InMage provides a software-based solution that leverages the advantages of diskbased data protection to eliminate backups and provide Exchange recovery that can meet remote and/or local requirements.
Disaster Recovery Coupled with High Exchange Availability
1. Data Sheet
InMage for exchange
Disaster Recovery Coupled with
high exchange availability
• Simple disaster recovery solution E-mail is a critical application for most businesses,
InMage provides better and Microsoft Exchange is the most popular
for Microsoft Exchange that also
Exchange recovery than e-mail platform today. As Exchange’s criticality
eliminates backup impacts and has increased, so has its recovery requirements,
handles Exchange failover/failback native tools. and many organizations are challenged to cost-
effectively meet evolving recovery point (RPO) and recovery time objectives (RTO) as
• Centrally managed, disk-based well as maintain appropriate levels of Exchange availability. Conventional data protection
recovery which supports rapid, approaches that use tape-based infrastructure impact production operations, can be
reliable Exchange application and very manually intensive, and do not meet stringent RPO/RTO requirements very well.
data recovery either remotely And if a company has disaster recovery (DR) requirements or if Exchange availability is a
concern, additional products (over and above backup) need to be implemented to meet
(for disaster recovery) or locally requirements, increasing complexity and cost.
(for backup)
InMage for Exchange: Single Solution for DR, Backup,
• Provides an Exchange-aware solution
and Application Failover
leveraging simple installation
InMage provides a software-based solution that leverages the advantages of disk-
templates, the Windows VSS API, and based data protection to eliminate backups and provide Exchange recovery that can
other Exchange-specific functionality meet remote and/or local requirements. InMage provides a comprehensive DR solution
that does not require manual intervention to recover Exchange data and/or application
• Single solution that can replace services. Using unique hybrid recovery technology, InMage for Exchange captures
backup, replication, and clustering changes to Exchange databases in real time as they occur and offers flexible recovery
agents and products for streamlined to any previous point in time, a feature which ensures fast, reliable recovery even when
data protection operations Exchange databases are corrupted. Automated recovery of Exchange services can be
configured to meet either remote or local requirements, going above and beyond the
protection offered by replication, conventional backup, and clustering products.
Simple, Scalable DR for Exchange
Recovering Exchange using native Exchange tools like CCR, SCR, and Exchange
transaction logs can be a complex, time-consuming process that is fraught with risk.
InMage for Exchange captures data as it changes, using minimal bandwidth to protect
even large Exchange servers. InMage’s asynchronous replication supports long distance
DR solutions, while its integrated Exchange failover/failback capabilities support the
automated restart of Exchange services at designated remote locations. Our granular
recovery capabilities ensure that those recoveries can occur from the optimum point for
data or the entire application, depending on the failure scenario.
Eliminate Backups While Moving To Faster, More Reliable Recovery
With InMage for Exchange, there’s no wasted time attempting recoveries from
unmountable images. As InMage captures data from production Exchange servers, it
tracks it so that administrators can retroactively select AppShots – application-consistent
recovery points – from which to base recovery operations. Because InMage for
Exchange uses the Windows Volume Shadowcopy Services (VSS) API and an included
VSS requester to mark AppShots, they are reliable, proven-recoverable images that are
2. LOCAL SITE REMOTE SITE brick-level recovery process that supports
Exchange Server extremely rapid recovery). In providing
Source(s) the recovery foundation underneath these
Sources can be
either physical or different approaches, the key advantage
virtual machines
InMage offers is its ability to retroactively
choose the optimum point from which to
start immediate recovery operations.
InMage CX
LA N WAN
For application recovery, InMage supports
native DR mode and a fully automated,
one-button failover process which
All transmission occurs across Exchange Server transparently updates Active Directory as
cost-effective IP networks Target(s)
part of the application recovery, as well as
Targets can be either
clustered Exchange servers (using either
Recovery Server physical or virtual Microsoft Cluster Server or Windows
Target(s) machines Server Failover Clustering). This flexibility
Data taps preserves existing investments in server
and storage hardware, backup software (in
Figure 1. Exchange data is granularly collected from Exchange servers as it is created and sent to a local CX, which can then store
the data locally and/or remotely (using InMage’s asynchronous replication). If bi-directional and/or one-button application failover
cases where InMage for Exchange is used
is desired at the remote site, an optional second CX would be deployed there. Note that in InMage’s unique architecture, data is to insulate production environments from
replicated between servers, not between appliances or storage arrays. Exchange target servers can store the data using SAN, DAS, data protection operations and improve
or iSCSI, providing significant configuration flexibility. recovery granularity), and processes.
immediately available for recovery – the speeds the recovery of application services Scalability
lengthy process of running eseutil for when it is required, but can also be used
InMage’s unique hybrid recovery technol-
validation against these recovery points is to simplify DR testing by providing non-
ogy lends itself to cost-effective, low end
not required. When a recovery is required, disruptive, one-button Exchange service
configurations
an administrator may view the entire migration. Using InMage for Exchange
Cost-effective, as well as larger
continuum of available recovery points and to automate DR testing and failover
select the most appropriate point to meet also improves the reliability of recovery low end and larger configurations
that support tens
recovery requirements. Because they processes by removing room for operator
configurations of thousands of
represent application-consistent points in error and providing a baseline from
time, AppShots will support the fastest which to incrementally improve failover that support from Exchange mail-
boxes company-
recovery times, but all other points (each of processes over time. ten to tens of wide. Configura-
which represents crash-consistent points
thousands of Ex- tions with only
in time that support reliable recovery) are Flexibility That Fits Your a few Exchange
available as well and may provide value Recovery Requirements change mailboxes. servers can be
to administrators performing root cause
Flexibility is one of InMage for Exchange’s deployed very
analysis against failures.
strongpoints, allowing you to work with cost-effectively, yet our largest production
hardware and software you already have, installs today are approaching 100,000
Supporting High Exchange Availability
as well as use various recovery modes Exchange mailboxes, all managed centrally
InMage’s granular, disk-based recovery to meet specific requirements. InMage from a single InMage console (from an ap-
provides a strong foundation on which to for Exchange supports heterogeneous plication and data recovery point of view).
build a solution that can meet the highest storage subsystems, enabling source/ Installations of this size generally have a
Exchange availability requirements. target definitions between not only storage number of Exchange servers distributed
InMage for Exchange provides a reliable, of any kind but storage architectures of geographically, but InMage for Exchange
high availability solution without the cost any kind (DAS, SAN, iSCSI, FC). It supports can manage all of these from a single,
or complexity of Exchange clustering, Windows 2000 or later, Exchange 2000 secure, central location through a web
and includes a productized, documented, or later, and Outlook 2000 or later. For browser-based console.
and fully supported solution for flexibly data recovery, customers can use native
managing Exchange failover/failback to Exchange recovery tools such as recovery
either a remote or a local server target storage groups, or third party recovery
that does not require a running copy of tools like Quest Recovery Manager for
Exchange at the target location. This fully Exchange or Kroll Ontrack PowerControls
automated recovery capability not only (two tools which support an abbreviated
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