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Exchange 2003 VSS Backup Solution
For IBM Storage DS8000/DS6000
And Symantec Backup Exec 11d
Page 73 David West, David Hartman
©
Copyright IBM Corp. 2007
In order to fully leverage the performance capabilities of the IBM DS8000 and
6000, detailed consideration needs to be given to the logical configuration of
the storage units. This is particularly true with I/O intensive applications such
as Exchange Server 2003, and even more so when implementing VSS
technology.
Volumes intended for VSS use should be created:
• So that source & target volumes are in different ranks
• So that source & target volumes are on the same RIO loop
• So that source & target volumes are managed by different DA pairs
• So that overall system usage is balanced, eliminating ‘hot-spots’
Minimizing application impact
• Host-based striping can further reduce latency
• Backup should occur when applications are least active
• Volume creation & storage sizing for maximum Exchange performance
should follow published Microsoft guidelines. Contact Microsoft for
further information.
• For additional information on configuring your IBM DS8000 for
maximum performance, please refer to the IBM System Storage
DS8000 Series: Performance Monitoring and Tuning Redbook, which
can be found at
http://www.redbooks.ibm.com/abstracts/sg247146.html?Open
Conclusion
The system configurations described here, constructed jointly by IBM and
Symantec, and reviewed by Microsoft, are designed to address demanding
enterprise requirements for highly available email servers running Microsoft
Exchange. Microsoft VSS technology is designed to enable consistent point-
in-time copies of Exchange databases, while Transportable Shadow Copies
affords the benefit of shifting the task of executing Eseutil consistency
checking to another server. Both of these features help reduce the traditional
backup load on production Exchange servers.
IBM servers and storage systems are designed to provide the processing
throughput and storage needed for large user populations. Symantec Backup
Exec software is designed to alleviate the complexities of protecting
Exchange, while eliminating the traditional daily Exchange backup window.
This hardware and software combination forms a high availability platform for
mission critical email servers.