The Symantec Backup Exec Agent for Enterprise Vault (Enterprise Vault Agent) is installed as part of the Agent for Applications and Databases.

The Enterprise Vault Agent can help provide a disaster recovery solution for 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 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 thaft 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.

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.

Backing up and restoring Enterprise Vault databases and related components require specific user account credentials for each Enterprise Vault component you protect.

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.

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.

See About the Backup Exec Migrator for Enterprise Vault.