Disaster Recovery for Autodesk Vault Collaboration 2011

[richard.cain.jw]

Hello,

I currently use the following piece of code (within a batch file) to backup the vault database and filestore. We currently have 3 file stores which look at the database instance 'AutodeskVault' on another server.

"\\FilestoreServer\d$\Program Files (x86)\Autodesk\ADMS Collaboration 2011\ADMS Console\Connectivity.ADMSConsole.exe" -Obackup -B"\\FilestoreServer\d$\Vault Backups\Scripted Backups\Latest Copy" -L"\\FilestoreServer\d$\Vault Backups\Scripted Backups\VaultBackupLogFile.txt" -backupuser -password -DBSC -VAL -S

I assume if a vault file store goes down, i can ask my users' to use a different file store; however, im abit lost on what to do if the database fails.

If i installed the database instance on a different server (which has a different server name), how do i repoint the 3 file stores to look at the different server with the database instance?

Thank you,

[ihayesjr]

Richard,

I am not sure what you mean by 3 file stores pointing to your Vault.  In order for you to have 3 file stores you need 3 different Vaults.  Each Vault database only connects to 1 file store.

Users do not have direct access to the file store, therefore you cannot point them to a different one.  They only connect to the Vault server.  If your file store goes down, you will have to recover the file store from you backup and use the ADMS console to point to that new file store location. 

Note: It isn't recommended to restore a file store without restoring the databases.  If you do, your database will have records for files that do not exist in the file store.

It is recommended that if you have to perform a restore, you should restore the databases and file stores from the same backup.

[richard.cain.jw]

Irvin,

We have the ADMS console installed on three servers (which act as three file stores across three of our company sites). The fourth server just has Ms SQL 2005 SP3 on with the database instance.

When a user launches Vault Collaboration it asks the user to login, the user enters their credentials and they could select the server they would like to use, and the vault they would like to access.

"If your file store goes down, you will have to recover the file store from you backup and use the ADMS console to point to that new file store location". - OK if the server goes down, we will use the ADMS console to restore the backup onto a different server; however, do the other two servers with ADMS (Filestore) automatically notice the database has moved to a different server name?

[ihayesjr]

I understand now.  Let's make sure we have the correct terminology.

You have 3 Vault sites participating in file store replication. Like the image below with 1 additional site.

Here are some tips to help with your backup/recovery planning.

• You need to designate one site as the primary site.  This is usually the site that is closest to the SQL server.  Use this site as your main ADMS backup.
• The 2 remote sites, ADMS is further away from the SQL server, you should use a 3rd party utility to at least backup the file stores.
• If one of the remote sites fails, you can install ADMS on a new server and point it to the primary site where SQL is located.  If you have backed up the file store on that remote site, restore it using your 3rd party utility and when you enable the vault on the new remote sites server, point it to the recovered file store location.

Primary site recovery is a little different based on how you have it configured.  If you have the ADMS and file store on the same server but SQL is on a different server use this method for recovering the ADMS/File store server:

• Install ADMS on a new server.
• Restore the file store ONLY from the ADMS backup location.  NOTE: Don't do this through the ADMS console since you do not need to recover the databases.  Simply copy the file store backup to the new server file store location.
• You may have to disable the Vaults and re-enable them to point them to the new location.

If you have to recover your SQL server there are more steps.  To answer your last question, No the other ADMS server will not know that there is a new SQL server, unless it is has the same server name, to connect to.

Assuming you are installing SQL on a new server with a new server name.

• You will have to uninstall ADMS from each location and reinstall it so that it points to the new SQL server.
• On the primary site, perform a restore from the ADMS backup with will recover the entire database and the primary sites file store.
• Use the previous instructions for recovering the remote sites.

There are multiple scenarios that are possible which I couldn't answer in one post but I hope this gives you a general idea.

One key recommendation is that if you have to recover to a different physical server, give that server the same name as the old server name.  This could simplify some of the steps.

Hope this helps.