How the Backup Exec Migrator works

Enterprise Vault automatically initiates all data migration operations from the Enterprise Vault server after you configure the Backup Exec Migrator. Enterprise Vault makes decisions on what should be migrated based on the archival policies and the data retention policies that you configure in the Enterprise Vault Administration Console. The Backup Exec Migrator then migrates the archived data to a Backup Exec media server after Enterprise Vault collects the eligible data from the vault store partitions. When you configure migration options for a partition, you can set the migration period. All migration options are configured at the Enterprise Vault server.

Table: Enterprise Vault data migration process

Action

Notes

Enterprise Vault archives eligible partition data that is based on the file size or the file creation date.

All data that is eligible for archive is determined in the partition where you want to migrate data.

See your Enterprise Vault documentation.

After Enterprise Vault completes the archival process, an Enterprise Vault collection process collects the archived data.

The collection process places the archived data into Windows .cab files. The .cab files are stored in the partition where the migration occurs.

Eligible data can include Enterprise Vault files with the following extensions:

  • .dvf

  • .dvssp

  • .dvscc

  • .dvs

Note:

Some eligible data cannot be compressed into .cab files due to file size restrictions. However, the Backup Exec Migrator still migrates the data during the migration operation.

See your Enterprise Vault documentation.

The Backup Exec Migrator initiates the migration of the archived data files to a Backup Exec media server.

Migration period schedules are determined when you configure migration for a partition and when you configure a collection schedule for the partition.

See Configuring Enterprise Vault collections.

See Configuring the Backup Exec Migrator to communicate with Enterprise Vault.

If you follow the Symantec configuration recommendations for the Backup Exec Migrator and Enterprise Vault partitions, one migration job for each partition runs during a migration period. However, the Backup Exec Migrator may create separate migration jobs for each partition folder if you do not follow the configuration recommendations. If separate jobs are created, the resulting overhead that is required to run the jobs results in degraded migration and retrieval performance.

Note:

If you schedule a file retrieval request from the Enterprise Vault server between migration periods, separate jobs are created even though you followed the configuration recommendations. In this case, the Backup Exec Migrator automatically creates separate jobs to facilitate retrieval of the requested file. During a migration operation, the restore job can be scheduled to run between migration jobs.

If you do not follow the configuration recommendations, file retrieval performance can be affected.

To ensure the most efficient migration and retrieval performance possible, follow the Symantec recommendations when you configure the Backup Exec Migrator and the Enterprise Vault partitions.

See Configuring the Backup Exec Migrator.

Backup Exec completes the migration process by moving all of the migrated files to storage devices.

Symantec recommends configuring two storage devices for staged migration operations.

See About using staged migrations with Backup Exec and the Backup Exec Migrator.

See Configuring the Backup Exec Migrator.

After Backup Exec migrates the .cab files to the storage devices, you can review the migration details in the Job History pane on the Backup Exec Job Monitor tab.

How the Backup Exec Migrator works