Best practices for Backup Exec 12.5 Advanced Open File Option

Best practices include tips and recommendations to help you use the Advanced Open File Option effectively. For more information about the Advanced Open File Option, see the Backup Exec for Windows Servers Administrator's Guide.

The following best practices are for using the Advanced Open File Option (AOFO):

• Configure AOFO to use the hardware manufacturer's technology if you want to use Hitachi's Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS) provider with dynamic disks. On the AOFO Backup Job Properties dialog box, select the option Hardware - use technology provided by hardware manufacturer.

• Do not turn off Active Directory when running Windows 2003 and later. Microsoft's VSS is not available when Active Directory is turned off. Jobs that require VSS fail.

• Create a destination backup-to-disk folder on a different physical disk than the disk that you back up.

• Ensure that there is enough free disk space on at least one volume to cache the data that changes during the backup job. Changed data can include user files, system files, and the NTFS Master File Table (MFT). The majority of the MFT changes during the backup.

• Let AOFO have exclusive use of a disk as the Symantec Volume Snapshot Provider (VSP) cache file location. Do not allow any user data on this disk, and do not back it up. Specify this disk as the location of the AOFO cache file.

  Note:
  For new Advanced Open File Option installations, you can only use VSP as a snapshot provider on Windows 2000 computers. If you upgrade Backup Exec and you already use VSP on a Windows 2003 computer, you can continue to do so.

• Avoid the following operations to prevent the VSP cache file from excessive growth on a disk during a backup operation:

  • Processes that write excessive data to the disk.

  • Operations that copy large amounts of data to the disk.

• Use the AOFO Wizard to help you configure VSP for use with AOFO.

• Exclude the VSP cache file from real-time virus scanning software.

• Do not run virus scans or disk utilities at the same time that AOFO backups run. Disk utilities include defragmenters.

• Let Backup Exec automatically calculate the size and location of the cache file for each backup. Use caution if you manually enter a specific size for the VSP cache file. The size that you specify is used regardless of the size of the volume being backed up. The job can fail if the VSP cache file is too small.

• Do the following if the backup job fails because of insufficient VSP cache file size:

  • Increase the size of the VSP cache file by using the AOFO wizard.

  • Run backup jobs during periods of low computer usage.

• Do the following to help an active disk meet the minimum quiet time that VSP requires to complete a snapshot:

  • Select the option Process logical volumes for backup one at a time. This option enables the backup of multiple volumes in one job, while creating a snapshot of only one logical volume at a time.

  • Decrease the number of seconds of quiet time that VSP requires. Do not set the number of seconds to fewer than two. Investigate what applications or services cause the excessive disk writes.

• Manually exclude the Oracle server database files from an AOFO backup job. Oracle server databases are backed up automatically in an AOFO backup job.

• Use the database agents to include Microsoft SQL or Exchange databases in a volume-level AOFO backup of Microsoft SQL or Exchange servers. Otherwise, the SQL or Exchange databases are excluded from the backup.