Automating Cluster Continuous Replication backups

The following script automates several steps of Microsoft Exchange Server VSS backup in a CCR environment. It determines whether the server is the active, passive node, or not a clustered server.

Depending on the result, it will launch IBM Tivoli Storage Manager Data Protection for Microsoft Exchange Server VSS backup or simply log the status of the current server. See Table 1 for details.



Table 1. Exchange Server status and script's actions

Exchange Server status	Action
Not clustered	Backup of the Exchange Server
Passive node	Backup of the CCR replica
Active node	No action
Active node w/ replication errors	Backup of the Exchange Server

The Exchange Server status and the action are recorded in the dsmsched.log file.

Software Requirements

• Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 with Service Pack 1
• IBM Tivoli Storage Manager Data Protection for Exchange 5.5.0 or later
• IBM Tivoli Storage Manager Client 5.5.0 or later

Setup

1. Set up Data Protection for Microsoft Exchange for VSS operations on the CCR nodes. The procedure is described in the Data Protection for Microsoft Exchange Server Installation and User’s Guide. See Table 2 for details about Tivoli Storage Manager nodes.

2. Set up the Tivoli Storage Manager scheduler as described in Chapter 6 of the Data Protection for Microsoft Exchange Server Installation and User’s Guide on each of the cluster nodes. It is imperative to use a separate node for each of the machines, e.g, nodes CLIENT_A and CLIENT_B. If separate local DSMAGENT nodes were used to configure VSS operations, these nodes can be used for the scheduler.

3. Configure Data Protection for Microsoft Exchange to use the same node in the CCR environment, e.g. EXCH_SRV. See Table 2 for details

4. On the Tivoli Storage Manager server, define a schedule to execute the script, e.g.

def sched mydomain my_schedule desc="Exchange CCR Backup" action=command objects="PowerShell.exe -command c:\backupccr.ps1 'First Storage Group' stg4" priority=2 starttime= 21:00 duration=15 duru=minutes period=1 perunits=day dayofweek=any

Note: Storage group names containing spaces must be enclosed in single quotes. If there are more than one storage group, the storage group names are separated with a space. Storage group names are case-sensitive. Wildcards can be used to specify the storage group list, e.g.

def sched mydomain my_schedule desc="Exchange CCR Backup" action=command objects="PowerShell.exe -command c:\backupccr.ps1 *" priority=2 starttime= 21:00 duration=15 duru=minutes period=1 perunits=day dayofweek=any

5. Add the necessary Tivoli Storage Manager nodes to the schedule:

define association mydomain my_schedule CLIENT_A
define association mydomain my_schedule CLIENT_B

where CLIENT_A and CLIENT_B are nodes from Step 1


Table 2. Tivoli Storage Manager nodes example summary

CCR node	DP for Exchange node	Local DSMAGENT node	Scheduler node
A	EXCH_SRV	CLIENT_A	CLIENT_A
B	EXCH_SRV	CLIENT_B	CLIENT_B