Microsoft Exchange Server Backup Options

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Microsoft Exchange Server Backup Options Page 1 of 6

Microsoft Exchange Server Backup Options

There are several ways of backing up Exchange using Attix5. There are two Plug-ins that work with Exchange with a number of different configuration options.

This page explains the various options you have and gives you recommendations on how to backup and restore Exchange successfully.

Supported Exchange Versions

 Exchange 2003

 Exchange 2007

 Exchange 2010

 Exchange 2013

Local Storage Requirements

Unlike traditional tape based backup solutions which require very little disk space to perform a backup, in order to minimize network bandwidth the Attix5 product does require some disk space, and in some cases, the amount of disk space required can be quite large. Each of the plug-in pages has a section on "Disk Space Requirements" covering our configuration recommendations and estimating the disk space usage so you can anticipate what will be required.

Exchange Plug-ins Explained

There is the VSS in that is used for running full Exchange database backups, and a second plug-in that can be used to back up plug-individual mail items.

VSS (Volume Shadow-copy Service) Database Plug-in

The Attix5 VSS database plug-in can be used to backup VSS aware databases such as Exchange Server. It has an Exchange aware VSS Requester, and will backup Exchange correctly, including correctly updating the Exchange database "last backup" date and truncating log files etc. The VSS plug-in supports:

 Exchange 2003

 Exchange 2007

 Exchange 2010

 Exchange 2013

It does not support Exchange 2000.

Exchange Single Item Recovery Plus

This plug-in supports MS Exchange Server 2010 SP1 and above. It provides the capability, to

backup Mail boxes and restores either the mail box or individual mail items.

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Configuring the Plug-in

Start the Attix5 Pro SE client. In the Backup Selection window you'll now see a "VSS Plug-in" top-level container. Open this container and select the "Exchange group" object for backup.

Note that if you have multiple Exchange information stores but don't want to back them all up, you can drill down inside the "Microsoft Exchange Writer" and deselect the databases that don't need to be backed up.

If you are running MS Exchange on Windows SBS 2003 and don't see Exchange under the VSS Plug-in node, you may need to tweak a registry entry. See the Technical FAQ page for more information.

Database Integrity Checking

Note that at the Exchange Writer level you have the option to disable database integrity checking during backup. While disabling this option will significantly improve backup speed, we strongly recommend that you leave integrity checking enabled. It is a Microsoft requirement that Exchange databases are integrity checked during backup, and if integrity checking is not performed, then the ability to successfully restore without data loss cannot be guaranteed.

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Disk Space Requirements

The information below should be used as a rough guideline only. Note that unlike the Exchange database plug-in, the VSS database plug-in does not require a "Store Dump Folder" and disk space requirements for this plug-in are significantly less.

Attix5 toBackup and Cache Folders

From the Attix5 Plug-in manual:

1. During the first backup, the VSS plug-in connects to the database, reads all the data and compresses it to the toBackup folder from where it is transmitted to the Storage Platform - no database dump is done.

2. After the backup, the data that has been sent to the Storage Platform is moved from the toBackup folder to the cache.

3. For subsequent backups, the data in the cache is compared to the database data as it is being read by the VSS plug-in, to work out patches which is again stored in the toBackup folder.

4. The patches are transmitted to the Storage Platform.

5. After transmission to the Storage Platform the cache is updated by applying the patches to the files in the cache. Repeat from step 3.

The toBackup and Cache folders must be located on a partition with enough free space to contain the compressed content of the Exchange data to be backed up. In a day to day situation, this is just the difference between today’s backup and yesterday, and won't be particularly large. However, for the first Attix5 Exchange backup, the entire contents of the Exchange databases are compressed and temporarily stored in the toBackup folder. As a rule of thumb, if you allow the equivalent of 50% of the size of your Exchange databases for the Attix5 temporary folders, then that should be more than adequate.

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 Click Tools / Options

 Select the Patching page

 Enable Delta Blocking and add "*.edb" to the "files with these extensions" field. Note that for Exchange 2003, add "*.stm" also.

Copy v Full Backups

The VSS database plug-in can be configured to make either Cop or Full backups. From an Exchange perspective, the difference between the two is that Full backups cause Exchange transaction log truncation, where copy backups do not. Full backups are the default and you should leave this selected unless you have a specific reason for wanting to use Copy backups - for example using Attix5 in conjunction with another Exchange backup product.

Performing Restores

Perform restores using these steps:

 Start the Attix5 Pro SE client

 Select the Restore tab

 Open VSS Writers / Microsoft Exchange Writer

 The Exchange Stores available for restore are listed under their database GUIDs. Select the appropriate database GUID(s) for restore:

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 Click the Restore button. When restoring Exchange components, the restore options window will have an extra "VSS Plug-in: Exchange" tab with Exchange specific options:

 The "Replay outstanding transaction logs" option allows you to select whether to play back transaction logs created subsequent to the last backup, or not. If you deselect this option, any transaction logs that exist in the Exchange logs folder are renamed prior to the restore starting.

 The option to "Automatically dismount databases and allow overwrites" does exactly what it says. It enabled the "this database can be overwritten by a restore" Exchange database property, and dismounts the database for you before beginning the restore operation.

 Finally click "Ok" to start the restore process

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 Use the Attix5 Pro SE client to make the Restore selection, but instead of selecting an entire store, keep drilling down until you find the database file you're after:

 Restore this file to a temporary location

 Run Eseutil /p against this file