SnapManager overview

New functionality for this version

SnapManager 3.1 for Microsoft Exchange enables the following new features and capabilities:

Support for Microsoft Exchange 5.5 on Microsoft Windows® 2000 Server
For more information about using this document with Microsoft Exchange 5.5, see Using this document with Exchange 5.5.
Support for Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Standard Edition
Transaction log verification (Exchange 2000 or 2003 only)

Using this document with Exchange 5.5

You can use this document with all versions of Exchange supported by SnapManager 3.1 for Microsoft Exchange, including Exchange 5.5. Information specific to certain versions of Exchange is noted accordingly. Because the storage terminology used by Exchange 5.5 is slightly different than for Exchange 2000/2003, many of the procedures have their own version for Exchange 5.5.

Exchange 5.5 users might not be familiar with the term storage group. Storage groups were introduced in Exchange 2000; they are used to contain up to five databases, with the corresponding set of transaction logs, so that you can manage the databases as a single entity.

If you are using Exchange 5.5, when you see "storage group" in this document, think of your Information Store (IS) or your Directory Store (DS). You can perform the same operations on the IS and DS as you can on storage groups in Exchange 2000.

Note
SnapManager 3.1 for Microsoft Exchange does not support NT 4.0; if you are running Exchange 5.5, your Exchange servers must be running Windows 2000.

What SnapManager does

SnapManager for Exchange provides an integrated data management solution for Exchange that dramatically boosts the availability, scalability, and reliability of Microsoft Exchange.

SnapManager provides rapid hot backup and restoration of Exchange databases by using online Snapshot^TM technology from NetApp and integrating the Microsoft Exchange backup and restore APIs and VSS. SnapManager can also leverage the SnapMirror capabilities of NetApp® filers to provide on-site or off-site SnapManager backup set mirroring for disaster recovery.

SnapManager supports the following data management capabilities:

Migrate the Exchange databases and transaction logs to LUNs
Back up the Exchange databases and transaction logs from LUNs
Verify the backed-up Exchange databases
Verify the backed-up transaction logs (Exchange 2000 or 2003 only)
Manage the SnapManager backups
Restore the Exchange databases and transaction logs from previously created SnapManager backups
Archive backups for long term or remote backup storage
Mirror for disaster recovery (with SnapMirror)

SnapManager components and functionality

SnapManager includes the following components.

Component	Description
SnapManager Configuration Wizard	SnapManager Configuration Wizard ensures that Exchange data is placed correctly for SnapManager. It dismounts the databases in an Exchange storage group and moves the database and transaction log files from the Exchange server to the selected LUNs. It then remounts the databases and creates a SnapInfo directory for storing information about backed-up data sets and transaction logs. For more information, see Understanding the SnapManager Configuration Wizard.
SnapManager Backup	SnapManager Backup enables you to perform and schedule frequent, automatic online full backups. The application performs these backups by creating snapshots of the Exchange databases and transaction log files. For more information, see Understanding SnapManager Backup.
SnapManager Restore	SnapManager enables rapid recovery of an Exchange storage group or database. The SnapManager Restore wizard enables you to select a particular backup to restore, restore your Exchange database state using that backup, and then recover the database to its current state by replaying the transaction logs. For more information, see Understanding SnapManager Restore.

Component

Description

SnapManager Configuration Wizard

SnapManager Configuration Wizard ensures that Exchange data is placed correctly for SnapManager. It dismounts the databases in an Exchange storage group and moves the database and transaction log files from the Exchange server to the selected LUNs. It then remounts the databases and creates a SnapInfo directory for storing information about backed-up data sets and transaction logs.

For more information, see Understanding the SnapManager Configuration Wizard.

SnapManager Backup

SnapManager Backup enables you to perform and schedule frequent, automatic online full backups. The application performs these backups by creating snapshots of the Exchange databases and transaction log files.

For more information, see Understanding SnapManager Backup.

SnapManager Restore

SnapManager enables rapid recovery of an Exchange storage group or database. The SnapManager Restore wizard enables you to select a particular backup to restore, restore your Exchange database state using that backup, and then recover the database to its current state by replaying the transaction logs.

For more information, see Understanding SnapManager Restore.

How you use SnapManager

You can run SnapManager on your Exchange server or on a different computer. When you run SnapManager on a different computer, it is called SnapManager remote administration. Using a SnapManager remote administration system, you can perform any task you can on a locally installed SnapManager system. When you perform database verification from your remote administration system, it is referred to as remote verification.

The following steps describe a typical way to use SnapManager:

After installing SnapManager, you use SnapManager Configuration Wizard to dismount your Exchange databases and move them to LUNs on a NetApp storage appliance. The Configuration Wizard ensures that your Exchange data is placed correctly.
After you configure the Exchange data store, you can use SnapManager Backup to create backups of the Exchange data.
If the need arises, you can use SnapManager Restore to restore your Exchange data (either entire storage groups or individual databases) from one of the backups.
Using SnapManager's backup facility to initiate SnapMirror through SnapDrive, you can create mirror replications of these databases to be used for various purposes, such as disaster recovery.