Avamar: Deploy a GLR Proxy for Avamar Using Dell Technologies ItemPoint for Exchange

In Avamar, we can use a "GLR Proxy" to offload all Granular Level Restore (or Recovery) processes from the production Exchange to a stand-alone client. Doing so allowed free access to the GLR Proxy without inadvertently introducing a "performance hit" on the daily operations of a production Exchange environment.  

This GLR Proxy was another Virtual Machin (VM) or physical Exchange server configured to work with, but not participate in, Exchange DAG operations. Exchange VSS Plug-in required the target client to have Microsoft Exchange installed to allow installation of the plug-in and optional GLR plug-in before 7.5 client version. 

Starting with Avamar 7.5.101-101, the Exchange VSS plug-in was changed so that it no longer requires to be installed on a server running Microsoft Exchange. Therefore, it is now possible to configure a GLR Proxy with the ItemPoint component in any Windows server or workstation. However, the GLR Proxy must be in the same Active Directory Domain hosting the Exchange application server.

The Exchange VSS Plug-in installation still checks for an installation of Microsoft Exchange but allows the administrator to install the plug-in. Once the installation of the Exchange VSS Plug-in with (optional) Dell Technologies ItemPoint is complete, additional components must also be installed. These components must be installed on the GLR Proxy to run Exchange GLR with Dell Technologies ItemPoint.

Those components are:

• Exchange Management Tools (matching the version of Exchange installed on the environment Exchange application)*
• Remote Server Administration Tools (RSAT)
• Internet Information Services (IIS) Manager 6.0 (This component is already present as a role on the operating system and must be enabled)
• Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5 SP1/4.0 or above
• Outlook 2010 or 2013 (32 Bit)
  • Outlook 2016 (32 Bit) may be used if your version of Dell Technologies ItemPoint is 8.3 or later. 

All other requirements for running EMC ItemPoint remain.

Supported versions of Microsoft Exchange are Exchange 2010 through Exchange 2019.
Supported versions of Operating Systems are Windows Server 2008 R2 through Server 2019 and Windows 10.

Microsoft updates to Windows 10 and Server 2016 may prevent configuring the GLR Proxy for ItemPoint on these systems. These operating systems block applications like Avamar axionfs.exe, which is required to create the virtual mount point for Exchange GLR.

The GLR recovery is not supported for Windows Server 2022 (the EldoS driver, which is used in Exchange VSS Plug-in, does not support Windows Server 2022).

The GLR Proxy for ItemPoint does not require a dedicated system for that purpose. For instance, an existing shared server like a "toolbox" can be used as an Exchange GLR Proxy with the ItemPoint components installed. GLR system requirements remain the same.

*The installation of Exchange Management Tools is required only if the backup administrator wants to take advantage of the restoration of required logs to local storage. This may increase I/O reads and writes as ItemPoint for Exchange indexes or accesses Exchange logs during recovery.

Due to varying Exchange 2016 database structures, errors may occur when opening Dell Technologies ItemPoint with an Exchange 2016 database as a source. If this happens, additional assistance may be required from OnTrack PowerControls Technical Support.