Creating a Protected Group for Microsoft Exchange Server Databases

Prerequisites

• At least one production site has been created.
• Hosts or host groups and storage devices for host applications have been added to the production site.

Context

The protected objects belonging to one protected group reside on the same storage device. Each protected object occupies independent storage LUNs or volumes.

Procedure

1. In the menu bar, Choose Protection.
2. Click Create.
3. Select a protected object.
   1. Set Production Site and Production Host(Group).
   2. Select the Exchange Server version and the protected object.
      • For Exchange 2007, select the storage group to which the database to be protected belongs.

        The system automatically protects all databases in that storage group.

      • For Exchange 2010 or later, directly select a database to be protected.

4. Click Next.
5. Set protection policies.
   1. On the Protection Policy page, the system automatically matches supported protection policies. Select a protection policy based on your data protection solution.
      • When using the synchronous replication (SAN) DR technology, select Array-Based Replication (Synchronous):Active-Passive DR solution as the protection policy.
      • When using the asynchronous replication (SAN) DR technology, select Array-Based Replication (Asynchronous):Active-Passive DR solution as the protection policy.
        

        • If there are suitable protection policies, you can select a protection policy based on your data protection solution and modify the time policy of the protection policy.
        • If there is no suitable protection policy, check whether the storage devices used by protected objects have been configured as planned. If the storage devices have not been configured, configure them as planned. After configuration, perform the following operations: On the menu bar, select Resources. Select a node under the management server. In the site node, click Storage, in the line where the storage device resides, click Refresh to refresh the storage device information under the site. Then, recreate the protected group.
   2. Click Set to set the protection policy for the protected group.
      

      When a protected object is added to multiple protected groups, ensure that the time policies do not overlap each other. Otherwise, applications cannot be frozen or unfrozen when these time policies are executed.

   • For the Array-Based Replication (Synchronous):Active-Passive DR solution protection policy,
     1. Click Replication Policy tab to set the remote replicate rate between storage arrays. Table 1 lists related parameters.

        

        Table 1 Replication policies

        Replication Policy	Description
        Default configuration	The remote replication rate is the default one set on the storage array.
        Manual configuration	Users can set the remote replication rate for each time segment. Configure the automatic remote replication rate of the storage based on the pre-set replication rate of time period. Select Manual configuration. Click a time color block to modify the replication rate during a time segment.

     2. Click OK.
   • For the Array-Based Replication (Asynchronous):Active-Passive DR solution protection policy,
     1. Click the Scheduling Policy tab. In the Time Policy area, set the time policy for the protected group. Table 2 lists related parameters.

        

        Table 2 Time policies

        Time Policy	Description
        On-demand scheduling	Manually starts protection tasks.
        Period-based scheduling	Automatically starts protection tasks based on a period set by the system. NOTE: To ensure data consistency, the execution timetable for a protected group policy template must be set. You are advised to set the execution time to off-peak hours. Tasks can be executed at multiple time points of a day, a week, or a month. Alternatively, at a specific time segment of a day, a week, or a month with a fixed frequency. It is recommended that the starting time of the validate period is set to a time later than the completion of the initial synchronization. If daylight saving time (DST) is enabled on the eReplication management server, a DR protection task whose trigger time point falls within the DST shift period cannot be executed at the scheduled time. Details are as follows: (UTC-08:00) Pacific Time (United States and Canada) is used as an example. The DST starts at 2016-03-12 02:00:00, and ends at 2016-11-06 02:00:00. If the start time of the protection policy falls within the first hour (2016-03-12 02:00:00 to 03:00:00) after the DST starts, for example, 2016-03-12 02:30:00, the protection group will be automatically executed with a delay of one hour, that is 2016-03-12 03:30:00. If the start time of the protection policy falls with the last hour (2016-11-06 01:00:00 to 02:00:00) before the DST ends, for example, 2016-11-06 01:30:00, the protection group will be executed after the DST ends for half an hour.

     2. When the Scheduling Policy is set to Period-based scheduling, in the Expected RPO area, if you select Enable PRO Requirement Satisfaction Check, the actual RPO is check against the configured RPO. If the actual RPO exceeds the expected RPO, the system generates an alarm, indicating that the RPO requirement is not satisfied.

        

        Expected RPO can be set to 0-31 days, 0-23 hours, and 5-59 minutes.

        

        If days and hours are not set, the Expected RPO is 15 minutes by default.

     3. Click Replication Policy tab to set the remote replicate rate between storage arrays. Table 3 lists related parameters.

        

        Table 3 Replication policies

        Replication Policy	Description
        Default configuration	The remote replication rate is the default one set on the storage array.
        Manual configuration	Users can set the remote replication rate for each time segment. Configure the automatic remote replication rate of the storage based on the pre-set replication rate of time period. Select Manual configuration. Click a time color block to modify the replication rate during a time segment.

     4. Click the Consistency Policy tab and select Quiesce database.

        VSS is a framework provided by Microsoft for backing up and recovering applications. For SQL Server, the OceanStor BCManager Agent uses VSS to freeze or unfreeze application I/Os. After I/Os are frozen, the storage device starts replication or generating snapshots. Afterwards, the OceanStor BCManager Agent unfreezes write I/Os.

     5. Click OK.

6. Click Next.
7. Set Name and Description of the protected group.
   • Name: contains 4 to 32 characters, including letters, digits, underscores (_), and hyphens (-), but cannot start with a hyphen (-).
   • Description: contains 0 to 255 characters.

8. Optional: If you do not want to manually create a recovery plan for the protected group, select Automatically create a recovery plan after creating protected groups in the lower left corner.
9. Click Finish.
10. Click OK.

Related Operations

• If the protected objects of a protected group or their used storage devices change. On the menu bar, select Resources. And refresh resources or storage devices where the protected objects reside. Then go to the protected group page and refresh protected objects of the protected group by clicking More > Refresh. After the command for refreshing information is sent, you can view details about the command execution in Background Task.
  

  If a recovery plan has been created for a protected group, you can refresh protected objects only when the recovery plan status is Ready, Clear completed, Rollback completed, or Reprotection completed.

• To ensure that information about protected groups is refreshed successfully, you must refresh information about storage devices and hosts at both the production site and DR site.