Exchange Synchronization Options

[lindy37]

Hi,

I have two stand alone Exchange 2010 mailbox servers (no DAG).  They are VM's in VMware.  Today they are on our outgoing Equallogic and they are backed up by Backup Exec.  I am planning on moving them to our new Nimble this weekend, using in guest iSCSI for the log and database drives.  I am going to also move to Snapshot Backup's and replication.

Since I dont use DAG but I am on Exchange 2010, what Microsoft VSS Application Synchronization option do I use?  "MS Exchange Server" or "MS Exchange Server 2010 or later w/DAG" ?

Thanks for any help!

[Nick_Dyer · Accepted solution]

Hi Chris,

The latter option you mention is specifically to be selected only when using DAG, as MS allows us to skip consistency checks of consistent snapshots as long as we have DAG in place (see here: Nimble OS Part 11: Exchange Snapshot Log Truncation / Verification).

If you're not running DAG, you will want to use MS Exchange Server.

[lindy37]

Thanks much! 

Just to verify the "verify" option is only going to mount a clone of the log file drive and verify the logs and not the entire database?

Also when setting up replication to our DR Nimble, I want to replicate the volume collection (logs and data volumes) vs replicating each volume separately?

[Nick_Dyer]

You are correct sir; the "verify" option will mount a SmartCopy clone of the quiesced snapshot to the server to validate for you. It has no impact on the production data.

With reference to your replication question, you will want to set up the volume collection with snapshots/replication requirements for the entire exchange deployment (with both your logs and DB volumes contained inside it). This will ensure your snapshots/replication are kept consistent as well as quiesced at the right times needed.

[lindy37]

Thanks much!