine image: Performs a snapshot backup of the vmdk file.

− Full server: Performs a full backup of all the databases and accompanying logs on the server.

− Selected databases: Allows you to specify the Exchange databases to back up.

2. Select the Exchange Application.

− For Exchange Server 2013, select databases.

− For Exchange Server 2007, select storage groups.

3. Select the Exchange application options: a. In the Backup Type field, select Full or Incremental. The backup operation

automatically promotes Incremental and Differential backups to a level Full backup when a full backup does not exist.

b. For incremental backups only, select Circular logging-enabled database options.

− Promote (default setting): Promotes an incremental backup to a full backup when you enabled circular logging for any database in the save set. When circular logging is enabled for one or more databases VDP Advanced promotes an incremental backup for each database to a full backup.

− Circular: Promotes all incremental backups of all databases with circular logging enabled to a full backup and skips any databases that do not have circular logging enabled.

− Skip: Performs an incremental backup of all databases that have circular logging disabled and skips any database that has circular logging enabled.

Configuring Exchange Server 2013 backups by using VDP Advanced


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Avamar with Data Domain backup strategies overview Avamar 7.0 and later versions support Exchange database and log file backups to a Data Domain system. Avamar 6.0.x supports database backups to a Data Domain system only. Although beyond the scope of this paper, this change in support changes the previous paradigm for Avamar/Data Domain sizing because the log files, around 1 MB in size, can now result in different Avamar/Data Domain ratios.

Avamar 7.0 and later has the following advantages:

• You can deploy more, smaller Avamar grids, which can hold most or all of the Exchange transaction log files.

• You can co-locate database and logs on the same devices/media as part of a unified recovery operation.


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Chapter 5: Solution Verification Methodologies

This chapter provides guidance and the steps required to verify the backup configuration by performing recovery operations that use the EMC Avamar deduplication software and the VDP Advanced software.

Backup and recovery verification methodology Verification of the Exchange backup configuration and the ability to restore data requires a number of recovery options. The highest level is to recover an entire database. You would recover the database into an RDB (recovery database) for Exchange Server 2013. There are other lower level elements to confirm in the event that the environment is configured with Avamar Granular-Level Recovery (GLR ). When you recover mailboxes or lower level objects, consider the following:

• Avamar can perform GLR recoveries.

• VDP Advanced does not have GLR capabilities. You must first perform an RDB Restore, and then use the Exchange Shell to restore granular items into the active database.

The following core Avamar Exchange VSS documents, available from the EMC Online Support website, outline the specific steps for recovery of lower level objects:

• EMC Avamar 7.0 for Exchange VSS User Guide

• EMC Avamar 7.0 Operational Best Practices

• EMC Avamar 7.0 Administration Guide

To configure Exchange Server 2013 recoveries: 1. Open the Avamar Admin GUI, and then select the Backup & Restore tab.

2. Select the backup that you want to recover.

3. Set the restore options:

Restore to Original Location: Restores the selected Exchange Server instance or database to the original location. Ensure that you select the Allow database overwrite option for the database in the Exchange Console Management application. The recovery operation deletes any existing data and replaces the database with the recovered data.

Restore to Alternate Location: Restores the selected Exchange Server instance or database(s) to a location that differs from the original location. When you select this option, provide the following information:

− Client destination (use the drop-down box for selection)

− Location Path (full Windows path)

Recovery steps for Avamar

Recovery steps for VDP Advanced

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Note: When you restore an Exchange database, the destination Exchange Server must have the same Exchange Server version and service pack as the Exchange Server on which the backup was performed.

Restore into RSG/RDB: Restores the data to an Exhange 2013 Recovery Database (RDB) or an Exchange 2007 Recovery Storage Group (RSG).

Allow database overwrite: Enabled when you select the Restore to Original Location option. This forces the recovery process to overwrite any existing databases that have the same name(s) included in the restore job by modifying the internal Exchange flag “Allow File Restore”.

RSG/RDB name: Enabled when you select the Restore to RSG/RDB option. Specify the name of the RSG/RDB that you will restore the Exchange database to. If you specify the name of an a RSG/RDB that does not already exist, the recovery process creates the RSG/RDB. When you specify the name of an existing RSG/RDB, use the overwrite existing RSG/RDB option to ensure that the recovery process can overwrite the RSG/RDB.

RSG/RDB database path: Enabled when you select the Restore to RSG/RDB option. Specify the folder path (for example, C:\myrdb) that the recovery process will use to recover to recovery the database to the RSG/RDB. This is an optional field. The recovery process uses the default if you leave this field blank.

RSG/RDB log path: Enabled when you select the Restore to RSG/RDB option. Specify a folder path (for example, C:\myrdb) that the recovery process will use to recover the logs files to the RSG/RDB. This is an optional field. The recovery process uses the default location if you leave this field blank.

Overwrite existing RSG/RDB: Enabled when you select the Restore to RSG/RDB option. This option overwrites any existing RSG/RDB and should be used with caution.

vSphere Data Protection Administration Guide -vSphere Data Protection Advanced 5.1.20 provide detailed information about how to recovery these objects.


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Chapter 6: Reference Documentation

This chapter summarizes the documentation to review for more information about EMC Avamar, Microsoft Exchange Server, and VMware vSphere.

Product documentation The following documents provide additional and relevant information. If you do not have access to a document, contact your EMC representative:

• EMC Avamar 7.0 for Exchange VSS User Guide

• EMC Avamar 7.0 Administration Guide

• EMC Avamar 7.0 for VMware User Guide

• vSphere Data Protection Administration Guide -vSphere Data Protection Advanced 5.1.20

Other documentation The Microsoft website provides documentation about Microsoft Exchange 2013: http://www.microsoft.com

The VMware website provides documentation about VMware vSphere and vCenter: http://www.vmware.com

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