ADSM-L

Re: [ADSM-L] BMR for Exchange server - Fastback

2010-02-02 17:33:55
Subject: Re: [ADSM-L] BMR for Exchange server - Fastback
From: Johnny Lea <jlea AT DIS.UMSMED DOT EDU>
To: ADSM-L AT VM.MARIST DOT EDU
Date: Tue, 2 Feb 2010 16:31:45 -0600
IBM responded to me with some good info after reading my post.  Here is their 
suggestion...
 
Johnny, 

 In general, when planning for Bare Machine Recovery for any server, there are 
3 data types must be considered:  The operating system, the application and the 
data repositories.  For Windows hosts, the first 2 data types are usually 
recovered as part of the BMR while the data repositories are recovered as a 
post-BMR process once the operating system has booted and the application is up.

In most cases, the same is true of the backups.  For example, in a TBMR 
environment, you will probably have a TSM file-level backup running that 
excludes the content of the Storage Group (EDBs, log and system directories).  
Then you will use TSM for Mail - MS Exchange to protect the storage groups 
themselves.   

A BMR process in that scenario will be to recreate the OS (and possibly 
application drives, if they are separate) from TBMR; boot the OS; resolve any 
post-BMR issues like display or sound drivers; restore any additional 
application files from TSM; Start Exchange; and then Restore the MSEX Storage 
Groups.   

Since you have TSM, I would first look at TBMR or CBMR. 

FastBack BMR is usually only recommended if you are already running FastBack.  
While there are some benefits outside of BMR to FastBack that may make one 
consider adding it to their environment, usually there is not a lot of reason 
to deploy it just to get BMR, since there are products that do BMR that work 
with TSM directly. 

BTW, FastBack BMR and TBMR are definitely not the same product, even under the 
covers.  They are very similar in many ways, but are definitely separate 
products


>>> Josh Davis <xaminmo AT OMNITECH DOT NET> 2/1/2010 2:12 PM >>>
If TBMR is actually Fastback, that's interesting. Fastback is FilesX, a product 
and company that IBM purchased April 21, 2008.

FilesX is a block level filesystem incremental backup product for MS Windows.  
They can use VSS for 2003 OS and 2005 Exchange/SQL.  For older Exchange/SQL it 
will initiate a quiesce and will be filesystem aware and will manage the 
backups properly.

Exchange individual mailbox restore is to mount up the backup over the network 
as a drive.  The Exchange agent can access the exchange DB on disk and can pull 
out individual messages and save them to the running exchange server.

For normal files, you can just copy them out of the mounted drive (looks like 
local, RW, NTFS but changes are lost on unmount).

Full restore is to overmount the filesystem with the fastback server copy.  At 
that point, it's similar to a mirror with one copy being the FB server and one 
copy being the local disk.  You can mount/start your apps as soon as you 
initiate the restore.  Any data overwritten will not be restored, and any data 
requested will be restored first in queue.  No dismount is requred at the end 
of the restore.

Bare Metal Recovery uses a PEmode CD to boot and initiate the beginning 
recovery.

Fastback DR is formally through replication to a DR hub via FTP.  Repository 
files are sequential access on disk.

To integrate this with TSM, you use TSM to back up the Fastback repository, 
whether it's a local repository, or the repository of a DR hub.  Fastback comes 
with scripts to integrate with TSM and a couple of other vendors' enterprise 
products.

With friendly regards,
Josh-Daniel S. Davis




________________________________
From: Johnny Lea <jlea AT DIS.UMSMED DOT EDU>
To: ADSM-L AT VM.MARIST DOT EDU 
Sent: Wed, January 27, 2010 1:20:50 PM
Subject: [ADSM-L] BMR for Exchange server

I'm lost trying to come up with a bare metal restore product for our Exchange 
servers.
Cristie's CBMR says it treats Exchange data as plain files with nothing to 
handle the internal structure of Exchange.
Not sure about Cristie's TBMR. (my IBM re-seller tells me he talked to Cristie 
and they told him that their TBMR is IBM Fastback BMR.  That sounds strange.  
Did IBM buy them?)
I haven't found anyone yet at IBM who can tell me how Fastback for Bare Metal 
Restore works with Exchange.
Acronis...I know nothing about.

I'd love something that would work with my TSM environment.
Can anyone suggest anything?

Thanks.
Johnny


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