Microsoft

Enhance Microsoft Exchange Data Protection with Dell EqualLogic

Date : 10/1/2011
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Enhance Microsoft® Exchange Server 2010 data protection and availability using Dell™ EqualLogic™ Snapshots. The Auto-Snapshot Manager/Microsoft Edition (ASM/ME) ― a software component of the EqualLogic Host Integration Tools (HIT) kit and available for free for customers running Dell EqualLogic PS Series arrays ― offers an intuitive interface, implemented as a snap-in within the Microsoft® Management Console framework.

ASM/ME creates and manages snapshots and clones on the storage area network (SAN) arrays directly from the Windows host. It provides the support to take Smart Copy snapshots ― point-in-time consistent copies of an EqualLogic SAN volume ― manually or automatically, manipulate them and recover the data contained in a way consistent to the application.

Using EqualLogic SAN-based snapshots within a wider data protection strategy provides key benefits:

  • Out-of-the-box, SAN-based snapshot feature ― Volumes holding applications data can have one or more point-in-time copies taken seamlessly on the SAN, while maintaining application integration at the host level to ensure data consistency
  • Simple management ― A host-based set of graphical user interface (GUI) applications provides management, scheduling and monitoring functionalities for all related activities with snapshots
  • Host and network resources offload during backup ― SAN snapshot enable minimizing the backup windows by offloading the host local resources contention and LAN traffic to the SAN level
  • Rapid creation of recovery points ― Creating snapshots quickly establishes more frequent application recovery points, providing the choice of a more granular recovery point objective for the application data
  • Fast recovery ― Recovering from a SAN snapshot is a fast operation because the data set to be rolled back resides on the SAN and does not have to change media

Review the test configuration details, including hardware, network and software components, and results obtained in testing of the EqualLogic snapshot feature. Find best practices for planning your implementation, and best practices for network, storage, virtual configurations and Microsoft Exchange.

Integrating Dell EqualLogic snapshots managed by Auto-Snapshot Manager as a complementary solution to Microsoft Exchange 2010 data protection with Smart Copy snapshots enables you to:

  • Reduce overprovisioning of resources for backup activities on Microsoft Exchange production servers
  • Curtail the recovery time objective (RTO) allowed by an infrastructure correctly integrated with a traditional backup system
  • Increase the level of protection by supporting a highly available environment
  • Reduce the need for additional mailbox database copy deployments in a local data center