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NetVault Plug-in for Exchange 12.1 - User Guide

Introducing NetVault Backup Plug-in for Exchange Defining an Exchange data protection strategy Planning your Exchange Server deployment Installing and removing the plug-in Configuring the plug-in Backing up data Restoring data Troubleshooting

Upgrading the plug-in fails

Symptom

If the nvexchangeserver.exe process is running when you install an upgrade, the upgrade might fail and display the following message:

Failed to install software. A key could not be installed.
Solution

To work around this issue, do either of the following on the NetVault Backup Client where Exchange Server is running:

•
Use Windows Task Manager to locate and stop the nvexchangeserver.exe process.
•
Stop and start the NetVault Backup Service.

For more information on stopping and starting the NetVault Backup Service, see the Quest NetVault Backup Administrator’s Guide.

Diagnosing and resolving VSS-related issues

When a VSS-backup job is run, the plug-in might generate one or more shadow copies (snapshots). After completing the job, the plug-in sends the VSS subsystem a notification indicating that the shadow copy can be deleted. Also, if the VSS job is canceled for any reason and the plug-in detects the event, the plug-in sends the same type of notice. However, there are instances in which shadow copies are not deleted, which means that the VSS inadvertently stores obsolete shadow copies.

If the plug-in is unable to create a VSS shadow copy, or if the backup job fails during the processing of taking or managing snapshots, it might indicate that obsolete shadow copies are interfering with the VSS subsystem.

In addition to the NetVault Backup logs and the individual job logs, the following resources can expedite the diagnoses of VSS-related issues with backup and restore jobs.

•
Windows Application Log: In this log, VSS Writers record detailed error messages that are not logged in the NetVault Backup logs. For more information, see http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms157312.aspx.
•
Vssadmin and DiskShadow: You can use Vssadmin to list the VSS writers and providers, display their status, and ensure that the VSS Writers that the plug-in depends on are enabled and available. Vssadmin also indicates whether it has encountered any errors. DiskShadow, which is a newer utility, also provides information that might be useful. For more information, see http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb491031.aspx and http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc772172(v=WS.10).aspx.
You can also obtain additional information from a command prompt by typing vssadmin or diskshadow.

Quest recommends that you use the Vssadmin and DiskShadow utilities to maintain the VSS subsystem, and to address specific issues, such as deleting obsolete shadow copies. You can use these utilities to list the shadow copies stored by the VSS, remove shadow copies, and manage the space allocated in a specific volume for the storage of shadow copies.

 
* 
NOTE: In addition to using these utilities to remove the shadow copies, Quest recommends that you restart the Volume Shadow Copy and the Microsoft Software Shadow Copy Provider services before resuming a VSS-backup job. In some instances, you might also have to restart the Microsoft Exchange Information Store service.

Addressing cluster-related issues

Clustered Exchange environments, such as DAG, present more challenges, especially when the plug-in tries to detect all the applicable NetVault Backup Clients or when the clients must communicate with each other. Usually, NetVault Backup scans the network to locate known NetVault Backup Clients. However, under certain conditions, such as when clients are in the same network but different segments or when clients are located in geographically distant networks, the NetVault Backup Clients might not be aware of each other. This issue can cause errors, such as the display of a “Failed to launch Proxy Master in <NameOfNetVaultBackupClient>” message in the binary log during a backup job. This message might indicate that the NetVault Backup Client that is running the backup job is not aware of the network location of the client that is specified in the message.

To work around this issue, you can use the “machines.dat” file to identify all clients that the NetVault Backup Client must be aware of. Each NetVault Backup Client contains this list of known NetVault Backup Clients in the NetVault Backup installation’s etc directory. For example, in a typical Windows installation, the path is: C:\Program Files (x86)\Quest\NetVault Backup\etc\machines.dat. Adding a known NetVault Backup Client name as an IP address to this file lets the local NetVault Backup Client locate the remote NetVault Backup Client in the network.

If you encounter the “Failed to launch Proxy Master in <NameOfNetVaultBackupClient>” message, Quest recommends that you add all NetVault Backup Clients in an Exchange cluster to the specific NetVault Backup Client that runs the backups. In the following steps, the DAG contains three NetVault Backup Clients: Client_1, Client_2, and Client_3. The NetVault Backup Client that manages backups is Client_1, so the “machines.dat” file on Client_1 is the one that you would modify.

To add a client, perform the following steps.

1
Open the NetVault Backup Configurator, and select the Service tab.
2
On the Service tab, click Stop Service.
NetVault Backup Services are stopped.
3
In Windows, navigate to the etc directory where NetVault Backup is installed, for example, C:\Program Files (x86)\Quest\NetVault Backup\….
4
To ensure that you can restore the original settings if necessary, make a backup copy of the “machines.dat” file, for example, “machines.dat_saved.”
5
Use a text editor to open the original “machines.dat” file.
6
Verify that the local NetVault Backup Client, for example, Client_1, is already listed in the file.
[Client_1]
Networks=<IPaddressOfClient_1>
Preferred Address=<IPaddressOfClient_1>
Contact Address=<IPaddressOfClient_1>
7
At the end of the file, add a section for each additional client that the local NetVault Backup Client, for example, Client_1, must be aware of — replace <IPaddressOfClient_x> with the applicable IP address.
[Client_2]
Networks=<<IPaddressOfClient_2>
Preferred Address=<IPaddressOfClient_2>
Contact Address=<IPaddressOfClient_2>
[Client_3]
Networks=<IPaddressOfClient_3>
Preferred Address=<IPaddressOfClient_3>
Contact Address=<IPaddressOfClient_3>
8
Save the file.
9
Return to the Service tab in the NetVault Backup Configurator, and click Start Service.
The Current State changes to Running.
10
If the Current State remains Running, the changes have been implemented; otherwise, if the state changes to Stopped after a few seconds, complete the following steps:
a
Open the Windows Task Manager, and select the Processes tab.
b
To display the processes in alphabetical order, click the Image Name column heading.
c
To determine whether the nvstatsmngr.exe or nvstatsmngr.exe*32 process is listed, check the list.
d
If either process is listed, select it, and click End Process.
e
If a confirmation prompt is displayed, click End Process.
f
Close the Task Manager, return to the NetVault Backup Configurator, and click Start Service again.
After these steps are completed, NetVault Backup automatically updates the information in the “machines.dat” file with additional information for each NetVault Backup client that you added.
For example:
[Client_2]
Type=xxxx
UDP Fragment Size=xxxx
Server=xxxx
Description=xxxx
NVVersion=xxxx
NVBuildLevel=xx
Networks=nnn.nnn.nnn.nnn
Preferred Address=nnn.nnn.nnn.nnn
Contact Address=nnn.nnn.nnn.nnn
Fixed entry=xxxx
Id=xx
Version=xxxxxxxx
Outside Firewall=xxxx

Troubleshooting other issues

This topic describes some common errors and their solutions. In cases where an error occurs and is not described in this table, obtain the Microsoft Exchange Server error number from the NetVault Backup logs, and then see the relevant Microsoft Exchange Server documentation for help.

 
Table 1. Troubleshooting
Error message
Explanation

Failed to Connect or Failed to log in as user <userName>

Ensure that all relevant Exchange Services are started before initiating backup or restore jobs. These services include:

•
Microsoft Exchange Information Store
•
Microsoft Exchange System Attendant
•
Microsoft Software Shadow Copy Provider (VSS backups)
•
Volume Shadow Copy (VSS backups) — started automatically by Microsoft Software Shadow Copy Provider

Failed to get Backup Components

Ensure that Exchange Server databases are mounted.

No Suitable Media for Job

This error occurs when multiple Mailbox Databases are backed up simultaneously by using parallel streams and the number of media drives is less than the number of Mailbox Databases.

An error occurred. Please check that databases are dismounted.

Even if a specific database has been dismounted, if the This database can be overwritten by a restore option is not selected on the Database tab of the Store Properties dialog box, this error occurs.

•
Failed to add backup record
•
Failed to write index of backup to the database

These messages indicate that the selected data was backed up, but the job’s index information was not properly added by NetVault Backup to its database. Without this index information, the data cannot be properly restored.

Method 1:

Open the Manage Devices page, select the backup media, and click Scan. NetVault Backup stores index information for backup jobs in two locations: in the NetVault Database and on the media targeted by the backup. When you scan the backup media, the index information is added to the NetVault Database. To verify that the information was added, open the Manage Job Definitions page, and locate the specific job. If you can run the job now, the scan process has corrected the problem.

Method 2:

If the scan has failed, run the backup job again.

Proxy Master on DAG member server ‘<ServerName>’ died unexpectedly

NetVault Backup uses a threshold for NetVault Backup messages between NetVault Backup Client machines. By default, the threshold is 8 MB. For large Plug‑in for Exchange backups that include several Exchange Server transaction log files, this activity might exceed the threshold. Exceeding the threshold causes the backup to fail and adds the specified error message in the NetVault Backup binary logs.

To increase the NetVault Backup messaging threshold:
1
For each NetVault Backup Client that is part of the DAG, access the NetVault Backup config directory, and use a text editor to modify the “nvnmgr.cfg” file.
2
At the end of the file, add the following entry and specify the value in bytes.
[Network:Message Validation Threshold]
Value=16777216
For example, to increase the level to 16 MB, add the following entry:
[Network:Message Validation Threshold]
Value=16777216
To increase the level to 32 MB, add the following entry:
[Network:Message Validation Threshold]
Value=33554432
3
Save the updated file.
4
Make the same change to the “nvnmgr.cfg” file for every NetVault Backup Client that is part of the DAG.
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