An Overview of HP StorageWorks All-in-One (AiO) Storage Systems and Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 Database Snapshots

This paper is an introduction to All-in-One (AiO) Storage System snapshots of Exchange 2007 Server databases, using the Microsoft iSCSI Software Target and Volume Shadow Copy Services (VSS). It covers the required components to take snapshots, and how they interact during the snapshot process. The procedures for taking snapshots of Exchange 2007 Server databases using the HP All-in-One Storage Manager (ASM) are detailed. For a database of nearly 60 GB, a recovery using a revert operation completed in approximately 10 minutes and the transaction log replay added another 8 minutes to replay 1500 logs (3 logs per second average). Managing the number of outstanding log files with frequent backups is important in reducing the total recovery time.