Document ID: 294957
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Exchange 2003 and Exchange 2007 Granular Restore Technology (GRT) Backups to Tape appears to hang in "Updating Catalogs" stage.
Details:

The GRT option for the Backup Exec Exchange Agent provides an option to restore individual email items from a database level backup. The GRT backup operation to a Disk backup device varies from the GRT backup operation to a Tape backup device however in both types of backups there is a stage called the "Updating Catalogs". In the "Updating Catalogs" stage, the catalog information is built for the backup set so that the individual email items can be seen in the Restore Selections view after the backup job completes. The "Updating Catalogs" stage may take a long time to complete depending on the size of the database, number of transaction log files, number of mailboxes, number of mail items etc.
The catalog information for GRT backup is processed differently, depending on whether the backup target is Disk or Tape.
Exchange GRT backup operation to a Tape backup device:
When running an Exchange GRT backup to tape, it is not possible to mount the database and build the GRT catalog information, hence Backup Exec depends on Active Directory and MAPI connections to build that information. Backup Exec gets information about the various users from Active Directory and logs into every user's mailbox using MAPI and builds the information about every email item inside the mailbox. During this time the backup job will show to be in "Updating Catalogs" stage. To confirm if the job is actually processing data or stuck at this stage, launch the activity monitor for the active job and verify if the "mailbox/email message information" is constantly changing. Depending on the number of mailboxes and mail items this process can take significant amount of time.  

Workaround:

Currently the only workaround available are to backup to disk and then duplicate the job to tape.


Symantec Corporation has acknowledged that the above-mentioned issue is present in the current version(s) of the product(s) mentioned at the end of this article. Symantec Corporation is committed to product quality and satisfied customers.
There are no plans to address this issue by way of a patch or hotfix in the current or previous versions of the software at the present time. However, the issue is currently scheduled to be addressed in the next major revision of the product. Please be sure to refer back to this document periodically as any changes to the status of the defect will be reflected here. Please note that Symantec Corporation reserves the right to remove any fix from the targeted release if it does not pass quality assurance tests. Symantec's plans are subject to change and any action taken by you based on the above information or your reliance upon the above information is made at your own risk.
Please contact your Symantec Sales representative or the Symantec Sales group for upgrade information including upgrade eligibility to the release containing the resolution for this issue. For information on how to contact Symantec Sales, please see  http://www.symantec.com






Supplemental Material:

System: Ref.#Description
ETrack: 1176909 Exch 2007 backups hanging on updating catalogs
ETrack: 1412706 Tape based GRT backups should use VFF to gather catalog information

Products Applied:
 Backup Exec 11d (11.0) 7170, 12.0, 12.0 SP1, 12.0 SP2, 12.0 SP3, 12.5
Last Updated: June 22 2009 02:32 PM GMT
Expires on: 06-22-2010
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Subjects:
 Backup Exec
   Agent For Exchange: Backup-Restore
Windows Server 2003
   Information Development: Troubleshooting

Languages:
 Russian, English (US), French, German, Spanish, Italian, Japanese, Chinese, Korean

Operating Systems:
Windows Server 2003

Enterprise (x64), Enterprise SP1(x64), Enterprise SP2(x64), Standard Server SP1 (x64), Standard Server SP2 (x64), Standard Server(x64)