Understanding Windows host system requirements

In the most basic configuration, SnapManager is installed on the same Windows host system as Microsoft Exchange. In addition to this, you can install SnapManager on one or more remote Windows hosts for remote administration of the Exchange computer or for remote verification of the databases contained in SnapManager backup sets.

This topic describes the following information:

Windows host system requirements

To run SnapManager, your system must meet the following requirements.

Windows host component	Requirement if the host system is running Windows 2000 Server	Requirement if the host system is running Windows Server 2003
Operating system	One of the following: Windows 2000 Server with SP4 Windows 2000 Advanced Server with SP4	One of the following: Windows Server 2003 Standard Edition with SP1 Windows Server 2003 Enterprise Edition with SP1 Windows Server 2003 Standard Edition R2 Windows Server 2003 Enterprise Edition R2
Microsoft Windows hotfixes	See the SnapDrive software system requirements.	See the SnapDrive software system requirements.
Microsoft Exchange	One of the following versions of Microsoft Exchange (Standard or Enterprise Edition): Exchange 2003 with SP2 Exchange 2003 with SP1 Exchange 2000 with SP3	One of the following versions of Microsoft Exchange (Standard or Enterprise Edition): Exchange 2003 with SP2 Exchange 2003 with SP1
Microsoft Exchange	Note This requirement does not apply to a remote administration server. Note The option to throttle Eseutil.exe database checksum verification (described in Configuring Eseutil throttling for database verification) requires Exchange 2003 with SP2.
SnapDrive	SnapDrive 4.1 If you need to install or upgrade SnapDrive, see the SnapDrive Installation and Administration Guide for detailed instructions. Note For a remote administration server, SnapDrive is optional unless you intend to use the remote administration server to remotely administer SnapDrive. For a remote verification server, SnapDrive is required.
SnapDrive preferred IP address	If your storage system has multiple IP addresses, configure the SnapDrive preferred IP address. See the SnapDrive Installation and Administration Guide for your version of SnapDrive. If you do not configure a SnapDrive preferred IP address for a storage system that has multiple IP addresses, SnapDrive times out when attempting to create Snapshot copies simultaneously for more than one LUN on a storage system.
Data ONTAP VSS Hardware Provider	N/A	Data ONTAP VSS Hardware Provider is included with SnapDrive
iSCSI and/or FCP protocols	The appropriate LUN access protocol software must be installed on the Windows host that runs the Exchange server. See your SnapDrive documentation for complete details about the system requirements: Note This requirement does not apply to a remote administration server.
SnapManager license	If SnapManager is licensed per Exchange server, a SnapManager license is required on the Windows host system. Note For per-server SnapManager licensing, you can install SnapManager without specifying a server-side license; after SnapManager has been installed, you can apply the license from the About SnapManager dialog box.

Requirements for a remote administration server

An Exchange server that is running SnapManager can be remotely administered from another Windows system that is configured as a remote administration server:

You do not need to install an iSCSI driver or an HBA driver on this system.
SnapDrive does not need to be installed unless you want to use the remote administration server to remotely administer SnapDrive.
SnapManager must be installed.

Requirements for a remote verification server

Remote verification is performed using the same mechanisms used for local verification, except that the verification is performed on a host that is different from the Exchange server that initiated the backup. This is the reason that you need SnapDrive and SnapManager installed on your remote verification server, as well as connectivity to the storage system (through FCP or iSCSI).

To run remote verification, your remote Windows system must meet the following requirements:

SnapDrive must be installed.
Attention
Do not try to connect the Exchange server's LUNs to the remote verification server.
The appropriate LUN driver (iSCSI or FCP) must be installed.
The remote Windows system must have connectivity (iSCSI or FCP) to the storage system.
Note
If you are using iSCSI to connect to the storage system on the remote verification server, an iSCSI connection must be created.
SnapManager must be installed, but it does not need to be configured. You must specify the user account that you use for the production Exchange server.
The correct Microsoft Exchange 2000 or 2003 binaries must be installed.
Microsoft requires that Microsoft Exchange System Management Tools be installed on remote verification machines for licensing compliance.

To meet the minimum configuration required by SnapManager to run database integrity verification on a remote machine, copy the following files from the Exchsrvr\bin directory on your Exchange server to the remote verification server:
- eseutil.exe
- ese.dll
- jcb.dll
- exosal.dll
- exchmem.dll
For more information about performing verification on a computer that does not have Exchange installed, see Microsoft KB article 244525.

Note
The version of eseutil must match the version of Exchange. When you apply an Exchange service pack to the production server, you must copy a new version of eseutil at the same time, or else verification cannot function correctly.

The connectivity required to perform remote verification is shown in the following illustration.