Storage indexing

Recovery Manager for Exchange uses indexing on offline Exchange database storages (*.edb) to accelerate searching and data retrieval. This feature is supported only for Exchange Server 2007, Exchange Server 2010, Exchange Server 2013, Exchange Server 2016 and Exchange 2016 CU5.

System requirements

The Indexing service requires the certain amount of memory to run the indexing process and perform the search queries effectively. By default, the Indexing service (elasticsearch_rmex2) uses 2 GB of RAM. This value can be changed in order to run search queries on large databases.

To change the Indexing service memory allocation

1. Navigate to the <RMEX installation folder>\elasticsearch\bin folder.
2. Open the esi_config.bat file.
3. Change the ES_HEAP_SIZE=2g parameter to set the new required memory usage (e.g. ES_HEAP_SIZE=4g).
4. Run esi_service2_uninstall.bat.
5. Run esi_service2.bat.

The desired heap size can be calculated using the following formula:

HEAP = EDB/150

Where EDB is the maximum size for the offline Exchange database on the machine (in gigabytes).

For example, the required heap size for the 600 GB database will be:

HEAP = 600/150 = 4 GB

The heap size should not be larger than 1/2 of the total available memory on the machine and should not exceed 32 GB.

Permissions required for indexing

Quest Recovery Manager Task Scheduler service account (typically is Local System) should have Read and Write access permissions to the RME-Storages database on the SQL server.

• If SQL server is installed on a local machine (.\QUESTRME instance), the 'NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM' account must have the db_owner role on the RME-Storages database.
• If you use the remote SQL server, the Quest Recovery Manager Task Scheduler service account should have the Read and Write access to the RME-Storages database.

Enable indexing

The data source indexing is a resource-intensive activity, and so it is recommended to set up a dedicated computer for the Index database. In this case, you need to have two Recovery Manager for Exchange installations on different workstations and specify the path to the Indexing service on the host that is intended for the Index database (Indexing Url on the Indexing tab). If the Indexing service and the Index database are located on the same workstation, you do not need to change this setting.

To enable indexing

Note: You should add a storage only after the indexing feature is enabled. Otherwise, the indexing will not be activated for the storage. The icon indicates that the storage is indexed.

1. In the Recovery Manager for Exchange Console, select Tool | Settings from the main menu and go to the Indexing tab.
2. Select the Index source storage (slows performance, consumes disk space) check box.
3. On the Indexing tab, you can specify the location of the Indexing service in the Indexing Url text box. The default port that is used by the service is 9200.
4. Include or exclude the attachment content from indexing by selecting the Exclude attachment content or Include attachment content option. Here you can specify file types as shown on the screenshot below.
5. The indexing will be started immediately after you add a storage if you select the Start indexing immediately after the source is registered option or on schedule if you use the Start indexing between option.
6. Add a storage that you want to use. For more information on how to add a storage, see Add Storage Wizard.
7. To view the progress of the indexing task, go to the Home page and click the Automated tasks link.

Configuration parameters

The Indexing configuration parameters can be modified in the Indexing service configuration file:

%Program Files%\Quest\Recovery Manager for Exchange\elasticsearch\config\elasticsearch.xml

• http.port: 9200 – port that is used by the Indexing service.
• path.data: <path to the Index data> – path to the Index data.

Note: Restart the Indexing service (elasticsearch-service-x64.exe on 64-bit machines or elasticsearch-service-x32.exe on 32-bit machines) to apply a new configuration.

By default, the index data is stored in the following location: %Program Files%\Quest\Recovery Manager for Exchange\elasticsearch\data\RMEX.

Estimating the indexing performance

Performance tests with typical heterogeneous data show the following results.

Machine configuration: AWS m3.xlarge, 4 vCPU (Intel Xeon E5-2670 v2, 2,5 GHz), 15 GB of RAM.

Results:

Database Size	Mailboxes	Messages	Attachments	Indexing time	Index size
2,6 GB	3	50000	20000	1 machine - 10 min	0,6 GB (23%)
116 GB	1000	9300000	0	1 machine – 2 h 2 machines - 1 h 20 min	5,3 GB (4,5%)
360 GB	100	24845810	551932	1 machine - 4 h 23 min	72 GB (20%)

Troubleshooting

If you have any problems with indexing, please call Quest Support, describe the issue in detail, and send the resulting log files from the following location: %Program Files%\Quest\Recovery Manager for Exchange\elasticsearch\logs.