About the Agent for Enterprise Vault
The Veritas Backup Exec Agent for Enterprise Vault (Enterprise Vault Agent) is installed as part of the Agent for Applications and Databases, which is included with Backup Exec Silver and Gold editions.
The Enterprise Vault Agent provides data protection for the following Enterprise Vault components:
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Sites
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Vault Store Groups
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Databases
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Indexes
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Vault partitions
The Enterprise Vault Agent can help provide a disaster recovery solution for the 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:
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Back up and restore Enterprise Vault archives from open or closed vault store partitions.
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Back up and restore individual Enterprise Vault vault store groups from an Enterprise Vault site.
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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:
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Enterprise Vault Directory and Monitoring databases
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Enterprise Vault Audit, FSA Reporting, and Fingerprint databases
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Enterprise Vault vault store databases
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Enterprise Vault indexing files
If you install the Enterprise Vault Compliance and Discovery Accelerator products, the following components can be backed up:
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Enterprise Vault Compliance Accelerator and Discovery Accelerator Configuration databases
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Enterprise Vault Compliance and Discovery Accelerator Customer databases
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Enterprise Vault Discovery Accelerator Custodian database
The Enterprise Vault Agent uses Enterprise Vault Backup 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.
While Enterprise Vault versions 8.x, 9.x, and 10.x all implement Backup mode, Enterprise Vault 9.x and 10.x offer you more flexibility with your vault store backup jobs. With Enterprise Vault 9.x and 10.x, you can run multiple backup jobs of the same Enterprise Vault 9.x and 10.x vault store simultaneously. With Enterprise Vault 8.x, multiple vault store backup jobs must run one at a time.
For example, you can create multiple backup jobs to back up a vault store. Each backup job includes in its selection list one or more unique partitions of the vault store. Under Enterprise Vault 9.x and 10.x, the partitions are backed up simultaneously when the different backup jobs access them at the same time. Under Enterprise Vault 8.x, the partitions are backed up in both backup jobs; however they are backed up sequentially. The first backup job must finish before the second job starts, or else a backup job failure occurs.
Note: With all versions of Enterprise Vault, the Enterprise Vault Agent automatically backs up the vault store database whenever an open partition is backed up.
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 databases and related components require specific user account credentials for each Enterprise Vault component you protect.
Related information
Table: Supported user accounts that are required to back up and restore Enterprise Vault components
| Enterprise Vault components | User credentials |
|---|---|
| Enterprise Vault 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 Administrator group on all servers where Enterprise Vault partitions and Enterprise Vault databases reside. | |
| - 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. | |
| 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 Administrator's group on the computers where the Compliance and Discovery Accelorator applications 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 databases 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. |
| 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.