EXCHANGE - quiesce snapshot

[luciodicunzolo]

Using a quiesce snapshot (Trilead VM Explorer)  to backup an Exchange Server Windows 2008R2 on ESXi 5.5 is a best praticte method or it's better don't use the quiesce?

I have this situation:

16Gb Ram, it takes 45 min to take the memory snapshot.

Then during the MEMORY snapshot i have this errors:

2003 IIS http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc735241(v=ws.10).aspx

Event ID 250 ExchangeStoreDB

12289 VSS

137 NTFS

Then the quiesce end OK, and i can again relogin to IIS and ECp, OWA ecc....

Could be a normal behavior or it's better to take a backup without quiescing?

Thanks.

[admin]

When doing a memory snapshot you are not quiescing at all, you are doing a FULL memory dump of the system.

Quiescing will only happen if you just chose the lower option (quiece file system) without choosing the top option (save memory).

[luciodicunzolo]

Hi, i backup with two options (memory dump and quiesce file system).

I notice that the Vsphere client riports "VM TOOLS NOT RUNNING" during quiesce, is it correct?

Best praticte to backup service "high memory" as Exchange, is NOT quiesce?

[admin]

Hi,

Try to make the same choice in the Web Client :smileywink: You will see that this is a mistake in the Classic Client, you simply cannot make a memory snapshot and quiesce the file system as well, it would be pointless.

Since you are choosing the first option you will get a fully consistent state including system memory, there is no need for quiescing, and since you have quite a bit of RAM and possibly change rate this also explains the long time your snapshots are taking.

As the VM gets "stunned" to be able to cope with the change you will probably notice some service interruption, this maps perfectly to the symptom of you seeing the tools as not running.

If you really want to quiesce the system, do NOT check the memory option. You then will get a snapshot that takes file changes into consideration using Microsoft VSS as a basis.

The only "disadvantage" without backing up the memory state of the system is that Windows will do a hard reboot after a restore as it comes with empty system memory, yet again I don't know of any enterprise backup solution that would actually dump the memory of a system into the backup.

[luciodicunzolo]

Thanks, i'm using trilead and i can flag TWO options:

INCLUDE MEMORY DUMP OF THE VM

QUIESCE THE FILE SYSTEM IN THE VIRTUAL MACHINE

i'm getting lots of Exchange errors while doing backup.

The server is an Exchange server.

What you think, quiesce or not quiesce?

Pros and cons?

Thanks

[admin]

Quiesce but don't choose the memory option.

Pro: Your file system will still be consistent and the backup should be much faster without showing the errors

Con: A restore will give you the the impression of a system crash during the initial boot, simply ignore it :smileyhappy:

With Exchange, Databases and Active Directory vendors usually also provide some sort of agent to make backup and restore of single mailboxes possible.

[luciodicunzolo]

Done...faster!

Why trilead says that i have to take snapshot with memory?

[Borja_Mari]

Hello,

bear in mind that if the in the snapshot the memory option is checked, the virtual machine's memory must be dumped to disk.

This would take a long time if the virtual machine has to much memory. While the memory is dumping to disk, the virtual machine will be unresponsive.

The memory option in the snapshot creation is enabled by default.

The best options as commented by Frank, is to choose quiesce but not memory option.

Enabling the memory options permits to return to the running virtual machine state (with the same memory content) as it was when the snapshot was taken.

Check the "Creating a snapshot" section in this vmware's kb, to be able to gain more knowledge about this topic.

Best regards,

Pablo

[MKguy]

Like others said just don't use the memory dump option. There is rarely any need for it in the first place. For quiesce make sure the VMware Tools are up to date and running inside your VM and that you don't have any other third party VSS writers (like from a backup agent software) conflicting with the VMware Tools VSS writers.

However, keep in mind that Microsoft does not support any kind of snapshotting with virtualized Exchange servers, see:

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/jj126252%28v=exchg.141%29.aspx

Virtual disks that use differencing or delta mechanisms (such as Hyper-V's differencing VHDs or snapshots) aren't supported.

Some hypervisors include features for taking snapshots of virtual machines. Virtual machine snapshots capture the state of a virtual machine while it's running. This feature enables you to take multiple snapshots of a virtual machine and then revert the virtual machine to any of the previous states by applying a snapshot to the virtual machine. However, virtual machine snapshots aren't application aware, and using them can have unintended and unexpected consequences for a server application that maintains state data, such as Exchange. As a result, making virtual machine snapshots of an Exchange guest virtual machine isn't supported.

[fireskyer]

Hello guys

Is an quieseced Snaphsot or an Snaphsot when the Machine is powered  off from an Exchange a good way to make consistent one for an  vm  ?

In near future we want to check our Database with eseutil and before we do that  i want to make an backup from our Exchange VM. with an solid  Backup from the Database too.

so does anyone have some experiences with it ?

regards fireskyer