Sample Script - Windows MSCS Cluster monitor »Sample Script - Network Appliance SnapKicker
If you have Exchange databases on Network Appliance storage, and use SnapManager for Exchange keep reading... otherwise hit the back button on your browser now...
Still there? OK. If you run a SnapMirror from your front end filer to a (hopefully off site) R200 NearStore every 3 hours a day, then you can always recover from the highly unlikely complete failure of the front end filer with not more than 3 hours of data lost. But what if you couldn't live with a 3 hour loss of data? You could run your snapshots more often, but that might be a lot of resource use during the middle of the business day.
This script is designed to kick the Exchange transaction logs only from a front end filer to the NearStore. Run hourly during the day to minimize WAN use.
The utility of this script really depends on your environment, backup schedule and overall paranoia about data loss. We've never had a problem with our NetApp filers, but the time to prepare is before the horse gets out of the barn.
Here's the original backup schedule:
A failure of the front end storage at 11:30 would result in 2 hours 30 minutes of lost data.
0600 Full backup, snapmirrored to R200
0900 Full backup, snapmirrored to R200
1200 Full backup, snapmirrored to R200
1500 Full backup, snapmirrored to R200
1800 Full backup, snapmirrored to R200
2100 Nightly full backup, snapmirrored to R200
Here's a sample schedule with SnapKicker:
A failure of the front end storage at 11:57 would result in just 30 minutes of lost data.
0600 Full backup, snapmirrored to R200
0700 Exchange log files pushed to R200 by SnapKicker script.
0800 Exchange log files pushed to R200 by SnapKicker script.
0900 Full backup, snapmirrored to R200
1000 Exchange log files pushed to R200 by SnapKicker script.
1100 Exchange log files pushed to R200 by SnapKicker script.
1200 Full backup, snapmirrored to R200
1300 Exchange log files pushed to R200 by SnapKicker script.
1400 Exchange log files pushed to R200 by SnapKicker script.
1500 Full backup, snapmirrored to R200
1600 Exchange log files pushed to R200 by SnapKicker script.
1700 Exchange log files pushed to R200 by SnapKicker script.
1800 Full backup, snapmirrored to R200
1900 Exchange log files pushed to R200 by SnapKicker script.
2000 Exchange log files pushed to R200 by SnapKicker script.
2100 Nightly full backup, snapmirrored to R200
Requirements:
- Network Appliance Storage
- SnapManager for Exchange (though you could actually use this script to sync any data)
- SnapMirror License and a destination for SnapMirrored snapshots, like a R200 NearStore
- RSH access to the Filers/NearStore
- A command line SMTP mailer like bmail, blat or postie
Note this is a sample script and would require extensive customizing to your environment. You'll need to read through the source and make changes depending on how many filers you have, the names of your SnapMirror's, etc. This script is provided as-is, with absolutely no warranty of any sort or kind. Trademarks.are property of the trademark holder. I've had this script running on Windows 2003 kicking my log files to the NearStore for over a year.
On the infrequent occasions where heavy Exchange I/O caused the S:\ (SnapInfo) drive to run out of space, this script sends alerts when the SnapMirror replication lag time exceeds the threshold (4 hours by default).
Click here to download the code. Have fun.
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