Microsoft Exchange higher availability using Continuous Data Protection software
Microsoft Exchange continues to be a mission critical application in business and organizations of all sizes. If during a working day email data is lost or deleted, it's the responsibility of users and administrators to recovery it. User's can use tools like deleted item recovery or simply retrieve an item from the deleted items folder. Administrators can take extra steps to recover individual emails. Administrators are the only option when a mailbox, database and the entire email server is unavailable.
Bringing a system back online can be complicated if you are using Microsoft Clustering. Organizations of all sizes want to achieve higher levels of availability with Microsoft Exchange. Many companies turned to Microsoft Cluster Services because it was the only option to support availability for Microsoft Exchange. Microsoft Clustering works by using a shared storage model. In a shared storage model two servers are setup to use and share the same underlying storage system. There is a gating mechanism that assigns a server ownership to the storage system. The gating mechanism prevents conflicts that could arise if both systems are writing data to the storage. After configuring two servers, software, storage and testing the system's ability to failover an administrator is ready to install backup software, phew!
Higher Exchange availability through simpler means can be achieved without Microsoft Clustering. Dan Muller at Utah State University says "No, we do not cluster our Microsoft Exchange servers." He went on to say, "Having a single system to administrator, rather than a collection of backup and clustering software and systems, makes sense to us." Dan and his team realize the value of installing a backup solution like InMage DR-Scout's Continuous Data Protection. Using Continuous Data Protection (CDP) your organization will achieve higher levels of availability for data recovery on individual servers, but when needed, the system can failover an entire server to another piece of hardware without the need for Microsoft Cluster Services. CDP delivers on a promise of higher availability for both Microsoft Exchange system and data recovery.
You'll need to explore any CDP software thoroughly before making a decision on one. Since the release of Microsoft Exchange 2007, Microsoft has encouraged the use of log shipping to perform data recovery. Log shipping is an option where Microsoft Exchange Log files are copied from a source system to a target system. Once the log files are safely copied to a secondary system the CDP software will prompt Microsoft Exchange to read and write the log file data into the Extensible Storage Engine (ESE) database(s) on the recovery system.
Microsoft Exchange databases on the target system are brought up to date with the most recent changes in the online (source) system by writing the log files into the target database. Once the target system has an up-to-date database it can be used to recovery an entire system or individual mailboxes and messages. Be sure your CDP software can store log and database data anywhere. Moreover, the CDP software should be able to recover data and start Microsoft Exchange services on a secondary system from a single administrative console.
Microsoft Clustering has been available since 1998 and has successfully used a shared storage model since then. CDP products like InMage DR-Scout are augmenting that model by supporting data and system recovery. CDP is happening now and should be in your future of higher-availability for all data services. Spend less money trying to configure and support clustering by unifying system recovery and data recovery for Microsoft Exchange with CDP, InMage DR-Scout's CDP.
Learn how CDP software is better for Microsoft Exchange than Loss Log Resiliency, Standby Continuous Replication and how Utah State University runs their Microsoft Exchange environment with InMage DR-Scout. Add InMage CDP Industry Blog to your feed reader!
Bringing a system back online can be complicated if you are using Microsoft Clustering. Organizations of all sizes want to achieve higher levels of availability with Microsoft Exchange. Many companies turned to Microsoft Cluster Services because it was the only option to support availability for Microsoft Exchange. Microsoft Clustering works by using a shared storage model. In a shared storage model two servers are setup to use and share the same underlying storage system. There is a gating mechanism that assigns a server ownership to the storage system. The gating mechanism prevents conflicts that could arise if both systems are writing data to the storage. After configuring two servers, software, storage and testing the system's ability to failover an administrator is ready to install backup software, phew!
Higher Exchange availability through simpler means can be achieved without Microsoft Clustering. Dan Muller at Utah State University says "No, we do not cluster our Microsoft Exchange servers." He went on to say, "Having a single system to administrator, rather than a collection of backup and clustering software and systems, makes sense to us." Dan and his team realize the value of installing a backup solution like InMage DR-Scout's Continuous Data Protection. Using Continuous Data Protection (CDP) your organization will achieve higher levels of availability for data recovery on individual servers, but when needed, the system can failover an entire server to another piece of hardware without the need for Microsoft Cluster Services. CDP delivers on a promise of higher availability for both Microsoft Exchange system and data recovery.
You'll need to explore any CDP software thoroughly before making a decision on one. Since the release of Microsoft Exchange 2007, Microsoft has encouraged the use of log shipping to perform data recovery. Log shipping is an option where Microsoft Exchange Log files are copied from a source system to a target system. Once the log files are safely copied to a secondary system the CDP software will prompt Microsoft Exchange to read and write the log file data into the Extensible Storage Engine (ESE) database(s) on the recovery system.
Microsoft Exchange databases on the target system are brought up to date with the most recent changes in the online (source) system by writing the log files into the target database. Once the target system has an up-to-date database it can be used to recovery an entire system or individual mailboxes and messages. Be sure your CDP software can store log and database data anywhere. Moreover, the CDP software should be able to recover data and start Microsoft Exchange services on a secondary system from a single administrative console.
Microsoft Clustering has been available since 1998 and has successfully used a shared storage model since then. CDP products like InMage DR-Scout are augmenting that model by supporting data and system recovery. CDP is happening now and should be in your future of higher-availability for all data services. Spend less money trying to configure and support clustering by unifying system recovery and data recovery for Microsoft Exchange with CDP, InMage DR-Scout's CDP.
Learn how CDP software is better for Microsoft Exchange than Loss Log Resiliency, Standby Continuous Replication and how Utah State University runs their Microsoft Exchange environment with InMage DR-Scout. Add InMage CDP Industry Blog to your feed reader!
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