Administrator Guide

Local Volumes
Replay Manager provides the ability to create VSS backups of one or more local volumes mapped from the server to the Dell
Storage Center.
VSS for Local Volumes
Using the Local Volumes option, an administrator can use VSS to create backups of applications without using a Replay Manager
application-specific extension; however, it is up to the administrator to determine which volumes are needed for a complete
backup set.
For example, the complete backup set for an Exchange Server with separate database volumes and log volumes for a storage
group requires the manual selection of all volumes and logs for the storage group. Therefore, the administrator must know the
exact layout and location of all storage group components to create a usable backup set.
The Local Volumes option is primarily intended for backing up and restoring volume file and print environments where the
files are flat—that is, the files are not in a transactional database-like environment. Servers that contain shared files or home
directories can leverage the Local Volumes backups because the restore points for local volumes can be easily exposed, allowing
an administrator to recover files.
VSS for Shared Folders
VSS for Shared Folders, a similar technology built into Windows, provides the ability to back up a volume which in turn stores
the shadow copy on the volume itself in a hidden location. By default, snapshots in VSS for Shared Folders take place at 7:00
a.m. and 12:00 p.m., and shadow copies are replaced as required by the amount of free disk space on the volume. The snapshot
times can be adjusted, but the snapshots should run no more than once every 60 minutes.
Using VSS for Shared Folders and Replay Manager on the same volumes is not recommended as this combination uses additional
disk space because VSS stores the deltas (data changes or differences) hidden on the volume while Storage Center determines
which blocks to freeze. This is essentially duplicating efforts on the volume.
Microsoft Exchange Server
The Replay Manager Microsoft Exchange Extension can back up and restore data for Microsoft Exchange Server 2019,
Microsoft Exchange Server 2016, Microsoft Exchange Server 2013, and Microsoft Exchange Server 2010.
General Guidelines for Exchange Servers
Follow these general guidelines for backing up and restoring Microsoft Exchange Server data.
● Use the Replay Manager Microsoft Exchange Server Extension:
Always use the Replay Manager Microsoft Exchange Server Extension to back up and restore Microsoft Exchange Server
databases; do not use the Local Volumes extension to back up and restore Microsoft Exchange databases residing on one or
more local volumes.
● Install the Exchange Verification Service on non-production servers:
Replay Manager provides an optional Verification Service that can be installed to check the consistency of the databases
during backup and restore operations. By default, the service is configured to run on the localhost; however, the best
practice is to run this on a utility server other than the production Microsoft Exchange Server. Since this service is
processor, memory, and disk intensive, this load is better suited for a non-production server so that verification does not
impact mission-critical operations. Note also that although it is possible to run the Verification Service on every snapshot
that is taken, it may be more feasible to consider verifying only one backup set per day to prevent queuing of the verification
jobs.
● Configure the Exchange Verification Service:
The Exchange Verification Service uses the Exchange APIs that are used when an ESEUTIL /K command is issued on an
Exchange Server. This service checks the consistency of the databases and logs that are part of the selected backup set to
make sure that they are readable by Exchange and can be recovered through standard means such as a soft recovery.
Replay Manager Best Practices
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