avamar pst file backup

If you are already backing up Exchange (or whatever email server you use) then there is little to no need to backup the PST files on user machines. I would simply create an exclusion for *.pst files in your dataset.

You should also look into disabling PST files as a company policy and look into an email archiving solution.

Hi Rob,

we're not backing up the exchange with avamar and it is not possibile.

Our plan is to backup the local pst file of the vip user.

Andrea,

I would like to understand why it is not possible to backup exchange. I have never encountered a situation where I could not back up exchange.

If your plan is to backup the PST file, then your VIP user will need to close outlook during the backups. If you could elaborate on your situation a bit more I could help you formulate a better plan.

Andrea,

     I've run into this same problem with PST files that are stored on the network but are open with the Outlook client at the time of the backup.  So the only way that I know of is to have the client close Outlook at the time of backup.  As far as the exchange backups go, I'm not sure that I agree as PST files would not be backed up if Exchange was backed up.  They contain seperate messages and are not part of the Exchange message stores. But since your not backing up exchange anyway, it doesnt matter.

     I also wonder if a third party tool like "PSTBackup" would work?  We use this app for some of our VIP users also to ensure that we have a copy available for specific reasons.  May be able to run this on a schedule prior to your Avamar backups kicking off.

     Hope this helps.

Sheila

Hi SheilaA2,

thanks for the reply and for sharing your experience.

I will do more test in these days.

I will update this post.

Regards

Is VSS being used for these backups that are encountering this error?  VSS should allow you to backup open files.  Check the beginning of the backup log for any messages related to VSS errors and make sure you have VSS enabled on the Avamar dataset.  Whether these files will be application consistent or not when you attempt to restore them is another question.  PST files are evil.

Hi fdxpilot,

vss are enabled in data set. It's my first time for client (not server or vm) backup.

Here a few lines of log file avtar.log.

I think there's no solution for this problem

2013-06-10 17:19:18 avtar Info <5582>: Avamar Server login successful

2013-06-10 17:19:18 avtar Info <5018>: - Session ID: 0

2013-06-10 17:19:18 avtar Info <5550>: Successfully logged into Avamar Server (Compression enabled)

2013-06-10 17:19:18 avtar Info <7563>: Back up of "C:\Users\u800767\Documents\Outlook Files\2012.pst" on server "10.105.148.10" for /clients/ltz0010420.fptindustrial.local

2013-06-10 17:19:18 avtar Info <5586>: Loading cache files from C:\Program Files\avs\var

2013-06-10 17:19:18 avtar Info <5573>: - Loaded cache file C:\Program Files\avs\var\f_cache.dat (23,069,216 bytes)

2013-06-10 17:19:18 avtar Info <5573>: - Loaded cache file C:\Program Files\avs\var\p_cache.dat (12,583,456 bytes)

2013-06-10 17:19:18 avtar Info <6426>: Done loading cache files

2013-06-10 17:19:18 avtar Info <7838>: - Adding device exclude "\Device\PGPdisks\*"

2013-06-10 17:19:18 avtar Info <7409>: Freeze volume list : c:

2013-06-10 17:19:18 avtar Info <10967>: Found System Provider GUID. Will be using the System Provider GUID to perform backup

2013-06-10 17:19:18 avtar Info <8776>: Creating snapshot set...

2013-06-10 17:19:18 avtar Info <8780>: Creating the shadow (DoSnapshotSet) ...

2013-06-10 17:19:19 avtar Info <8781>: Shadow copy set succesfully created.

2013-06-10 17:19:19 avtar Info <8785>: Retrieving volume mappings...

2013-06-10 17:19:19 avtar Info <0000>:

Querying all shadow copies with the SnapshotSetID {a29b1451-b98a-4dd9-88dd-540521c65bb9} ...

2013-06-10 17:19:19 avtar Info <0000>: * SNAPSHOT ID = {d699cb52-1a25-463a-8fa5-e64143d20b66} ...

2013-06-10 17:19:19 avtar Info <0000>:    - Shadow copy Set: {a29b1451-b98a-4dd9-88dd-540521c65bb9}

2013-06-10 17:19:19 avtar Info <8810>:    - Original count of shadow copies = 1

2013-06-10 17:19:19 avtar Info <8811>:    - Original Volume name: \\?\Volume{bdd938c7-d658-11df-8b37-806e6f6e6963}\

2013-06-10 17:19:19 avtar Info <8812>:    - Creation Time: 6/10/2013 5:19:19 PM

2013-06-10 17:19:19 avtar Info <8813>:    - Shadow copy device name: \\?\GLOBALROOT\Device\HarddiskVolumeShadowCopy24

2013-06-10 17:19:19 avtar Info <8814>:    - Originating machine: LTZ0010420.fptindustrial.local

2013-06-10 17:19:19 avtar Info <8815>:    - Service machine: LTZ0010420.fptindustrial.local

2013-06-10 17:19:19 avtar Info <8819>:    - Not Exposed

2013-06-10 17:19:19 avtar Info <0000>:    - Provider id: {b5946137-7b9f-4925-af80-51abd60b20d5}

2013-06-10 17:19:19 avtar Info <8821>:    - Attributes:  Auto_Release No_Writers Differential

2013-06-10 17:19:19 avtar Info <12061>:

2013-06-10 17:19:19 avtar Info <6074>: VSS snapshot set creation successful

2013-06-10 17:19:19 avtar Error <5139>: File access error "C:\Users\u800767\Documents\Outlook Files\2012.pst" (code 32: The process cannot access the file because it is being used by another process).

Hi Andrea,

I've tested Avamar so many times to backup laptop&desktop and i do backup of the outlook files (both .ost and .pst files) successfully. The only thing you should consider is that the backups will not be consistent if you do not close outlook itself during backup.