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BP1013 Best Practices for Enhancing Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 Data Protection and Availability 11
3 Auto-Snapshot Manager and Exchange protection
Auto-Snapshot Manager/Microsoft Edition (ASM/ME) is a software component that is part of the
EqualLogic Host integration Tools (HIT kit), a software toolkit available free of cost for customers
running Dell EqualLogic PS Series arrays. ASM/ME offers an intuitive interface, implemented as a snap-
in (up to version 3.5.1) within the Microsoft Management Console framework, and is able to create and
manage snapshots and clones on the SAN arrays directly from the Windows host.
Figure 1 Auto-Snapshot Manager MMC interface on Microsoft Exchange Server
A Smart Copy snapshot represents a point in time consistent copy of an EqualLogic SAN volume:
ASM/ME provides the support to take smart copies manually or automatically, manipulate them, and
recover the data contained in a way consistent to the application. A Smart Copy snapshot is space
efficient because it only stores the changes to the data since the snapshot was created. Note that
because there is no physical separation of the media storing Smart Copy snapshots and the
production volume, ASM/ME is not considered an alternative to long-term backup methods. ASM/ME
and Smart Copies should be used in conjunction with a normal backup schedule for a higher level of
data protection and shorter recovery times.
A Smart Copy snapshot consists of a combined set of elements: a SAN based snapshot and a backup
document (metadata descriptor file, *.bcd) locally saved on the host. While a snapshot created directly
on the EqualLogic SAN from the Group Manager console looks very similar to an ASM Smart Copy, it is
not integrated with the host VSS components and as such will not be able to provide the same level of
data consistency.
3.1 ASM/ME integration with Windows platform and VSS Service
ASM/ME, installed on a Windows server hosting volumes from an EqualLogic array, provides full
integration with Microsoft Volume Shadow Copy Service. It plays the VSS requester role and works
together the EqualLogic VSS Provider to correctly interact with the Exchange writers to take
application-aware shadow copies.