You can prevent Data Protection for Exchange from
backing up each database copy separately by backing up the database
copies under a single Database Availability Group (DAG) node.
About this task
For Microsoft Exchange Server
databases in a DAG environment, several online copies of a database
are maintained for high availability. To reduce the number of database
backups that are created, set up Data Protection for Exchange to back up database copies from
different DAG members under a single DAG node.
All database copies can be managed as a single entity.
This management is regardless of where they were backed up from, and
whether they were active or passive at the time of the backup. You
can then set up a minimum interval between database backups. The minimum
interval ensures that the database copies are not backed up at the
same time or backed up too frequently.
Procedure
To manage DAG members by using a single policy, complete
the following steps:
- Use the Tivoli Storage Manager Configuration
Wizard to configure the DAG node.
- For VSS backups to Tivoli® Storage
Manager,
ensure that you specify a node name in the DAG Node field
in the TSM Node Names page in the wizard. This
node is used to back up all the databases in a Database Availability
Group.
- For best results, ensure that all the DAG members are configured
with the same DAG node name.
- Ensure that the Tivoli Storage
Manager administrator
issues the grant proxynode command for each member
server in the DAG to grant permission to the DAG member server to
act as a proxy for the DAG node. If the configuration wizard is not
used to configure the Tivoli Storage
Manager server,
the proxies are to be defined. In addition, the backup archive client node and the Data Protection
node need proxynode authority. The backup archive
client node also needs proxynode authority to act
on behalf of the Data Protection node. For example,
the Tivoli Storage
Manager administrator
can issue the following commands on the Tivoli Storage
Manager server:
register node backup_archive_client_node password
register node data_protection_node password
grant proxynode target=data_protection_node agent=backup_archive_client_node
register node DAG_node password
grant proxynode target=DAG_node agent=backup_archive_client_node
grant proxynode target=DAG_node agent=data_protection_node
- Ensure that the DAG node and the Data Protection for Exchange node
are in the same policy domain.
- Create a backup schedule and specify the /MINIMUMBACKUPINTERVAL parameter
in a backup command. You must use the Tivoli Storage
Manager scheduler
to run this schedule. For example, to use a single Tivoli Storage
Manager schedule
to back up exactly one copy of a database that contains multiple copies,
do the following steps:
- Create a command script named C:\BACKUP.CMD with
the command:
TDPEXCC BACKUP DB1 FULL /MINIMUMBACKUPINTERVAL=60
- Copy the BACKUP.CMD file to all
the DAG members.
- Create one schedule and associate all the nodes to this
schedule.
When the backup schedule is run, the minimum backup interval
is observed and only one backup is created.
- Optional: To decrease the load on the production
Exchange server, you can specify that the backups are taken from a
healthy passive database copy. If a healthy passive copy is not available,
the backup is made from the active copy of the database. To do this
specification, add /PREFERDAGPASSIVE to a backup
command. For example:
TDPEXCC BACKUP DB1 FULL /MINIMUMBACKUPINTERVAL=60 /PREFERDAGPASSIVE