Using a Windows backup utility to archive SnapManager backups

About this method

When you use a Windows backup utility to archive your SnapManager backups, you mount the LUNs backed by the backup snapshot you want to archive, and then use NTBackup or another Exchange-aware Windows backup utility to copy the archive data to your archive medium. In this case, the NTFS data is backed up, rather than the raw LUNs.

This archive method is represented by the following diagram:

Note
The LUN does not need to be mounted on the Exchange server; another computer can be used for this function.

Components that must be included in the archive

The archive must include the following two components:

The SnapInfo directory as it was backed up directly from the Exchange server
The Exchange data as extracted from the LUN backed by snapshot

Advantages and disadvantages of this method

Using a Windows backup utility to archive SnapManager backups provides the following advantages and disadvantages:

Advantages

Because you are archiving NTFS data, not raw LUNs, you can archive exactly the data that you need, and no more.
The procedures and tools used for this method are probably familiar and available to you.

Disadvantages:

Because this method relies on mounting a snapshot, you must be careful to avoid scheduling any backups while the archiving is performed. This is because creating a snapshot of a mounted snapshot results in a snapshot that cannot be deleted. For more information about busy snapshots, see Problem deleting backups due to busy snapshot error.
You must make sure that you get both required components from different locations into the same archive.

Usage example

The following script mounts a snapshot of the LUNs that contain the Exchange databases and backs them up using NTBackup. It then dismounts the LUNs and backs up the SnapInfo directory. The /N and /D options are used to demonstrate the options to name the tape and add a description.

This script uses the following assumptions, which you might need to alter for your environment:

The script is run on the computer running Exchange and SnapManager.
The drive letter for the Exchange database is S:.
The snapshot is mounted as drive V:.
The drive letter used for the LUN mount must be available when the script is run.

Script

REM Mount a LUN backed by the snapshot of the Exchange database 

REM as drive letter V:\.

sdcli snap mount -k s -s %1 -d v

REM Use NTBackup to back up the database files. The

REM path to the databases in your environment might be 

REM different.

ntbackup backup "V:\Program Files\Exchsrvr\mdbdata" /N %1 /D %2

REM Dismount the snapshot mounted as drive letter V:\.

REM The below example is shown with an optional 

REM parameter (-f) to forcefully disconnect the drive

REM letter.

sdcli snap unmount -d v -f

REM Use NTBackup to back up the snapinfo directory.

REM This backup appends the media so as not to

REM overwrite the database backup. The path to the

REM snapinfo directory is passed as the third

REM parameter on the command line used to launch 

REM this script.

ntbackup backup %3 /T%1 /A

Command-line parameters

This script can be invoked using the SnapManager Run Command After Operation feature with the following command:

C:\SnapManager Scripts\scriptname.txt $ExchSnapshot $SnapInfoName $SnapInfoPath

These command-line parameters provide values to the script similar to these examples:

%1: exchsnap__SRVR3_01-20-2004_12.05.58__Daily
%2: 01-20-2004_12.05.58__Daily
%3: I:\NetApp SnapManager\SnapInfo\SRVR3\SG_First Storage Group\01-20-2002_12.05.58__Daily

For more information about the Run Command After Operation feature, see Using Run Command After Operation to archive automatically.