Data Protector Express 4.0, Exchange backup, Stream Sync error

[forum-it-department]

We use Data Protector Express 4.0 software for backup purposes. Backups go fine when it comes to operating system, general files as well as databases, no problems whatsoever, it's all grand, the only problem we have is Exchange email system backup.

DPX is configured to run full backup of complete Exchange instance, when executed the backup job goes fine, process finishes successfully and we'll grand up to this point. The problem arises when we try to restore data as the job dies almost immediately with an error:

'Error 3201: Stream Sync error, expected stream header for the First Storage Group.'

Tapes are fine, all of the backup job related settings ('this database can be overwritten by restore', etc.) are configured as specified in the manual. We tried restore to the original location, restore to a recovery group, no difference.

It seems like the software can't read the archive for some reason (or simply data is not being backed-up correctly and successful backup log message is just a misleading entry in the log files).

I've looked into the forum and found a post* which relates to the same error message, but unfortunately an advice is to give HP a call. I did, but when I got forwarded to a fifth person (another non technical one) I gave up and decided to try some other approach and leave it a solution of the last resort.

Any ideas, guys, have you ever seen such a message?.. Do you have any ideas how to approach the problem?..

*http://forums11.itrc.hp.com/service/forums/questionanswer.do?admit=109447626+1257179632382+28353475&threadId=1220790

[forum-it-department]

Just to clarify one thing: we tried as a destination backup device both our D2D130 box virtual autoloader as well as a dedicated Ultrium 960 tape drive. With no difference, it didn't solve the problem.

[forum-it-department]

All right, we've got an explanation. It's not really a satisfying one, I must say, but at least the quest is over.

We created for test purposes a test environment which consisted of a fresh instance of Data Protector Express 4.0sp1 (4.00-sp1 build 46537) and Exchange 2003 (5.2.3790 SP2 Build 3790) filled up with a small set of data, 6 mailboxes worth 2G in total.

Good news was that the backup job indeed went fine and that data was successfully written to the tapes. Good news was that Exchange recovery went fine when was performed against First Storage Group, so the same storage group from which the backup was taken.

Bad news was that restore to a Recovery Storage Group wa not possible. When there's Recovery Storage Group configured (so backups were to be restored into Recovery Storage Group without affecting the original Storage Group) restore job failed almost immediately with an error 'Error 3201: Stream Sync error, expected stream header for the First Storage Group'. There's the dptrace.txt error message:

EX2: EseRestoreAddDatabase OK, dest path [d:\Program Files\Exchsrvr\Recovery Storage Group\Mailbox Store (SV2).edb]
EX2: EseGetEnvironment OK
EX2: Exchange data stream contained file D:\Program Files\Exchsrvr\MDBDATA\priv1.edb out of order.
EX2: LclEseRestoreWork failed [3201]

HP advices were a bit misleading as they asked to perform Data Protector database repair first (it'd be a good idea if it wasn't about a fresh installation), they asked to perform backup/restore with Exchange System Manager closed (sic!), none of the ideas helped and they finally came up with a statement that 'DP Express does not support restoring single mail box operations'.

My concern obviously was not single mailbox recovery (it was clearly marked from the very moment of purchase that this was not going to be possible), my concern was that the only way to recover Exchange mailstore is to use original First Storage Group and not Recovery Storage Group. This is important, as that means that in order to perform any recovery email server needs to be brought offline. In serious business environment Downtime is obviously not acceptable and renders Data Protector Express useless in real life.

After further discussion (seems like I luckily got in touch with a right people, thank you very much, Thomas, Jason, I appreciate your efforts!) we finally end up with a conclusion that indeed DPX 4.0 is capable to recover only to an original location and that support for Recovery Storage Groups is planned for Data Protector 5 (release date is now yet known).

The only solution for our problem seemed to be stop using Data Protector's Exchange agent and take advantage of some other backup software. And that's precisely what we've done, we use ntbackup (which is free) to manage our email system backups/restores.

It took almost a week to get a good understanding of the above. I hope the message will get indexed by search engines and saves time for other unfortunate adventurers (time as well as money, as in my understanding there's little point in buing Data Protector Express' Exchange agent).

[forum-it-department]

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[shilishia]

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