Hi David,
        My biggest reason for doing Mailbox level backups is the attempt to
avoid the need for an Exchange recovery server. While we are creating that
environment, I'd like to be able to restore individual mailboxes on an
as-needed basis instead of need to rely on building a server dedicated to
restores. I found one article on Symantec's website that specifically points
out that SAV slows down backup/archive applications. They recommend running a
serial scan before running the backup, then auto-protect won't scan the
e-mails again on their way out. While I feel it's unfortunate that Symantec
and Veritas are getting together (Never have been a fan of Symantec, but it's
what I get to work with), hopefully one thing that will come out of it is
better integration of AV, backup, and VM....that would be nice....

Matt

-----Original Message-----
From: veritas-bu-admin AT mailman.eng.auburn DOT edu
[mailto:veritas-bu-admin AT mailman.eng.auburn DOT edu]On Behalf Of David Rock
Sent: Thursday, December 23, 2004 10:39 AM
To: veritas-bu AT mailman.eng.auburn DOT edu
Subject: Re: [Veritas-bu] Slow Exchange backups


* Ungaro, Matt <mjungaro AT capitolindemnity DOT com> [2004-12-23 09:56]:
> Hello All,
>       I am currently using NB 5.1MP1 on Windows Server 2003. I am backing
> up Exchange 2000 post SP3 rollup. We are using a single Information store,
> and I am performing mailbox level backups, not just backing up the info
> store. The Exchange server is running Symantec Antivirus for MS Exchange
> version 8. My question is, I am getting extremely horrible throughput
backing
> up my user mailboxes. The backups are running somewhere around 800 to 900
> KB/s. My theory is that Symantec AV is slowing down the process, scanning
> each e-mail as it leaves the system, but I'm not sure on this. At first I
was
> just backing up "Microsoft Exchange Mailboxes:\", then I split it up into
> [0-9]*, [a-m]*, and [n-z]*. With each process, it stays at a steady
> 800-900KB/s, so it's not an overall bandwidth issue (This is going Gigabit
to
> Gigabit.) Would shutting down SAV before backups and bringing it up
> afterwards improve the performance? As a side note, SAVFMSE sometimes will
> not stop, it will just hang. Thanks in advance for any assistance that can
be
> provided.

Your biggest issue is that Mailbox level backups are SLOW. The process
it goes through to do it _really_ is a poor performer. It has to
essentially read every mail message internally and then send it up the
pipe, so you have a LOT of internal Exchange activity going on. The
antivirus stuff may be impacting it, but it will _never_ be good. It
also doesn't get away from the normal Exchange database backups. For
mailbox level to work properly, you essentially have to back up the data
twice. Unless you have a real good reason for needing mailbox level, I
don't recommend doing it at all.

-- 
David Rock
david AT graniteweb DOT com