data protector

Technical white paper

Microsoft Exchange 2013 data protection with HP storage and HP Data Protector 9 HP 3PAR StoreServ Storage, HP StoreOnce Backup System, and HP StoreEver Tape Library

Table of contents Executive summary ...................................................................................................................................................................... 3

Target audience ......................................................................................................................................................................... 3

Introduction .................................................................................................................................................................................... 3

Solution overview .......................................................................................................................................................................... 4

HP Data Protector Integration with HP StoreOnce and HP StoreEver ............................................................................... 5

Hardware features overview ...................................................................................................................................................... 7

HP 3PAR StoreServ Storage key features and benefits ................................................................................................... 8

HP StoreOnce 6500 Backup System .................................................................................................................................... 9

HP StoreEver MSL6480 Tape Library ................................................................................................................................. 11

HP StoreEver TapeAssure software.................................................................................................................................... 13

HP ProLiant rack servers ....................................................................................................................................................... 13

Software features overview ...................................................................................................................................................... 14

HP Data Protector 9................................................................................................................................................................ 14

HP Data Protector GRE for Microsoft Exchange Server 2010+ .................................................................................... 15

Sizing the backup solution ........................................................................................................................................................ 15

Sizing the HP StoreOnce 6500 Backup System ............................................................................................................... 16

Sizing the HP StoreEver MSL6480 Tape Library .............................................................................................................. 18

Backup solutioninstallation and configuration ................................................................................................................ 18

Configuring the StoreOnce Backup System, StoreEver Tape Library, and Data Protector integration ............... 21

Installing Data Protector ....................................................................................................................................................... 23

Planning your backup strategy ............................................................................................................................................ 29

Exchange snapshot backup to HP StoreOnce with HP Data Protector ........................................................................... 29

Restore options ........................................................................................................................................................................... 36

Repair all passive copies with failed status ....................................................................................................................... 37

Restore to the latest state .................................................................................................................................................... 37

Restore to a specific point in time ....................................................................................................................................... 37

Restore to a new mailbox database ................................................................................................................................... 37

Restore files to a temporary location ................................................................................................................................. 37

Restoring using the Data Protector GUI ............................................................................................................................. 37

Single mail item or individual email recovery with GRE .................................................................................................. 41

Offload HP StoreOnce backups to tape for long-term data retention ............................................................................ 42

Technical white paper | Microsoft Exchange 2013 data protection with HP storage and HP Data Protector 9

Summary ....................................................................................................................................................................................... 43

Bill of materials ............................................................................................................................................................................ 43

Terminology ................................................................................................................................................................................. 44

Resources ..................................................................................................................................................................................... 45


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Executive summary

Microsoft Exchange Server (Exchange) is the keystone for business communication and collaboration. As the principal repository for business critical information in most organizations, it drives the need for protection of Exchange environments. The growing volume of emails makes it difficult for organizations to back up Exchange environments rapidly. Restoring data is time consuming, and often results in extended downtime and loss of productivity. Predictable backup and recovery service-level agreements (SLAs) are critical for enhanced productivity and for Exchange environments complete data protection. Snapshot-based backups provide instant backup and recovery of Exchange data within minutes, reducing or eliminating the window of downtime. Disk-based backups with deduplication address the challenge of backing up large amounts of data while minimizing storage footprint. Tape-based backups provide the most cost- and energy-efficient platform for secure, reliable, and durable long-term retention. A robust data protection strategy should include a tiered backup and recovery architecture solution, providing applications a balance of rapid rollbacks, fast recovery, and cost-effective, long-term retention.

This reference architecture (RA) combines with Exchange Native Data Protection feature with the high-performance backup capability of the HP StoreOnce Backup System and powerful capabilities of HP Data Protector software to deliver comprehensive protection of the Exchange environment. The RA also includes the HP StoreEver Tape Library, providing a cost-effective, long-term storage medium for disaster recovery (DR) and regulatory compliance.

Target audience

The intended audience includes IT professionals responsible for designing and implementing a data management solution for Exchange that meets the following requirements:

Exchange administrators that are interested in developing a modern data protection solution.

Instant backup and recovery of Exchange data using HP Data Protector software.

Tiered backups using disk-based backups with HP StoreOnce and tape-based backups with HP StoreEver.

The intended audience of this white paper should have a functional understanding of Exchange and Data Protector concepts and technologies.

Introduction

In todays business model, customers rely on an efficient, high performing, and reliable backup system to protect critical business information. Customers need to protect increasing amounts of data while keeping costs under control. For most IT environments, the first point of recovery is the high availability (HA) solution (e.g., Microsoft Exchange Database Availability Group [DAG], HP server and storage hardware resiliency features, etc.), followed by recovery from tape backups. These backup and recovery practices, while valid, are not sufficient to meet explosive data growth and shrinking backup and recovery windows.

Many enterprise customers are starting to deploy a second tier to their backup operations. The first tier of recovery is still the HA solution; the new second recovery tier is disk-based backups. Using a disk-based backup solution, such as HP StoreOnce Backup System, provides the benefits of accelerated backup, recovery, and deduplication operations that reduce required storage capacity. HP StoreOnce also provides reliable backup retention using data inflight, data-at-rest encryption, and reliable shredding.

The third tier of recovery, or safety net, is a tape backup solution such as the HP StoreEver MSL6480 Tape Library.

HP StoreOnce Backup System with HP StoreOnce Catalyst addresses the needs of small- to midsize-business, large enterprises, remote offices, and cloud service providers. For this paper, we have chosen the HP StoreOnce 6500 Backup System, scale-out disk deduplication solution to meet the needs of our enterprise messaging solution.

The HP StoreOnce 6500 Backup System is a disk-based, deduplication appliance in the StoreOnce Backup System product line. HP StoreOnce 6500 Backup System provides a unique combination of features: scalability up to 2,240 TB of raw backup capacity (1,728 TB usable), HA, and backup speeds up to 139 TB per hour.1 This creates a highly available and high-capacity disk-based backup solution, perfect for enterprise customers wanting to protect their messaging solution.

1 Actual performance is dependent upon configuration, data set type, compression levels, and number of streams, number of devices emulated, and number of

concurrent tasks, such as housekeeping or replication.


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The HP StoreOnce Catalyst software allows clients to deduplicate data on application servers such as exchange or backup servers such as HP Data Protector Media Server before transferring the data to an HP StoreOnce Backup System. This feature is often referred to as federated deduplication, which is a functionality unique to HP that provides customers with the ability to move deduplicated data between StoreOnce appliances or Catalyst Stores without rehydration. HP StoreOnce technology is independent of file system, operating system, or hardware platform. This allows better use of advanced, disk-based storage solutions, while increasing efficiency and performance and decreasing IT costs.

HP Data Protector uses the HP StoreOnce Catalyst application programming interface (API) development kit to fully use its StoreOnce hardware and utilize a single deduplication methodology across the entire backup infrastructure. This allows users to control where the deduplication occurs (source, server, or storage) from within the Data Protector console; centralized management of any additional StoreOnce appliances, as well as long-distance replication for protection or disaster recovery. Users can now manage backup, replication, and recovery operations between StoreOnce appliances from a single backup management console.

Combining the benefits of the HP StoreOnce 6500 Backup System, HP StoreEver MSL6480 Tape Library, and HP Data Protector provides a complete data protection solution that protects your Exchange environment in the event of a software or hardware failure.

For more information on HP Data Protector, visit: hp.com/go/dataprotector.

Solution overview

Key benefits of integrating HP data protection solutions into your Microsoft Exchange Server environment.

Integrates seamlessly with Exchange: HP Data Protector integrates with HP StoreOnce Backup systems and

HP StoreEver Tape Libraries to provide a complete and unified data protection solution, spanning single or multiple mailbox servers in a DAG.

Move backup data offsite efficiently and cost effectively: Use the HP StoreOnce remote replication feature

to replicate Exchange backups to an HP StoreOnce Backup System in a remote facility for simpler recovery in the event of a disaster.

Efficient backups: HP Data Protector and HP StoreOnce Backup systems with HP StoreOnce Catalyst utilize the same

deduplication engine that enables storing more data without adding more storage.

Autonomic failover: HP StoreOnce 6500 provides high availability by offering no single point of failure. If a node fails, its companion node picks up the load and the backup continues without any operator involvement.

Recover single mailbox items easily: Granular Recovery Extension (GRE) of HP Data Protector software allows

Exchange administrators and backup administrators to recover a variety of Exchange objects through an easy-to-use interface. It allows for the single item recovery of things such as mail, calendar, and contact-related items.

Grows your storage, as Exchange messaging needs increase: HP 3PAR StoreServ Storage is a scalable storage

solution that enables incremental customer purchases, allowing the array to grow as messaging requirements expand, for increased return on investment (ROI).

Reduces risk of hardware failures: HP 3PAR StoreServ protects critical Exchange data by reducing the risk of hardware

failures with persistent technologies that deliver high availability and Tier 1 resiliency.

99.9999% data availability with HP 3PAR Get 6-Nines Guarantee Program: HP offers the only 6-Nines data

availability guarantee program in the storage market, across midrange, all flash, and high-end storage arrays.

Move backup data offsite efficiently and cost effectively: The HP StoreOnce remote replication feature seamlessly replicates Exchange backups to an HP StoreOnce Backup System in a remote facility or simpler recovery in the event of a disaster.

Retains data long-term: The object copy feature found in HP Data Protector offers the flexibility of copying or moving Exchange backups from StoreOnce to StoreEver Tape Libraries. This provides a cost-effective, long-term storage medium and frees backup capacity on the StoreOnce system.

Tape reliability: HP StoreEver TapeAssure software is designed to give storage administrators confidence that Exchange backups written to tape can be successfully restored when the need arises. TapeAssure does proactive monitoring of drives and media to help ensure the data integrity of data stored on tape for reliable restores.

For additional information on backup, recovery, and archive solutions from HP, visit: hp.com/go/BURASolutions.


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HP Data Protector Integration with HP StoreOnce and HP StoreEver

Use Data Protector to create backups on HP StoreOnce and HP StoreEver, as shown in figure 1. For this white paper, we have configured HP Data Protector with the following requirements:

Back up Exchange databases using MS Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS) snapshot with the Microsoft Exchange 2010+ Server integration component.

Back up Exchange passive databases to reduce overhead on the active databases.

Use a dedicated Data Protector backup server to improve VSS backup performance.

For additional information on installing and configuring Data Protector with Exchange Server, visit: hp.com/go/dataprotector.

Figure 1. Data management solution using HP storage with Data Protector to back up Exchange databases

Exchange DAG and mailbox database copies

The DAG is a mailbox resiliency feature in Exchange 2013. This feature is the base component of the high availability and site resilience framework built into Exchange. A DAG is a group of up to 16 mailbox servers that hosts a set of databases and provides database-level recovery from failures that affect individual servers or databases. This paper uses the HA features of the Exchange DAG. The DAG contains two mailbox servers, providing two copies of each mailbox database. This is in addition to the VSS-based backup (a point-in-time copy, which is a third copy of mailbox databases) included in the data management or protection solution described in this white paper.

Having a DAG setup provides a number of advantages, but even extreme forms of Exchange redundancy and fault tolerances (e.g., multiple DAGs, database copies, mailbox servers, recoverable items folder or hold policy, etc.) cannot protect your data against every possible failure or disaster. In addition, these added Exchange high-availability and fault tolerant solutions come at the cost of increased up-front equipment purchases.

When determining the number of database copies to deploy, consider the type of data protection solution and its configuration with Exchange. Typically, Microsoft recommends deploying at least three copies of the mailbox databases if no traditional forms of protection, such as RAID or VSS-based backups, exist for the mailbox databases.

In the event of hardware or software failure, multiple database copies in a DAG enable high availability and failover. However, there are limitations for the DAG technology. The number of restore points is limited to a maximum of 15. Each replica is a full copy of the source mailbox database; hence, it requires more upfront equipment cost as mentioned above. HP StoreOnce Backup systems provide a disk-based data protection platform while addressing data growth by applying HP StoreOnce Deduplication software for efficient, long-term data retention. Recovery of such data from a point in time beyond the limited time that the DAG provides will require external backups such as HP StoreOnce and StoreEver.

For more information, visit: technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd298065.aspx.


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Exchange environment (building block) targeted for a data protection solution

Exchange environments are sometimes sized into building blocks. A building block represents the amount of disk and server resources required to support a specific number of Exchange users. The amount of required resources derives from:

A specific user workload profile

The size of the users mailbox

Length of time to retain deleted mail items

Disk requirements to meet performance and capacity requirements

After the design of the initial building block is complete, the building block can be duplicated to scale and support a variety of deployments like these:

Increasing the number of database copies

Supporting site failover

Increasing the number of mailboxes or mailbox capacity

Using this approach, Exchange administrators can create their own building blocks, based on their company s specific Exchange messaging requirements. When messaging demands increase, this approach makes Exchange environment expansion much easier and more straightforward.

Table 1 provided details on the Exchange building block selected to support the development of the solution outlined in this paper. The equipment list in the bill of materials provides sufficient headroom for an expansion or a larger initial Exchange environment. For information on tested Exchange deployments with HP storage, visit: technet.microsoft.com/en-us/exchange/ff182054.aspx.

Table 1. Exchange configuration details

Exchange 2013 configuration Details

Number of mailboxes 1,000

Mailbox size 5 GB

Messaging workload profile Up to 200 messages sent and received for each user, each day

DAG configuration:

Number of DAGs

Number of mailbox servers per DAG

Number of active mailbox users per mailbox server

Number of mailbox database copies

1

2

500

2

For specific deployment options and Exchange sizing best practices, HP has developed the HP Sizer for Microsoft Exchange to assist customers with proper server and storage sizing and configuration for their Exchange deployments. The algorithms developed and implemented in this tool are based on HPs extensive knowledge of both Exchange and the hardware required to run it: CPU, memory, and storage subsystems. This tool is free and designed to allow very quick what-if modeling of various configuration and design choices. For more information, visit: hp.com/solutions/microsoft/exchange2013/sizer.


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Hardware features overview

Figure 2 provides a high-level view of each major component described in the paper and its role in the overall data management solution for Exchange. See the bill of materials for a detailed description and part numbers.

Figure 2. Role of each major component used in the data management solution

The data management in this solution use 10GbE and 8 Gb Fibre networks primarily; however, to make the solution more cost-effective, each component offers a variety of connectivity options to meet any budget.

For smaller Exchange environments, the Cell Manager and backup server can be deployed on the same server.


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HP 3PAR StoreServ Storage key features and benefits

The HP 3PAR StoreServ 7200 2-node Storage Base, shown in figures 3 and 4, provides industry leading performance and Tier 1 resiliency at an affordable price. Spend less time managing storage, get more features for less money, and do it all without sacrificing performance or future scalability. HP 3PAR StoreServ provides a common architecture that meets midrange needs and expands to the largest global enterprises, giving you access to the same features as the worlds largest service providers. You can start small and grow, as your Exchange storage needs increase, without painful future upgrades.

The 3PAR StoreServ product family provides the following benefits:

Scalable storage: The HP 3PAR StoreServ 7200 architecture provides affordable entry pricing and unique, nondisruptive scalability for four nodes, allowing your storage to grow with your Exchange environment (e.g., bigger mailboxes, more mailbox users, increased messaging workloads, etc.).

Data resiliency: The HP 3PAR StoreServ virtual copy feature provides the ability to create snapshots of your Exchange data. The snapshots offer instant backup and recovery of Exchange data to any specific point in time.

High availability: Featuring the same mesh-active architecture as all 3PAR StoreServ products, HP 3PAR StoreServ

7200 2-node Storage Base offers the highest levels of data availability and protection from mid-market to Enterprise-level customers.

Service levels: With policy-based, autonomic sub-logical unit number (LUN) tiering, you can balance capacity and

performance costs, and put the right data on the right storage tier at the right time. For example, separate the disks used for snapshots vs. the disks used for Exchange databases and logs.

Do more with less: With HP 3PAR StoreServ Storage, you can purchase up to 75 percent less capacity: meaning less

equipment to house, fewer disks to power and cool, less hardware to retire after it has reached its end of life, and a reduced carbon footprint.

For more product information and configuration options, visit: hp.com/go/3PAR.

Figure 3. HP 3PAR StoreServ 7200 2-node Storage Base

Figure 4. HP M6720 3.5 inch 4U SAS Drive Enclosure (shown with 24 2 TB serial-attached SCSI [SAS] LFF drives)


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HP StoreOnce 6500 Backup System

The HP StoreOnce 6500 Backup System can also replicate data to a remote StoreOnce appliance, adding the reliability of offsite backup storage. HP StoreOnce Catalyst with HP Data Protector allows application servers at remote sites to send deduplicated backups directly to a centralized data center, while still maintaining local copies for fast recovery. Shipping deduplicated data without rehydrating it reduces the bandwidth requirements for remote office replication and offsite backup storage.

Table 2 provides the configuration details of the HP StoreOnce 6500 Backup System used in this paper.

Table 2. HP StoreOnce 6500 Backup System

Backup system configuration Details

Number of processing nodes 2 (1 couplet)

Number of drives 30

Drive type 4 TB LFF SAS

Firmware version 3.11.0

Host connectivity 10GbE

Figure 5 shows the basic concepts of the HP 6500 StoreOnce Backup System architecture.

Figure 5. Conceptual 6500 couplet architecture


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Figure 6. Front hardware view of the HP StoreOnce 6500 Backup System

HP StoreOncedata deduplication

Store more data on disk: HP StoreOnce Deduplication reduces the disk space required to store backup data sets without

impacting backup performance. Retaining more backup data on disk for longer periods enables greater data accessibility for rapid restore of lost or corrupt files and reduces downtime. Deduplication ratios are strongly influenced by two factorsdata change rate and backup data retention periods. Low data change rates and data retained for longer periods yield higher deduplication ratios.

Enable replication: HP StoreOnce Deduplication is the technology enabler for HP StoreOnce Deduplication-enabled

replication, which allows fully automated replication over low bandwidth links to a disaster recovery (DR) site. This gives remote office/branch office (ROBO) and small data centers a cost-effective DR solution for the first time.

Rapid restore of data for dependable, worry-free data protection: HP StoreOnce Backup systems offer immediate

access to backups for rapid restores. HP StoreOnce Deduplication allows more data to be stored closer to the data center for longer periods, which offers immediate access for rapid restores.

HP StoreOnce technology is a 5-step inline data deduplication process (chunk -> hash -> match -> compress -> store.) It uses hash-based chunking technology, which analyzes incoming backup data in chunks that average 4 KB in size. The hashing algorithm generates a unique hash value that identifies each chunk and points to its location in the deduplication store.

Figure 7. StoreOnce deduplication


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HP StoreOnce Catalyst Stores

HP StoreOnce Catalyst targets are recommended for more complex data protection environments that require data movement flexibility. StoreOnce Catalyst also enables distributed deduplication processing, balancing the load for more efficient server, backup appliance, and network performance.

StoreOnce Catalyst delivers a single, integrated, enterprise-wide deduplication algorithm. It allows the seamless movement of deduplicated data across the enterprise to other StoreOnce Catalyst systems.

Because Catalyst Stores work on Ethernet, customers can save on the cost of setting up a SAN for backups. Although, in the near future, Store Once Catalyst can run on both Ethernet and Fibre Channel (FC), the cost advantage of running Catalyst on Ethernet would remain.

Figure 8 shows the data paths between the HP StoreOnce 6500 Backup System and the backup server equipped with Data Protector software (media agent). The StoreOnce is shown as a 2-node/single couplet system. Only Catalyst Stores are shown, but virtual tape library (VTL) and NAS can coexist. The network connection is shown as a WAN or LAN because HP StoreOnce Catalyst Protocol is designed from the outset to accommodate possible latency differences between a local network and a WAN. Only a Data Protector Media Server is shown. It could back up either direct attached disks data or from clients that only have a media agent installed. The HP StoreOnce Catalyst API is embedded in the Data Protector Media Agent.

Figure 8. StoreOnce 6500 data paths to Data Protector backup server

HP StoreOnce 6500 Backup autonomic restart with HP Data Protector Catalyst

The HP StoreOnce 6500 Backup System can fail-over in the rare case of node hardware failure. This process is autonomic: meaning it requires no external intervention. Because the service set which provides the StoreOnce emulations and deduplication takes time to start up on the good node in the couplet, the Data Protector jobs will fail. However, HP has produced a script that can be integrated into HP Data Protector to restart all the backup jobs automatically. The script can be customized and run as a post-backup executable. For instruction on how to set up this script, contact your reseller or HP sale representative.

For more information on HP StoreOnce Backup systems, visit: hp.com/go/StoreOnce.

HP StoreEver MSL6480 Tape Library

The HP StoreEver MSL6480 is a rack-mounted, scalable tape library that uses the latest linear tape-open (LTO) tape technology to achieve high capacity and performance in a small amount of space. In 6U of rack space, the StoreEver MSL6480 base module can hold 80 tape cartridges and up to six LTO-6 or LTO-5 tape drives. If you need more storage capacity or performance, simply add one to six expansion modules. Like the base module, each expansion module can hold 80 tape cartridges and up to six tape drives.


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Table 3 provides the configuration details of the HP StoreEver MSL6480 used in this paper.

Table 3. HP StoreEver MSL6480 Tape Library

Tape Library configuration Details

Number/type of tape drives 6/HP StoreEver LTO-6 Ultrium 6250

Number of tape slots 80

Tape library firmware version 4.40

Tape drive firmware version 23MW

Host connectivity 8 Gb Fibre

The HP StoreEver MSL6480 Tape Library provides the following features and benefits:

TapeAssure: HP TapeAssure makes managing, enhancing, and archiving on the HP StoreEver MSL Tape Libraries easier.

TapeAssure provides comprehensive summaries and detailed information about the status, performance, usage, and health of all tape drives and cartridges. TapeAssure use and performance reporting features allow you to help optimize the use of your existing HP StoreEver MSL Tape Libraries to make informed purchasing decisions if increased capacity is needed.

Proven reliability: With a rating of 2,000,000 robot load/unload cycles, the MSL Tape Libraries provide necessary high

reliability for todays demanding environment. To improve reliability and longevity, all HP Ultrium products feature data rate matching (DRM). This allows the tape drive to adjust the speed of the drive to match the speed of the host or network dynamically and continuously. This increases performance, reduces mechanical wear on the tape drive, and extends tape life.

Tape library extender: Leverage the investment in your MSL Library, now or in the future, to increase both capacity and performance, as data needs change. Use the HP MSL Library Extender Kit to connect two MSL libraries to create one larger, logical library.

Compatibility: HPs extensive compatibility testing program helps assure that HP MSL Tape Libraries work with leading servers, operating systems, and backup applications such as Data Protector. The MSL Libraries work seamlessly in many environments, making them especially suitable if you have a mixed system environment.

For more information on HP StoreEver Tape Libraries, visit: hp.com/go/StoreEver.

Table 4 shows the various capacity points and the library rack footprint. Figure 9 shows the front hardware view of the HP StoreEver MSL6480 Scalable Base Module.

Table 4. HP StoreEver MSL6480 Scalable Base Module scalability guide

Installed modules Maximum number of tape drives

Maximum number of storage slots

Amount of rack space

Base module 6 80 6U

Base module plus 1 expansion module

12 160 12U


18 240 18U


24 320 24U


30 400 30U


36 480 36U


42 560 42U


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Figure 9. The HP StoreEver MSL6480 Scalable Base Module

HP StoreEver TapeAssure software

HP StoreEver TapeAssure is designed to give a storage administrator confidence that data written to tape can be successfully restored when the need arises. Most software written to interact with tape drives and tape libraries gives a user a pass or fail grade on the quality of a write or read operation involving tape. HP StoreEver TapeAssure digs deeper into the knowledge of the tape drive to provide administrators with a much more detailed status.

HP StoreEver TapeAssure features:

Usage and performance: pinpoint configuration changes or specific upgrades to make good use of your tape investment

Proactive, always-on health monitoring: knows about issues before they cause disruption so that you can perform preventive maintenance in planned windows

Proactive maintenance: knows when to clean tape drives or when to retire tapes.

Consolidation for all HP Tape monitoring: sees a single, consolidated view of tape storage, regardless of the type or how dispersed your tape-based devices may be

HP StoreEver TapeAssure leverages HPs unique position as a provider of tape libraries, tape drives, and tape media to gather and analyze diagnostic information from HP tape drives and present that information to the storage administrator.

HP TapeAssure provides proactive monitoring and notification for all HP Tape devices and media. For more information, visit: hp.com/go/TapeAssure.

HP ProLiant rack servers

The HP ProLiant DL380p Gen8 Rack Server shown in figure 10 is the server used for our Exchange and Data Protector applications. HP ProLiant servers are an exceptional data center investment for managing demanding computing requirements such as those found in Exchange 2013.

Table 5 provides the configuration details of the HP ProLiant DL380p Gen8 Rack Server used in this paper.

Table 5. HP ProLiant DL380p Gen8 Rack Server

Server configuration Details

Processor 2 x Intel Xeon E5-2690 2.90 GHz processors

Memory 128 GB

Disk drive 2 x HP 300GB 6G SAS 15K 2.5in SC ENT HDD

Host bus adapter (HBA) 2 x HP SN1100E 16Gb 2P FC HBA

Network HP NC365T 4-port Ethernet Server Adapter

HP FlexFabric 10Gb 2-port 554FLR-SFP+ Adapter

Operating system Microsoft Windows Server 2012 R2


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HP ProLiant Serverkey features and benefits:

Redefining the customer experience with HP ProActive Insight Architecture. Prevents data loss, reduces downtime, and improves serviceability. Includes HP SmartDrives, HP Smart Socket guides,

Snap and Go rail kit options, and tool-less access to components.

Provides intuitive system management with simplified provisioning, proactive health monitoring and alerting, and automated firmware and system software maintenance, using integrated lifecycle automation.

Dynamic workload acceleration converges storage, compute, and I/O to turbo-charge performance and resiliency while obviating bottlenecks.

Reclaims space, power, and cooling resources needed for workloads and extends your data center capacity with automated energy optimization.

Unlock your infrastructures potential with HPs easy-to-use integrated management and support. Offers a complete set of embedded features, standard on all ProLiant Gen8 servers, including HP Integrated Lights-Out

(iLO), HP Agentless Management Service, HP Active Health System, HP Intelligent Provisioning, and HP Embedded Remote Support using the HP iLO Management Engine.

Provides 24x7 remote monitoring and any place, anytime, personalized access to your IT and support status with HP Insight Online and HP Insight Remote Support.

Provides advanced management capabilities across the lifecycle of your HP ProLiant server infrastructure with HP Insight Control. HP iLO Advanced, a key component, provides enhanced remote server functions that reduce IT travel costs and decrease resolution time.

For more product information and configuration options, visit: hp.com/go/ProLiant.

Figure 10. HP ProLiant DL380p Gen8 Rack Server

HP ProLiant servers are connected to a 10GbE network using HP 6600 Switch Series. For more information on HP FlexFabric switches, visit: hp.com/go/FlexFabric.

Software features overview

The main software components of the RA building block are Microsoft Windows Server 2012 R2 Data Center Edition, Microsoft Exchange Server 2013 for the messaging solution, HP Data Protector 9, HP Data Protector GRE for Microsoft Exchange Server, and HP StoreEver TapeAssure software for the backup solution.

HP Data Protector 9

HP Data Protector 9 is a backup solution that provides reliable data protection and high availability for your fast growing business data. Data Protector offers comprehensive backup and restore functionality specifically tailored for enterprise-wide and distributed environments. The following list describes major Data Protector features:

Scalable and highly flexible architecture: can be used in environments ranging from a single system to thousands

of systems on several sites. Due to the network component concept of Data Protector, elements of the backup infrastructure can be placed in the topology according to user requirements. The numerous backup options and alternatives to setting up a backup infrastructure allow the implementation of virtually any configuration you want. Data Protector also integrates seamlessly with StoreOnce Backup and StoreEver.

Easy central administration: with its easy-to-use GUI, Data Protector allows you to administer your complete backup environment from a single system. To ease operation, the GUI can be installed on several systems to allow multiple administrators to access Data Protector via their locally installed consoles. Even multiple backup environments can be managed from a single system. The Data Protector CLI allows you to manage Data Protector using scripts.


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High-performance backup: enables you to perform backup to several hundred backup devices simultaneously.

It supports high-end devices in very large libraries. Various backup possibilities, such as local backup, network backup, online backup, disk image backup, synthetic backup, backup with object mirroring, and built-in support for parallel data streams allow you to tune your backups to fit your requirements better. With Data Protectors support for Federated Catalyst and Catalyst over Fibre Channel, mission-critical backup and recovery at scale is possible. Data Protector offers varieties of deduplication methods such as backup-server deduplication, target-based deduplication, and source-side deduplication. For this RA, we have selected the backup-server (server-side) deduplication method.

Backup object operations: provides flexibility in the choice of backup and archive strategy. Advanced techniques are

available for performing operations on individual backup objects. These include copying of objects from one medium to another, useful for disk staging and archiving purposes, and consolidation of multiple object versions from incremental backups into a single full-backup version. To support such functionality, there is also the ability to verify both original and copied or consolidated backup objects. For more information on HP Data Protector, visit: hp.com/go/dataprotector.

HP Data Protector GRE for Microsoft Exchange Server 2010+

HP Data Protector features the GRE for Exchange 2010+. This feature allows Microsoft Exchange Server administrators and HP Data Protector backup administrators to recover a variety of Exchange objects through a simple, easy-to-use interface. The GRE allows for single item recovery of most Exchange objects without having to do a full recovery of the mailbox database, greatly reducing the IT administrator time for restore operations and improving productivity.

HP Data Protector GRE for Microsoft Exchange Server 2010+ provides the following benefits:

Recovery granularity: restores the smallest object such as database. Search your mailbox, and recover single items

such as messages, inboxes, deleted items, sent items, attachments, tasks, folders, and calendars.

The main advantage of this extension over other solutions is that you do not need to recover the entire database to find the items needed. The granularity is already visible after the restore process; you can search and recover single mailbox items. You can also recover a complete single user mailbox, its subfolders, and even a single message or item from subfolders.

The extension enables you to recover individual mailbox items, such as email folders, calendars, contacts, or notes, with no need to recover the whole Microsoft Exchange Server mailbox or the entire mailbox database.

Integration into the Microsoft Exchange Management Console: integrates into the Exchange Management Console to

empower Exchange administrators to perform recovery of single items independently, without the assistance of backup administrators.

Recovery of multiple mailboxes: recovers multiple mailboxes concurrently.

Easy search: advanced and quick search options help you find the item you need to recover. This search system checks the objects metadata, enabling you to filter your search by document type, author, date, and so on.

Recovery to different locations: enables recovery of your mail objects to a different directory than the one

originally specified.

For more information on HP Data Protector GRE for Microsoft Exchange Server 2010+, see the GRE User Guide for Microsoft Exchange Server found on the HP Data Protector installation CD or at support.openview.hp.com/selfsolve/manual.

Sizing the backup solution

An important part of Exchange administration is maintaining a consistent set of backup data available for recovery. If data is lost due to user error, system failure, or catastrophic site failure, complete server and application data recovery are essential. The backup data can be consolidated to local or remote StoreOnce Backup systems for rapid recovery, and then offloaded to StoreEver Tape Libraries for long-term data retention and the convenience of offsite backups.

The RA uses disk-based (StoreOnce) and tape-based backup (StoreEver) technologies for a complete backup, recovery, and archive solution for Microsoft Exchange Server 2013. Table 6 shows the backup configuration details for the RA.


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Table 6. RA configuration details

Backup configuration Details

Disk-based backup platform

Number of nodes

Number of drives

Type of drives

HP StoreOnce 6500 Backup System

2 (1 couplet)

30

4 TB LFF SAS

Tape-based backup platform

Type or number of tape drives

Number of tape cartridge slots

HP StoreEver MSL6480 Tape Library

6

80

Backup software HP Data Protector 9

Sizing the HP StoreOnce 6500 Backup System

This RAs HP StoreOnce 6500 Backup System contains a pair of server nodes (two server nodes equals one couplet) connected in a failover configuration, with one disk shelf assigned to each server. Each disk shelf contains 15 4 TB LFF SAS disks. The HP StoreOnce 6500 Backup System has specific networking considerations to help ensure support for autonomic failover. The RA follows the design layout of multi-node, HP StoreOnce Backup Systems found in the HP StoreOnce 6500 Backup System Installation Planning and Preparation Guide and Checklists white paper. An HP service specialist normally carries out the installation and configuration of these systems. Before installation, the customer is asked to read and complete the checklists found in this white paper. The checklists specify the information that the engineer needs to configure the system.

For this RA, we choose the HP StoreOnce Catalyst over Ethernet as the preferred protocol over VTL or NAS for variety of reasons:

HP StoreOnce Catalyst is a unique interface and is fundamentally different from virtual tape or NAS.

Optional deduplication at the backup server enables greater performance and reduced bandwidth requirements. This can be controlled at backup session and job level.

Enables advanced features, such as replication of backups between appliances in a network-efficient manner, under control of the backup application.

Allows the HP Data Protector software to control backup, replication, and recovery of data from any StoreOnce device at any location, directly from the backup management console, greatly simplifying administrative tasks.

HP StoreOnce Catalyst protocol runs on a standard IP network and FC protocols.

Enables space occupied by expired backups to be returned for re-use.

Enables asymmetric expiration of backup data to satisfy the business and governance requirements at each location.

Backup jobs can restart automatically if the StoreOnce has a node failover condition (requires a restart script.)

Capacity planning

The amount of required backup storage for Microsoft Exchange 2013 database backups depends on the measurements of the following items:

Size and number of Exchange databases

Size of the database logs

Site backup retention policy (What are your requirements for data retention?)

Type (full, incremental, or differential) and frequency of backups

Rate of change (growth) of the Exchange mailbox databases

The deduplication ratio achieved by the StoreOnce Backup System


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General sizing rule for HP StoreOnce Catalyst

The majority of customers using StoreOnce Catalyst use the low-bandwidth backup mode because of bandwidth savings and the overall performance improvement, realized on the HP StoreOnce appliance. Offloading the deduplication process allows the appliance itself to run faster because it is less loaded. Data Protector can perform deduplication on backups at three different locations.

Target-side deduplication in the HP StoreOnce 6500 high-bandwidth transfers

Deduplication on a server running the media agent with a StoreOnce Catalyst API using a disk agent on the same server (source-side deduplication)

Deduplication in the media agent running on a server but with the disk agent on a different server (server-side) deduplication

The decision on whether to use source or server deduplication depends on the WAN or LAN link speed available, the CPU and memory size of the server running the disk agent, and how much load that server can stand. If for example, you have a large database server that is heavily loaded and you are backing up a snapshot, it may not be a good idea to use source- or server-side deduplication for some jobs. Target-side deduplication places less load on the server.

In the case when Exchange Server is hosted in the remote office location, small remote office backups over a WAN may really benefit from source- or server-side deduplication, because their data change rate is low and they may well be backed up after hours, when server load is not so critical.

Considerations for implementing server-side and source-side deduplication include these requirements:

Allow 50 MBps of stream data per GHz of CPU core and 30 MB of RAM (allow two cores for the HP Data Protector Media Agent software)

Allow at least 16 GB of RAM overall

Ignore hyper-threading (for example, 12 cores = 24 with hyper-threading)

Following the above guidelines, we can calculate the available data stream bandwidth for our RA.

Two Intel Xeon E5-2680 2.70 GHz processors (16 CPU cores total)

14 cores x 2.7 GHz = 38 GHz (two cores are allocated to the HP Data Protector Media Agent)

38 data streams @ 50 MBps = 1,900 MBps (providing the sources of the data are not the bottleneck)

The backup server, with two Intel Xeon E5-2680 processors and configured for server-side deduplication, should be able to deliver StoreOnce Catalyst data streams at a rate of 1,900 MBps.

HP StoreOnce Catalyst Stores

Each catalyst store is an independent deduplication domain. To achieve better deduplication ratios, create a unique Catalyst Store specifically for similar data types. The RA is configured with four Catalyst Stores per node, for a total of eight Catalyst Stores across the entire couplet. Multiple streams are recommended for superior performance with HP StoreOnce Catalyst. For help with choosing the most appropriate HP StoreOnce Backup System configuration for your specific environment, we recommend you talk to your HP partner or sales advisor about using the HP Storage Sizing Tool (free tool) that can be downloaded from the downloads section of hp.com/go/StoreOnceSizer.


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Sizing the HP StoreEver MSL6480 Tape Library

The RAs tape-based backup solution is the HP StoreEver MSL6480 Tape Library, containing six HP StoreEver LTO-6 Ultrium 6250 tape drives and 80 tape slots. Each tape device has a sustained native transfer rate of up to 160 MBps, which equals 576 GB/h.2 The transfer rate may increase significantly, depending on the data set and how well it compresses. We have six tape devices, giving us a native transfer rate of up to 3,456 GB/h. Table 7 compares the number of tape devices and native transfer rates.

Table 7. HP StoreEver LTO-6 Ultrium 6250 storage configuration details

Number of LTO-6 tape devices Native transfer rate3

1 576 GB/h

2 1,152 GB/h

3 1,728 GB/h

4 2,304 GB/h

5 2,880 GB/h

6 3,456 GB/h

The RA expects that most customers will perform a monthly tape offload from the HP StoreOnce 6500 Backup System to the HP StoreEver MSL6480 Tape Library. For this white paper, assume that each month there are 20 TB of data to archive and offload from the HP StoreOnce Backup System. We have six tape devices, giving us a native transfer rate of up to 3,456 GB/h. We must address the following concerns:

What is the size of the Catalyst Stores that need to migrate to physical tape?

How fast do you want the migration to occur to physical tape?

How often do you want to migrate to physical tape?

To object copy 20 TB to tape can take up to nine hours to complete. Depending on other activities happening on the StoreOnce Backup System, it may not be possible to spare a single nine-hour copy time to physical tape. In this case, one option is to stagger the monthly offloads to tape over separate weeks, doing approximately 3 TB each week. This would then occupy just over two hours bandwidth per week from the StoreOnce, which is easier to schedule.

Backup solutioninstallation and configuration

Data Protector integrates with Microsoft Exchange Server through the Data Protector Microsoft Exchange Server integration agent, which channels communication between the Data Protector session manager and the clients in the Microsoft Exchange Server environment. The agent communicates with Microsoft Exchange Server through the Microsoft Exchange Management Shell and uses VSS to back up data.

Data Protector integrates with Microsoft Exchange Server (Exchange Server) to back up and restore Exchange items online, enabling the Exchange Server to be actively used during the session.

The standalone and DAG environments are supported.

The Data Protector and Microsoft Exchange Server 2010+ integration is based on the VSS technology. For details on VSS concepts, see the HP Data Protector Integration Guide for Microsoft Volume Shadow Copy Service on the Data

Protector installation CD or at support.openview.hp.com/selfsolve/manual.

2 h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/Document.jsp?objectID=c03586513&lang=en&cc=us&taskId=&prodSeriesId=4150338 3 Actual performance is dependent upon configuration, data set type, compression levels, and number of backup streams.


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Data Protector offers interactive and scheduled backups of the following types:

Backup You can select among the following Microsoft Exchange Server backup types:

Table 8. Data Protector backup types

Full Backs up the database files (.edb), transaction logs (.log), and checkpoint files (.chk), and then truncates the transaction logs

Incremental Backs up the transaction logs (.log) that has been created since the last full or incremental backup, and then truncates the transaction logs

Differential Backs up the transaction logs (.log) that has been created since the last full backup, without truncating the transaction logs

An incremental or differential backup of a database cannot be performed:

If a full backup has not been performed.

If an incremental backup starts just after a differential backup has been performed, or the other way around.

If Microsoft Exchange Server circular logging is enabled.

When you back up a Microsoft Exchange Server database, the following files are backed up automatically:

database files (.edb)

transaction logs (.log)

checkpoint files (.chk)

Restore During restore, each database can be restored using a different restore method. The following methods are available:

Repair all passive copies with failed status

Restore to the latest state

Restore to a point in time

Restore to a new mailbox database

Restore files to a temporary location

In a DAG environment, Data Protector communicates with the DAG using one of the Microsoft Exchange Server systems (the one that is currently active in the environment). All backup and restore requests are sent to the active Exchange Server.

In a single session, you can back up active and/or passive database copies from different Microsoft Exchange Server systems that belong to the same DAG.


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Figure 11. Example of a DAG environment

If a database has multiple passive copies, you can specify which particular passive copy you want to back up, using one of the following backup policies:

Minimize the number of hosts

Lowest activation preference

Highest activation preference

Shortest replay lag time

Longest replay lag time

Longest truncation lag time

You can also specify from which Microsoft Exchange Server system database copies should not be backed up.

For a brief description of the activation preference number, replay lag time, and truncation lag time, see table 9.

Table 9. Microsoft Exchange Server parameters in DAG environments

Parameter Description

Activation preference number The activation preference number determines which passive copy is activated if multiple passive copies meet the same criteria; the copy assigned the lowest activation preference number is activated.

Replay lag time The ReplayLagTime parameter plays a role when synchronizing a passive copy with the active copy. As soon as a log file at the active copy side is filled up, it is copied to the passive copy side. By default, the newly copied log is also applied to the passive copy database files. However, if the passive copy ReplayLagTime parameter is set to a value greater than 0, the log is applied with a lag, creating a lagged database copy.

The maximum value is 14 days.

Truncation lag time The TruncationLagTime parameter specifies how long the Microsoft Exchange Replication service waits before truncating log files that have already been applied to the database files.

The maximum value is 14 days.


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Configuring the StoreOnce Backup System, StoreEver Tape Library, and Data Protector integration

HP StoreOnce 6500 Backup System, HP StoreEver MSL6480 Tape Library, and HP Data Protector are configured together to create the complete data protection solution. These components work to safeguard the Exchange environment in the event of a hardware or software failure resulting in data loss.

Figure 12. Data Protector integrates with StoreOnce and StoreEver systems

The HP StoreOnce 6500 Backup System base hardware configuration includes two server nodes and two dual controller disk shelves with 120 TB of backup storage capacity. To obtain the increased backup and recovery performance with HP StoreOnce Catalyst, it is essential that the backup server keeps the Catalyst Stores (backup target) supplied with the desired number of data streams.

For the RA building block, each server node is configured with four Catalyst Stores, providing a better configuration for our backup solution. Network connectivity is 10GbE for user management and data, which is essential for large configurations that require maximum performance. Additionally, the HP StoreOnce 6500 Backup System is a multi-node appliance that supports autonomic failover. More care is required in the network configuration to help ensure better operations of the autonomic failover feature.

The HP StoreEver MSL6480 Tape Library base hardware configuration starts with zero tape drives and 80 tape cartridge slots. To prevent excessive copy times for moving backups from StoreOnce to physical tape, the RA building block is configured with the HP StoreEver MSL6480 Tape Library having four HP StoreEver LTO-6 Ultrium 6250 tape drives, to provides a better configuration for our backup solution. Network connectivity is through an 8 Gb Fibre Channel for data and 1 GB network for management.

HP Data Protector software version 9 is installed on an HP ProLiant DL380p Gen8 Rack Server running Microsoft Windows Server 2012 R2 Edition. This server acts as the Cell Manager for the RA. It contains the HP Data Protector Internal Database (IDB) and runs the core HP Data Protector software and session managers. Data Protector software controls the backup operations and fully leverages the features and functions of the HP StoreOnce 6500 Backup System and HP StoreEver MSL6480 Tape Library to help minimize backup and recovery windows, enhance business application performance, and maintain long-term backup storage.


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A second ProLiant DL380p Gen8 Rack Server, also running Microsoft Windows Server 2012 R2 Edition, is dedicated to be a backup server where deduplication takes place to reduce Cell Manager and Exchange Servers overhead. Data Protector Media Agent and StoreOnce software deduplication are installed on this server.

Configure every Exchange Server you intend to back up from or restore to and the corresponding Exchange Server users with the following items:

On Microsoft Exchange Server, install .NET Framework 3.5.1. On Windows Server 2012 R2, the installation of .NET Framework 3.5.1 is done manually and not by default.

If you intend to run incremental and differential backup sessions, make sure that circular logging is disabled.

In DAG environments, the DAG virtual system (host) must also be imported to the Data Protector Cell. For information on how to import a client to a Data Protector Cell, see the HP Data Protector Help index: importing, client systems.

Due to incompatibility between Microsoft Exchange Server versions, backup objects belonging to a particular Exchange Server version cannot be restored to Data Protector clients on which a different Exchange Server version is installed.

Create StoreOnce Catalyst subclient

1. Log on to the StoreOnce 6500 management console from a standard Web browser as the administrator.

2. Under Navigator, expand the HP StoreOnce menu and select StoreOnce Catalyst to show the status and configuration of StoreOnce Catalyst subsystems.

3. Select Settings. Make sure Client Access Permission Checking is checked.

4. Select Clients. Create the Client named dpclient1 and dpclient2 and their passwords. Check the Allow Store Creation check box.

Figure 13. HP StoreOnce management consoleadd new client

5. Select Add.

Figure 14. HP StoreOnce Management Console showing available clients


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Installing Data Protector

Install the Cell Manager

1. Log on to the server dedicated to be the Cell Manager with administrative rights. Download the Data Protector software.

2. Run the autorun.exe file.

3. Select Install Data Protector.

4. Select the Installation type Cell Manager. Click Next to display the Installation type dialog box.

Figure 15. Cell ManagerInstallation type

5. As shown in figure 16, enter the credentials for the Cell Manager. Click Next to specify Destination folder.

Figure 16. Account information


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6. As shown in figure 17, select the Change buttons to select the desired destination folder. Click Next.

Figure 17. Destination folder

7. Select the following minimum required components for Data Protector operation.

A. Disk Agent

B. General Media Agent

C. User Interface

D. English documentation

E. Installation server

8. Click Install to complete the DP installation.

Install the backup server

1. Log on to the server designated as the backup server with administrative rights and download the Data Protector software.



4. Select Installation type as Client and click Next.

5. Enter the Cell Manager host as shown in figure 18.


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Figure 18. Cell Managersystem information

6. Select the following components, as shown in figure 19. Click Next to complete the installation of the backup server.

A. Disk Agent

B. Media Agent

C. User Interface

Figure 19. Components for backup server

7. Click the Install button to complete the HP Data Protector installation.

Install the DP components on Exchange clients

1. Log on to each Microsoft Exchange Server with administrative rights and download the Data Protector software.



4. Select Installation type as Client. Click Next.

5. Enter the Cell Manager host as shown previously in figure 18 above. Click Next.


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6. Microsoft Exchange Server 2013 backup and recovery requires the following Data Protector components installed on all Microsoft Exchange Servers in the DAG. Select the following components:

A. Disk Agent

B. Media Agent

C. User Interface

D. Microsoft Exchange 2010+ Server

E. Microsoft Volume Shadow Copy integration

F. Microsoft Exchange GRE

Discover HP StoreOnce Catalyst Stores in Data Protector

1. Go to the backup server and launch the HP Data Protector Manager console.

2. In the scoping pane, select Devices & Media. Right mouse click on Devices. Select Add Device... as shown in figure 20 to open the Add Device dialog box shown in figure 21.

Figure 20. Device and mediaadd device

3. In the Add Device dialog box, enter the device name. Select the device type as Backup to Disk. Select the interface type as StoreOnce Backup System. Click Next.

Figure 21. Add device


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4. Enter the IP address or DNS address of the 6500 node that has the Catalyst Store created. Enter the store Client ID and its password as used when dpclient1 and dpclient2 were created.

Figure 22. Specify the store and gateways

5. In the same dialog, in the Gateways section, select the Backup host from the drop down list and click Add to open the Add Gateway dialog box shown in figure 23.

Figure 23. Add gateway

6. Select Settings. Click Advanced button to open the Advanced Options dialog, shown in figure 24.

7. Select Server-side deduplication check box. Click OK. If target-side deduplication is preferred, leave this box unchecked.


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Figure 24. Advanced Options (Server-side deduplication check box)

8. Select Select/Create Store as shown in figure 25. Select the existing store and click OK.

Figure 25. Add StoreOnce 6500 device

9. Select OK.


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Figure 26. Select existing Catalyst Store

10. Select Next, Next, and Finish.

Planning your backup strategy

Choose one of the following strategies to back up your data:

Full

Full, incremental, incremental, ...

Full, differential, differential, ...

An incremental backup session cannot be followed by a differential backup session, or the other way around. You must first run a full backup session.

For more information on backup strategy planning, see the HP Data Protector Concepts Guide, found on the HP Data

Protector installation CD or at support.openview.hp.com/selfsolve/manual.

Exchange snapshot backup to HP StoreOnce with HP Data Protector

The following procedure shows how to back up Microsoft VSS objects using the Data Protector GUI. To create a backup specification using the Data Protector GUI (Data Protector Manager), follow these steps:

1. In the context list, click Backup.

2. In the scoping pane, select Backup and Backup Specifications. Right-click MS Exchange 2010+ Server, then click Add Backup.


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Figure 27. Add backup

3. In the Create New Backup dialog box, shown in figure 28. Click OK.

Figure 28. Create new backup

4. In the Application system drop down list, select the Microsoft Exchange Server system that you want to back up. In a DAG environment, select the DAG virtual system or a Microsoft Exchange Server system and click Next.

The Application system drop-down list contains all clients that have the Data Protector MS Exchange 2010+

Server integration component installed. In a DAG environment, the list also contains the DAG virtual system (host).

The backup session (that is, the integration agent e2010_bar.exe) will be started on the client that you specify here. If you select a DAG virtual system, the integration agent starts on the currently active Microsoft Exchange Server node.

In the Microsoft Exchange Server 2013 environment, to back up public folders residing on a Microsoft Exchange Server system that is a part of a DAG environment, select the Microsoft Exchange Server system and not the DAG virtual system (host). If you select the DAG virtual system, you can back up only databases that belong to the DAG. The Microsoft Exchange Server public folders database is not the part of it.

5. In the Configure MS Exchange 2010+ Server dialog box, provide the domain, username, and password to browse, backup, or recover the Exchange Server.


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Figure 29. User credentials for executing Exchange Management cmdlet

Click OK.

6. The Microsoft Exchange 2010+ Server is added in HP Data Protector. Exit the GUI or proceed with creating the backup specifications in step 7.

7. If you select the DAG virtual system (host), specify View Type to define how Microsoft Exchange Server databases should be organized in the next page (source page) as shown in figure 30.

Figure 30. Specify view type

Table 10. Microsoft Exchange Databasesview type

By role All databases in the DAG are displayed.

By client All clients in the DAG are displayed, together with all the databases (active or passive) residing on them. Active databases have the label (active) appended at the end. Passive databases have no label.


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8. Select which Microsoft Exchange Server databases to back up. Figure 31 shows the available databases in the DAG if you select View type by role in the previous step.

Figure 31. Selecting databases (DAG environmentby role)

Figure 32 shows the available databases (active and passive) per server to back up if by client View was selected in the previous step (figure 30).

Figure 32. Selecting databases (DAG environmentby client)

9. Click Next.

If you select the by Role view type, select the Backup passive copy option, shown in figure 33. Click Apply.


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Figure 33. Backup policy options

10. Select Show all devices option in the drop down list to display the list of available devices to back up. Select the StoreOnce 6500 to use for the backup. Click Next.

Figure 34. Select devices to use for the backup

11. Optionally, you can setup actions both before and after a backup or restore session, such as checking the number of files to back up, stopping some transaction processing, or shutting down an application before backup and restarting it afterwards. See the Data Protector Administrators Guide found on the HP Data Protector installation CD or at support.openview.hp.com/selfsolve/manual for more information.

12. To set Pre-exec and Post-exec scripts, click Advanced button under Backup specification options.


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Figure 35. Backup specification options

Figure 36. Application-specific option

Table 11. Application-specific backup options

Options Description

Pre-exec, Post-exec

Specifies which command line to run on the backup server both before (Pre-exec) and after (Post-exec) the backup.

Note: Type only the name of the command and ensure that the command is located in the default Data Protector commands directory on the same system. Do not use double quotes.

DAG environments: If you select the DAG virtual system (host) in the Application system option to be backed up, verify that the command is located on the currently active node.

Click Next.


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13. Optionally, schedule the backup using the scheduler shown in figure 37. This scheduler is available in the Schedule tab of the saved job specification.

Figure 37. Backup job scheduler

An incremental backup contains only log files that have changed since the previous backup. A differential backup contains log files that have changed since the last full backup. These backup types do not back up the entire database. For example, create a full back up on Saturdays and differential backups during the weekdays. There are tradeoffs between incremental and differential backups.

Differential backups give you shorter restore times. Restoring a differential backup requires only one full and one differential backup to be restored: it might require multiple incremental backups to be restored when restoring a database. A differential backup tape can grow to contain a lot more data than an incremental backup. To save space on the backup system, we recommend incremental backup.

The following example shows how to schedule differential backups. To schedule differential backups at 8:00 a.m., 1:00 p.m., and 6:00 p.m. during weekdays, follow these steps:

A. Open the saved back up job specification. In the Schedule tab of the backup specification, select the starting date in the calendar. Click Add to open the Schedule Backup dialog box, shown in figure 37.

B. Under Recurring, select Weekly. Under Time options, select 8:00. Under Recurring Options, select Mon, Tue, Wed, Thu, and Fri. Under Session options, select Differential from the Backup type drop-down list. If you plan on Incremental backup, select Incremental from the Backup type drop-down list instead.

C. Click OK.

D. Repeat step 1 and step 2 to schedule differential backups at 1:00 p.m. and 6:00 p.m.

E. Click OK to save the changes.


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Figure 38. Scheduling backup sessions

14. Save the backup specification, specifying a name and a backup specification group.

Restore options

There are various reasons for restoring a Microsoft Exchange Server database. Here are some examples:

The database has become corrupt.

The synchronization between an active and passive database copy is broken, but you want to avoid reseeding the passive copy, or simply, the resume operation does not work.

The database needs to be restored to a different point in time.

The database backup data needs to be restored for investigation purposes.

The database backup data needs to be restored to a recovery database to extract individual mailboxes or mailbox files.

The database backup data needs to be restored to a dial tone database.

Data Protector offers different restore methods. You can choose among the following:

Repair all passive copies with failed status.

Restore to the latest state.

Restore to a specific point in time.

Restore to a new mailbox database.

Restore to a temporary location.

The first three methods restore backup data to the original database and are only available if the original database still exists. The last two methods restore backup data to a new location. You can specify different restore methods for different databases in the same session.

After you have restored a database, start a full backup session for the database. Otherwise, the subsequent incremental or differential backup sessions will fail.


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Repair all passive copies with failed status

This method is available only for databases that are part of a DAG. It is useful if some of the databases passive copies become corrupt, acquiring the status Failed or FailedAndSuspended. The method automatically restores all the corrupt passive copies from the backup created in the last backup session (and the corresponding restore chain). After the data is restored, the copies are synchronized with the active copy, provided that the Resume database replication option

is selected.

Restore to the latest state

This method is used to restore a corrupt database to the most recent backup. Data Protector restores the database from the backup created in the last backup session (and the corresponding restore chain). After the files are restored, all the logs (those restored from the backup and any existing logs) are replayed to the database file.

After the files are restored, all the logs (those restored from the backup and any existing logs) are replayed to the database file.

DAG environments: When a passive copy is restored, Microsoft Exchange Server ensures that the logs are replayed to the database file in accordance with the ReplayLagTime parameter setting.

Restore to a specific point in time

This method is used to restore a database to a specific point in time.

When a passive copy is restored, Microsoft Exchange Server ensures that the logs are replayed to the database file in accordance with the ReplayLagTime parameter setting.

For passive copies that are not restored, a full reseed is required once the restore session completes.

Restore to a new mailbox database

Use this method either to restore data to a different database because the original database no longer exists or move the data elsewhere. You can also restore data to a Microsoft Exchange Server recovery database.

Restore files to a temporary location

Use this method to restore database files to a location of your choice.

When you restore from a differential or incremental backup session, you can restore the complete restore chain or only the files (.log) backed up in the selected session.

When you restore data from a full backup session, you have the option to restore only the database file (.edb).

Restoring using the Data Protector GUI 1. In the context list, click Restore.

2. In the scoping pane, expand MS Exchange 2010+ Server, expand the DAG virtual system or standalone Microsoft Exchange Server system, and click MS Exchange 2010+ Server.

3. In the source tab, Data Protector displays all Microsoft Exchange Server databases backed up from the selected DAG or standalone environment.

Select the Microsoft Exchange Server databases to restore.

When you select a database, the Properties for DB1 dialog box is displayed automatically. Specify a restore method and click OK. For databases that are part of a DAG, the default restore method is Repair all passive copies with failed status. For standalone databases, the default is Restore to the latest state.


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Figure 39. Selecting databases for restore

To change the restore method, right-click the database and click Properties.

Figure 40. Repair all passive copies with failed status


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Figure 41. Restore to the latest state

Figure 42. Restore to a point in time


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Figure 43. Restore to a new mailbox database

Figure 44. Restore files to a temporary location


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4. In the Options tab, specify the Data Protector Microsoft Exchange Server 2010+ integration restore options.

Figure 45. Restore options

5. In the Devices tab, select the devices to use for restore. For details on how to select devices to be used for restore, see the HP Data Protector Help index: restore, selecting devices for.

6. Click Restore.

7. In the Start Restore Session dialog box, click Next.

8. Specify Report level and Network load.

9. Click Finish to start the restore. The statistics of the restore session, along with the message Session completed successfully, is displayed at the end of the session output.

Single mail item or individual email recovery with GRE

A common task for backup and Exchange administrators is restoring missing mail items or deleted, corrupted, or lost mailboxes. This may include emails, calendar items, attachments, tasks, personal folders (.pst), or a variety of other

Exchange objects. This is often a daunting task for administrators due to large mailbox databases, the possibility of disrupting mailbox users, or limited recovery window.

HP Data Protector features the GRE for Exchange 2010+. This feature allows Microsoft Exchange Server administrators and HP Data Protector backup administrators to recover a variety of Exchange objects through a simple, easy-to-use interface. The GRE allows for single item recovery of most Exchange objects without having to do a full recovery of the mailbox database.

HP Data Protector GRE for Microsoft Exchange Server is provided as an HP Data Protector component. The GRE itself does not provide a backup solution. Back up your Microsoft Exchange Server databases using HP Data Protector and its Microsoft Exchange 2010 Integration component. The Microsoft Exchange GRE component contains the following options:

GRE GUI.

Command line options.

Web service components.

Context-sensitive (F1) helpAll the content is installed together.


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Figure 46 shows the HP Data Protector GRE for Microsoft Exchange Server GUI.

Figure 46. HP Data Protector GRE import from backups

For additional information on HP Data Protectors GRE feature for Microsoft Exchange Server, read the HP Data Protector Granular Recovery Extension User Guide for Microsoft Exchange Server found on the HP Data Protector installation CD or at support.openview.hp.com/selfsolve/manual.

Offload HP StoreOnce backups to tape for long-term data retention

HP Data Protectors object copy feature makes it simple to migrate or duplicate backups to physical tape in tape libraries. The HP StoreEver Tape Library for long-term data storage, allowing you to expire or remove past backups from the HP StoreOnce Backup System and free capacity for future backups.

HP Data Protector object copy functionality enables you to copy selected object versions, for example, Catalyst Stores, to a specific media set such as physical tape. This is important for customers who are required to move data offsite for long-term storage. HP Data Protector object copy works by selecting object versions from one or several backup, object copy, or object consolidation sessions. During the object copy session, HP Data Protector reads the backed up data from the source media, transfers the data, and writes it to the target media.

Object copy produces duplicate data backed up on two devices, allowing you to expire or delete your Catalyst Stores to free space for future backups on your HP StoreOnce Backup System.

Object copy benefits

Vaultingmakes copies of backed up, copied, or consolidated objects and keeps them in several locations.

Freeing mediacopying HP StoreOnce Catalyst backups to physical tape allows you to remove or expire backups on the HP StoreOnce device, freeing capacity for future backups.

Storage medium flexibilitycopy backups to media of a different type.

You can start an object copy interactively or specify an automated start of the session. HP Data Protector offers two types of automated object copying: post-backup object copying and scheduled object copying.

Post-backup object copying

Post-backup, post-copy, and post-consolidation object copying are subsets of post-backup object copying, which takes place after the completion of a session that is specified in the automated object copy specification. Objects are selected according to the automated object copy specifications that were written in that particular session.

Scheduled object copying

Scheduled object copying takes place at a user-defined time. Objects from different sessions can be copied in a single scheduled object copy session.

For additional information on HP Data Protector object copy feature, please read the HP Data Protector Concepts Guide

found on the HP Data Protector installation CD or at support.openview.hp.com/selfsolve/manual.


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Summary

Microsoft Exchange customers demand an efficient, reliable, expandable, and cost-effective data backup system. HP Data Protector, HP StoreOnce Backup System with HP StoreOnce Catalyst, and HP StoreEver Tape Library together provide a backup solution that meets these requirements. HP StoreOnce Backup systems offer rapid backup and recovery, performance, and reliability, while addressing data growth through HP StoreOnce Catalyst data deduplication technology. HP StoreEver Tape Libraries provide flexibility for long-term storage and off-site protection. In addition, HP Data Protector brings together a full generation of traditional and next generation data protection under a unified interface. In all, HP offers backup solu

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