Comments on: Zenith BDR, Exchange Server, and VSS http://www.xbarit.com/bradblog/2008/06/10/zenith-bdr-exchange-server-and-vss/ Tales from the server side and IT news that matters from X-BAR\'s Brad Benner Wed, 07 Jan 2009 08:20:44 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.7 hourly 1 By: John Ballinger http://www.xbarit.com/bradblog/2008/06/10/zenith-bdr-exchange-server-and-vss/comment-page-1/#comment-264 John Ballinger Tue, 28 Oct 2008 22:47:51 +0000 http://www.xbarit.com/bradblog/?p=89#comment-264 Mark, have you received any further responses to this. I'm looking for a definitive answer as to how and why BDR wi/daily VSS at 11:30PM only can be recovered and what points in time it can be recovered to. We are running the BDR wi/VSS enabled once a day(the default) at 11:30PM which will cause the SQLServer log to be cleaned of all committed transactions when that VSS run is done. Mark,
have you received any further responses to this.
I’m looking for a definitive answer as to how and why BDR wi/daily VSS at 11:30PM only can be recovered and what points in time it can be recovered to.
We are running the BDR wi/VSS enabled once a day(the default) at 11:30PM which will cause the SQLServer log to be cleaned of all committed transactions when that VSS run is done.

]]> By: Mark http://www.xbarit.com/bradblog/2008/06/10/zenith-bdr-exchange-server-and-vss/comment-page-1/#comment-207 Mark Sun, 10 Aug 2008 10:01:50 +0000 http://www.xbarit.com/bradblog/?p=89#comment-207 Great post! There are a few confusing things, however, all centered around the lack of quiescence implied by doing a 15 minute backup without VSS (i.e., without StorageCraft.) If the BDR software is doing block copies every 15 minutes but NOT using VSS, how is it that BDR can make sure that what is being backed up every 15 minutes is valid? In other words, if you want to recover from one of those 15 minute backups, how do you know for sure it's going to work? Going beyond Exchange, how does this work on the Windows file system at all? The 15-minute incremental backup is going to catch the blocks that have changed but not the cached file system changes, right? So how do you consistently recover from a 15 minute backup? Great post! There are a few confusing things, however, all centered around the lack of quiescence implied by doing a 15 minute backup without VSS (i.e., without StorageCraft.)

If the BDR software is doing block copies every 15 minutes but NOT using VSS, how is it that BDR can make sure that what is being backed up every 15 minutes is valid? In other words, if you want to recover from one of those 15 minute backups, how do you know for sure it’s going to work?

Going beyond Exchange, how does this work on the Windows file system at all? The 15-minute incremental backup is going to catch the blocks that have changed but not the cached file system changes, right? So how do you consistently recover from a 15 minute backup?

]]>