You can perform the following tasks as part of the Business Continuance plan—Business Continuance server validation, cleanup of Business Continuance destination, take Exchange instances offline, quiesce and break SnapMirror relationships, reconnect Exchange LUNs, Exchange instance re-creation, and restore backups.
Before you begin
If it is a planned failover, be sure to make a complete backup with the Run Command after Backup option selected, so that the Exchange instances are taken offline.
Make sure the databases and storage groups do not exist at the destination site for stand-alone-to-stand-alone fail over.
If the Exchange instance is alive (running), SnapManager displays a message to take the Exchange resources offline as part of failover, or it provides an option to exit the wizard.
Ensure that the mount points or drive letters are available (not in use) at the destination site. For example, if the following are the mount point paths for the source,c:\sg1 and c:\logs1,ensure that there is only c:\ at the destination site. The paths will be created by Business Continuance when it mounts the LUNs. If you are using drive letters F: and T:,they should not be used at the destination as well .
When the Exchange server has LUNs that contain mountpoints, but do not have any exchange related data on the mount point root LUN, then these LUNs must be created manually prior to the failover to the Business Continuance site. For example if LUN "N" has mountpoint N:\mp on it, then LUN N must be created manually in the Business Continuance exchange server prior to failover.
About this task
As a part of the Business Continuance plan execution, SnapManager does not restart the Exchange Transport service. Mailflow might not resume until you restart the Exchange Transport service.
You can use the SnapManager Replication Management Console page to fix a SnapMirror relationship error.
Steps
- Launch the Business Continuance by using the path .
- In the Scope pane, select the Business Continuance plan.
- Connect to the Business Continuance host, in which the Exchange data needs to be recovered.
- In the Actions pane, click Execute.
- To revalidate the Business Continuance plan before executing it, click Yes.
- In the SnapManager - Business Continuance page, click Next.
- This step is applicable only for a clustered configuration. In the Business Continuance Plan Details page, select the If the Exchange Instance is alive check box to verify whether the Exchange instance is running.
- In the Business Continuance Plan Details page, click Next.
- If your Exchange instance is running, take the Exchange resources offline, and then relaunch the Business Continuance wizard.
- Click Next> to confirm the recovery server and the Storage Group that are selected for Business Continuance.
- In the Choose Business Continuance Activities for Execution page, select the Business Continuance activities that need to be performed during execution.
| If you want to... |
Then... |
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| Ensure that the Business Continuance plan is consistent and valid with respect to the current state of Exchange |
Select Business Continuance Server Validation. |
| Ensure that the old production cluster is clean, and that there are any not failed disk resources |
Select Cleanup of Business Continuance Destination. The Business Continuance cleanup process will not remove the mount point roots and, in case of Exchange 2007 clusters, it might rename the old resource group when there are left over mount point roots.
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| Ensure that all of the Exchange Storage Group instances are offline |
Select Offline Exchange Instances. |
| Validate the SnapMirror relationships that are a part of the Business Continuance plan |
Select quiesce and Break SnapMirrors. Any unbroken mirror relationships are broken at this time. |
| Connect all the LUNs on the SnapMirror destination volume by using the same drive letters |
Select Reconnect Exchange LUNs. |
| Create Exchange cluster resources |
Select Exchange Instance Recreation. This step is applicable only for Exchange 2007 and Exchange 2003 cluster-cluster configurations. However, the step is skipped automatically for Exchange 2007 stand-alone-to-stand-alone configurations. |
| Execute an up-to-the-minute restore operation or mail box rehoming |
Select Restore backups. If your configuration is Exchange 2007 and 2003, Cluster-Cluster, SnapManager performs an up-to-the-minute restore operation.
If your configuration is Exchange 2007, stand-alone-stand-alone, SnapManager performs an restore operation with the mail box rehoming.
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If there is an error during the process, SnapManager logs the details into reports and Windows Events logs.
- Click Finish.
- In the Status page, click Execute to start the operation.
- Click OK.
- In the Status page, click Close.
After you finish
If the common base Snapshot copy between the production and Business Continuance site does not exist after a failover process, then re-initialize the SnapMirror relationships in the reverse direction.
Reset the advanced properties of the Exchange resource on the target server (that you initially set on the production server) after a failover or a failback operation.
