NetWorkder Support for Exchange 2010

Hi Kendall,
Go ahead, do all sorts of tests and share the outcome with us. We would all benefit from the

Q: Does NetWorker Support for Exchange 2010
A: In NetWorker terms support means that a product has been rigorously tested, codes have been adjusted to properly interact with that product and the compliance has been confirmed in the Compatibility Guide. Until a product is listed in the Compatibility Guide it cannot be considered ¿officially¿ supported. Not being supported in NetWorker lingo does not mean that NetWorker does not work with the product; it means that you cannot implement it in a production environment and if something unexpected happened, expect EMC to fix the problem or to provide a patch.

Q: Can you back it up with the Exchange Module for NetWorker
A: You probably would, at least for IS I can¿t see any reason why not, but difficult to say about MB. However, I would like to suggest trying the NetWorker Module for Microsoft Applications (NMM) which is replacing NetWorker Module for Microsoft Exchange.

Regards¿

AFAIK NW has never supported beta releases of products. I'm quite sure once that GAed NMM will support it within 2-3 months of release, but until then no support will be provided, especially not for beta releases. That means that certain things might work if you try it now and most likely most of the things will not.

Is there an update to this now that Exchange 2010 is released ?

Looks like Exchange 2010 can only be backed up using VSS.

Will Networker support this and which module is required ?

If I'm licensed for the Exchange module to I have to purchase an extra license for the MS Applications module ?

Is the only way aound it to  Use Windows Server Backup to Perform a Backup of Exchange to a different disk then back that up using Networker client ?

http://www.msexchange.org/articles_tutorials/exchange-server-2010/high-availability-recovery/uncovering-new-exchange-2010-volume-snapshot-vss-plug-in-part1.html

Being a large Exchange firm I can answer something's for you.

There are only 2 ways to backup Exchange 2010 that I know of currently.

1) Windows Backup

2) *cough* Netbackup 7.0 *cough* (If you have access to the First Availability program. General Availability will be in Feb.)

Exchange 2010 uses Database Availability Groups (DAG). Based on the DAG methodology I do not believe that the Exchange Module for Networker will work properly with 2010. (I could be wrong, but I don't think it will)  2010 as someone mentioned now fully relies on VSS via the Exchange API to deal with backing up of the databases. And clustering is handled a little differently for this version as well.  Because of these reasons, I do not believe the module will work properly and I for one won't be attempting it.

I did try a chat session with a support person before typing this up, and asked when support would be available, and they said they still haven't been informed of that information.

Hey, EMC, what happened to support within 90 days of release of product? Come the 1st of Feb we will be at 90 days!

Yes replication is key with the DAG. Although I wouldn't let that fool you into a lull thinking you won't need tape backups because of redundancy and replication.  You will be amazed at how users lose data and you will still need to go back to a point-in-time restore off of tape to recover the data.

Thanks

Paul

Thanks for the feedback

On my test system I am using Windows server backup to a 500GB USB external disk.

Seems to be OK, but not sure if this is sufficient for a production system

Looks like its required to purchase extra disks/servers to get the full redundancy benefits of DAG

and forget about tape backup...

Hiya,

We're waiting to hear about this support also. I've been told the end of Q1 but no-one has elaborated as to whether our Exchange module licenses will be valid for what I expect will be a VSS-only product (I.e. do we need the Module for MS Apps or are we to expect a new version of the Exchange module which is effectively a restricted Module for MS Apps?)

If anyone has any more info I'd be interested to hear from you! Although we'd been told end of Q1 I had hoped that we'd see support early this year (the Exchange 2007 support was added 1st Jan 07 IIRC).

Steve

Exchange 2010 is VSS only backups.  They (MS) dropped the other types of backups that the ESE was capable of doing.

Will your Exchange Module work?  Ya know, I don't have that answer, and I am with you on that one.  Let's just say, I have a HUGE amount of Exchange Modules and if they are no longer supported, they are going to have one unhappy customer rather quickly on there hands.  Or convert my licenses.

End of Q1 is still longer then the intitial response EMC staff would tell us.  They original told us support for the new product was within 90 days of the product release date.  Which was official on  Novemeber 9th by MS.  End of Q1 is March 31st.  Well beyond 90 days. And there (EMC's) competitor will already be to market with a product that works with it well before they are.

Sad sad sad....

I know this is old post, but I've found out few days ago that support for Exchg 2010 will bi in Q3 (!?)

I think it is little too late because, Symantec and HP already have support....

EMC will lost a lot....

If that's correct that's very disappointing.

Anyone from EMC monitor these forums? If so, any comments?

Steve

I have been told as well it is now Q3 directly.  And that is in fact truth.

I do believe they dropped the ball on this one as well.

I already have over 3tb's of data in 2010 and if I waited for EMC on this one I would be in a world of hurt.

I can tell you all some personal experiences thus far though, with the whole DAG and replication thing using VSS.

1) If you generate anywhere near a large amount of logs, over 15gb, Windows Backup and others experience a long delay before backups begin to send data. To the extent we see timeouts start to occur over 20gb of logs.  For this reason we run incrementals on our passives 4 times daily. It appears that after the VSS snap is completed it indexes the log files and the more you have, the longer it takes, and can possibly timeout.

2) If your DAG is in a different network segment and on a different domain we have noticed that the backup server doesn't get the new IP quickly and can cause communication errors and backups fail because it hasn't been updated with the new DAG IP. So you short TTL's in DNS for the DAG name may help reduce this problem.

There have been a couple of interim hotfix updates, (I know of 2 we have discovered), that do change the version of the store.exe file and may cause possible unknown exchange version errors. So becareful about those if you have to apply them.

Thanks

Paul

Had a couple of replies from EMC support (SR 33624816). Looks like it is Q3, and it will be the NMM, NOT the Exchange module.

"NMM version 2.3 will have support for Exchange 2010 and it is tentative later half of this year. "

"NME use the Exchange API to communicate with the Exchange Server. As far as I am know that Microsoft decided not to provide Exchange API for Exchange 2010. If Microsoft changes their plan and provided API then our NME will be able to backup Exchange 2010. So far there is no API for Exchange 2010.

NMM use the Microsoft VSS feature which available for Exchange 2010

License wise, we will include this in our NMM Release Notes that supports 2010. I do not know if they swap the NME license with NMM license or not."

Not great news. By API, they obviously mean streaming backup. I'll be pointing out there is an Exchange 2010 backup API... They obviously know this as they were TAP backup partners, weren't they..?

Steve

Steve,

Your correct.  There is no longer any streaming of the databases.  Since MS went to VSS and relies on it, this should not be something new to EMC on how to backup using this method.  The Exchange API for backups has been out.  If it wasn't, then how is Netbackup doing it?

EMC is trying to use smoke and mirrors and pass the buck and the blame.  While the product is in BETA they provide developers SDK's to be able to begin building applications, testing, etc around there product before it is released.  If they didn't do this.  We (where I am employed) wouldn't be at the point of 3tb's of data in Exchange 2010 already.

We released our product to market that works with Exchange the day MS announced the release of it. So to say there was no developer kit etc, is an out right lie in trying to decieve the customers on there lack of planning to get this out.

Thanks

Paul

Just found out from our account manager the following information regarding licensing:

"I have received clarification that there will indeed be a new NMM module released which will be used for Exchange however, there will be an honour system in place allowing you to migrate your current Exchange licenses at no cost."