How do you backup your email extender server?

It may not be a bad idea to look at the DiskXtender archiving software. Using DX you can migrate the containers to EMC Centera, NAS or MO Optical.
DX leaves behind a 'stub' file which is only 1500 bytes.
Net result should be faster backup and restores as well as less inactive data in your backup set.

I thought EmailExtender has some part of DiskExtender product already. We do leave stubs on the actual email Notes server and all the "short-cutted" data is going to EmailExtender server. that EmailExtender server is growing very fast and that is the data we need to backup.
Moving that data to any other location would still require a backup of the data and I wonder how it would be accomplished.
Ok I agree that Centerra would not require a backup, but we are still not sold on that solution of a 'black box' that takes care of everything for us.

DX is a separate product. The .emx files (containers) make up the majority of data storage on an EmailXtender server. DX will migrate those files and leave behind a stub in the NTFS file system thus speeding up a file level backup. This is different than the shortcut in the Notes database.

Data archived by DX can be protected a number of different ways depending on the technology used. For example, in the MO world we often create a copy of the physical platter for offsite storage. DX also supports MultiTarget Media Groups so data can be archived to up to 4 locations simultaneously.

Hope this helps.

You would generally stop the services on the EmailXtender server using pre/post scripting in NetWorker. It is also possible to merge containers back into the EmailXtender server so you could quite simply move them elsewhere using the correct process, as long as you have a copy you can merge back in if data restoration is required.

You might need to distinguish between backup and archiving to reduce your backup times.

The .emx container files are archives and will never change* once they have been written. Therefore you might wish to consider keeping a tape archive of the older container files that is managed separately from the regular backups. Then only include the more recent container files in your regular backups.

In the event of a disaster recovery, you would be able to recover the older containers from tape, separately from the more recently backed up items.

The rest of the installation would still need to be backed up as normal though.

* Can anyone confirm this assertion. Its certainly the case in normal use, but what happens to the container if an EX administrator explicitly deletes a message?

Message was edited by:
Steve Bickle

sounds like an interesting solution - in theory - but practically, how is Netbackup going to separate those old containers from the new ones. Currently we are backing up the whole volume (2.5 Tb in size and growing) and I don't think there is an easy way to separate that volume into chunks that would contain old containers and newer ones..
Please explain how exactly you are envisioning it to be implemented

I had assumed that the backup solution was sophisticated enough to only back up items that have changed since a specified date or that scripting of some nature could be used to only back up the more recent items based upon the folder naming, since the emx. container files are stored in monthly folders named like:

Email_Vault_(Cabinet Name)_(Folder Name)_YYYYMM

However I have no depth of experience with the Netbackup product, so cannot advise on specifics there.

On the question regarding deletes . . . EX will overwrite the .emx file with whitespace. It also removes the pointer in the the SQL db and the ISYS index.

On the NetWorker question . . wouldn't you just perform an incremental backup for the container volume?

yes, it sure has this functionality (called incremental or differential backups), but this way you are relying on that archive too much. Basically you'll just have one master copy of that old backup and just create incrementals to it. What if you have a corrupt backup, missing tape, etc...I still don' consider it a possible solution...

I would presume that you would create more than one backup copy , I know that one tape set is not to be relied upon. I was assuming that you might have a regular monthly or bi monthly backup of the older container files on rotating sets of tapes so that you always have an overlapping set of backups available. Then just have incremental backups on your normal backup shedule for just the last months or two months containers.

Since the previous month and older container files are not likely to change they can be backed up outside your normal backup window taking some of the stress out of the backup process.

Ideally you need to be using a Centera to hold these container files, archiving them but still having them available on-line if needed, with no backup required. Once they are archived in a Centera they do not need backing up as it duplicates storage and self heals internally ensuring that 2 copies of the data coexist at any time. If you have the Centera mirroring to a second site you have complete physical security for the container files in the event of a disaster.