About the Enterprise Vault Agent

The Symantec Backup Exec Agent for Enterprise Vault (Enterprise Vault Agent) is installed as a separate, add-on component of Backup Exec.The Enterprise Vault Agent provides data protection for both Enterprise Vault 7.x and 8.x components:

Enterprise Vault 7.x components include the following:

  • Sites

  • Servers

  • Databases

  • Indexes

  • Vault partitions

Enterprise Vault 8.x components include the following:

  • Sites

  • Vault Store Groups

  • Databases

  • Indexes

  • Vault partitions

The Enterprise Vault Agent can help provide a disaster recovery solution for data that is archived with Enterprise Vault. Recovery of the archived data is not dependent on the archive source, such as Exchange Server or a specific file system.

The Enterprise Vault Agent lets you do the following:

  • Back up and restore Enterprise Vault archives from open or closed vault store partitions.

  • Back up and restore individual Enterprise Vault 7.x servers and Enterprise Vault 8.x vault store groups from an Enterprise Vault site.

  • Back up and restore Enterprise Vault sites, databases, and index locations.

When you back up Enterprise Vault servers the following Enterprise Vault components can be backed up along with the vault partitions:

  • Enterprise Vault Directory and Monitoring databases

  • Enterprise Vault Audit, FSA Reporting, and Fingerprint databases (Enterprise Vault 8.x only)

  • Enterprise Vault vault store databases

  • Enterprise Vault indexing files

If you install the Enterprise Vault Compliance and Discovery Accelerator products, the following components can be backed up:

  • Enterprise Vault Compliance Accelerator and Discovery Accelerator Configuration databases

  • Enterprise Vault Compliance and Discovery Accelerator Customer databases

  • Enterprise Vault Discovery Accelerator Custodian database

The Enterprise Vault Agent backs up Enterprise Vault 7.x by placing the Enterprise Vault 7.x services in read-only mode. Read-only mode ensures that database, database index, and vault store synchronization remains while the backup job runs. As a result, Enterprise Vault does not archive new data while in read-only mode.

After the backup job successfully completes, the Enterprise Vault Agent takes the Enterprise Vault services out of read-only mode so that archival operations can continue.

With later versions of Enterprise Vault (Enterprise Vault 8.x), the Enterprise Vault Agent uses Enterprise Vault Backup mode rather than read-only mode to back up Enterprise Vault components. By using the Backup mode, the Enterprise Vault Agent can back up Enterprise Vault components without having to suspend Enterprise Vault archiving operations.

For example, when you select a vault store group or site for backup, the individual vault store or indexes are placed in Backup mode. Backup mode lets Enterprise Vault continue archiving operations in other vault store groups or sites. After the backup job successfully completes, the Enterprise Vault Agent takes the Enterprise Vault components out of Backup mode so that those components can continue archival operations.

The Enterprise Vault Agent backs up the Compliance Accelerator and Discovery Accelerator application databases while they are online. It does not place the databases in Read-only mode or Backup mode before it backs them up.

The Enterprise Vault Agent runs a physical check on each Enterprise Vault database before it backs them up. The Enterprise Vault Agent also runs a physical check on each database before you restore them.

Note:

The Enterprise Vault Agent uses physical database consistency checks because physical checks consume less system resources than other types of Database Consistency Checking options.

Backing up and restoring Enterprise Vault 8.x databases and related components required specific user account credentials for each Enterprise Vault component you protect.

When you back up specific Enterprise Vault components, other Enterprise Vault components are automatically backed up at the same time. Backup Exec includes these components to hasten an Enterprise Vault recovery.

Table: Supported user accounts that are required to back up and restore Enterprise Vault 8.x components

Enterprise Vault 8.x components

User credentials

Enterprise Vault 8.x databases and components (vault store, indexes, partitions, vault store database, Directory, Monitoring, Fingerprint, FSA Reporting, and Audit databases)

The following credentials are required:

  • Vault Service account

  • Domain Admin account with Role Based Admin privileges

You can also use any domain user account that meets the following requirements:

  • The user account must be included in the Administrators group on all Enterprise Vault servers.

  • The user account must be included in the Backup Operators group on all computers where Enterprise Vault databases reside. With Enterprise Vault partitions, the user account must be included in the Administrators group.

  • The user account must have backup-related Role Based Admin privileges for the vault store and the index location.

    Backup-related Role Based Admin privileges include:

    • EVT Manage Vault Store Backup Mode

    • EVT Manage Index Location Backup Mode

To configure Role Based Admin privileges for a Windows Domain Admin account, see your Enterprise Vault documentation.

Note:

To back up a computer that has a partition, or a partition and a database, you must be a member of the computer’s Administrator’s group. To back up a computer that has only an Enterprise Vault database on it, you need only to be a member of the Backup Operators group.

Compliance Accelerator and Discovery Accelerator

The following credentials are required:

  • Vault Service account

  • Domain Admin account

    A user account that is a member of the following groups:

    • Administrator’s group on those computers where the Compliance and Discovery Accelerator applications reside.

    • Administrator’s group and Backup Operator’s group on those computers where the Accelerator databases reside.

When you back up specific Enterprise Vault components, the other Enterprise Vault components are automatically backed up at the same time. Backup Exec includes these components to hasten an Enterprise Vault recovery.

Table: Enterprise Vault components that are automatically backed up

When you back up this

Backup Exec automatically backs up this

Description

Enterprise Vault site

Directory database

Backup Exec automatically backs up the Directory database that is associated with the Enterprise Vault site.

Enterprise Vault 7.x server

Directory database

After Backup Exec sequentially backs up all of the selected servers, it finishes the backup job by automatically backing up the Directory database. Backup Exec places the Directory database in a backup set that remains separate from the sets that contain the server components.

Open partition

Vault store database

Backup Exec automatically backs up the vault store database that is associated with the open partition.

Over time the amount of data that Enterprise Vault stores continues to grow. At some point, you may observe that as the data moves through its usage lifecycle, you no longer access it as frequently. You can use the Backup Exec Migrator for Enterprise Vault to automatically migrate the older Enterprise Vault data to the storage devices that Backup Exec manages.

See About the Backup Exec Migrator for Enterprise Vault.

About the Enterprise Vault Agent