Backup/Restore Brick Level, Individual Mailboxes, blah, blah, blah
Fred Randall
Windows 2000 Server
Backup Exec 8.0, Exchange Agent Installed
We are currently backing up our Exchange Server computer with Backup Exec
8.0 with Exchange agent. We select all drives and folders as well as the
"Microsoft Exchange Directory", the "Microsoft Exchange Information Store",
the "Microsoft Exchange Mailboxes" as well as the "System State".
From the posts on this newsgroup, from www.swinc.com and from advice from
colleagues, I should not be backing up the individual mailboxes (Brick
Level Backup) but just the Directory and Information Store. Elsewhere I
have seen to not backup the \exchange program directory as well. Other
places I have seen to backup this directory but ignore certain files.
Based on the above, I have several questions:
1. If I choose not to do a brick level backup, how can I restore an
indiviual mailbox. Would it require me restoring the entire system to
another machine and then extracting one mailbox? Is there a way to use pst
files to save mailboxes to prevent this? Would that be worse than useing
Brick Level backups?
It would be nice to stop the brick levels because it causes all my backups
to fail because of individual messages that "Cannot Verify"
2. Should I be backing up the \exchange program directory? Is this
redundant? If I resotre the system and that directory is missing by the
registry points to services, etc housed there will there be a problem?
3. Do I need identical hardware to do a test of these backups? I would
like to do a "fire drill" of a disaster recovery but we cannot afford to buy
redundant machines. I can put together a decent machine that can run the
programs but not a good machine for enterprise use. This machine could also
be used in the event I need to restore the entire server to recover one
mailbox.
4. Has anyone experimented with weekly backups of just the individual
mailboxes? That way those backups could be used to bring back lost messages
that are a week or more old and the retention period on the serve could be
set for 10 days to allow for some overlap. Could you restore an indiviual
mailbox this way?
I have done alot of reading and it has only confused me more. I would like
to hear from people out there that do this for a living and have had to go
through some of these scenarios before. I am a frequent reader of
newsgroups and I try to help where I can. I appreciate any help anyone can
give me. If you need additional information, please don't be afraid to ask.
fred
Charles Villa
However, a) you need to test your backups occasionally and b) with deleted
item retention you hardly need to restore.
2) Restoring the server includes recovering the OS and the binaries for the
installed applications. You should get a file backup of Exchange's non-data
directories. This goes for any database engine, app files via file backup,
data via agent..
3) Plain old PC with sufficient drive space is fine. Good for test and for
individual item recovery.
4) I don't use brick backup at all. Set your deleted item retention to 30
days (or more if you have space). I have only had 1 restore request (for 6
month old items) since implementing DIR.
Read http://www.microsoft.com/exchange/techinfo/BackupRestore.htm
--
Charles Villa
Please keep discussions in the newsgroup.
Kirill S. Palagin
> <snip>
>
> Based on the above, I have several questions:
>
> 1. If I choose not to do a brick level backup, how can I restore an
> indiviual mailbox. Would it require me restoring the entire system to
> another machine and then extracting one mailbox?
Yes.
> Is there a way to use pst
> files to save mailboxes to prevent this?
Not really. See FAQ, App F at
http://www.swinc.com/resource/exch_faq.htm
> Would that be worse than useing
> Brick Level backups?
No, because you will be able to validate your backups during restore. Also see
FAQ, App B at
http://www.swinc.com/resource/exch_faq.htm
>
>
> It would be nice to stop the brick levels because it causes all my backups
> to fail because of individual messages that "Cannot Verify"
>
> 2. Should I be backing up the \exchange program directory?
No.
> Is this
> redundant?
Yes, somewhat.
> If I resotre the system and that directory is missing by the
> registry points to services, etc housed there will there be a problem?
If you restore the system you will need to install Exchange anyway, and
installation routine will put all files and registry keys in proper places.
>
>
> 3. Do I need identical hardware to do a test of these backups?
No. You can have dual Alpha machine as production server and restore your backup
to noname whitebox. The only requirment for recovery server is disk space.
> I would
> like to do a "fire drill" of a disaster recovery but we cannot afford to buy
> redundant machines. I can put together a decent machine that can run the
> programs but not a good machine for enterprise use. This machine could also
> be used in the event I need to restore the entire server to recover one
> mailbox.
This is the way to go.
>
>
> 4. Has anyone experimented with weekly backups of just the individual
> mailboxes? That way those backups could be used to bring back lost messages
> that are a week or more old and the retention period on the serve could be
> set for 10 days to allow for some overlap. Could you restore an indiviual
> mailbox this way?
See FAQ, App B at
http://www.swinc.com/resource/exch_faq.htm
Charles Villa
> > registry points to services, etc housed there will there be a problem?
>
> If you restore the system you will need to install Exchange anyway, and
> installation routine will put all files and registry keys in proper
places.
>
So you suggest re-install for recovery instead of restore from tape? Are
there other resources for this?
Charles Villa
Kirill S. Palagin
> <snip>
>
> So you suggest re-install for recovery instead of restore from tape? Are
> there other resources for this?
That depends on kind of failure.
If you loose server (or volume with OS/Exchange binaries) then reinstall is
necessity.
If something damages database then restore of databse is much faster way of
recovery.
>
>
> Charles Villa
me
backup verify. It is very rarely accurate (you should do test restores
periodically) and error-prone.
I do all of this: 30-day deleted item retention, full Exchange store/dir
backup, AND brick level. My clients are pretty small & it doesn't take too
long.
In a disaster, would I use brick level? No way. But to try to get back
someone's contact folder assuming I couldn't do it with DIR? Hell, yes.
"Fred Randall" <randall_fred@hot(nospam)mail.com> wrote in message
news:uvpTiKZ2AHA.1032@tkmsftngp03...
Fred Randall
in case a mailbox needs to be restored? If all I selected on that backup
was individual mailboxes would it work?
fred
Thanks for all the posts.
"me" <m...@mfaltd.com> wrote in message news:#V$8cra2AHA.1588@tkmsftngp03...
Charles Villa
recovering server from tape would not be complete.
--
Charles Villa
Please keep discussions in the newsgroup.
"Kirill S. Palagin" <kpal...@yahoo.nomail.com.nomail> wrote in message
news:3AFB2018...@yahoo.nomail.com.nomail...
Fred Randall
using that in the event of a total failure. So I would be reinstalling from
tape. In that case I assume I should backup the \exchange directory...
fred
"Charles Villa" <cvi...@tekscan.no-spam.com> wrote in message
news:utwUPEj2AHA.1376@tkmsftngp07...
Kirill S. Palagin
Org/Site names) then to play games with file-level restores from tape (on
possibly different hardware).
When you reinstall you have to provide
1. Volumes with enough capacity (not even the same configuration for example
original server can have OS on c:, databases on d: and logs on e:, after
restore you can have everything on c:).
2. Identical Org and Site names.
When you restore from tape
1. you have to provde identical (or veru simillar) hardware
2. Very similar disk config
3. Disk capacity
4. Names
5. Some files (MTA database in particular) are open (and skipped by file-level
backup) AND not backed up by online backup so you have to get those files
omewhere (on Exchange CD and SP CDs).
Charles Villa
Kirill S. Palagin
Fred Randall wrote:
> I have the Intelligent Disaster Recovery option for Backup Exec so I plan on
> using that in the event of a total failure.
You should use that intelligent stuff intelligently. Otherwise you will end up
with no data to restore from.
> So I would be reinstalling from
> tape.
It is not that simple. That is why you should develop and try in lab your
disaster recvoery plan.
Kirill S. Palagin
John McCoy
so it runs late on Saturday big deal...It gives me some piece of mind..
--
John McCoy
"Fred Randall" <randall_fred@hot(nospam)mail.com> wrote in message
news:uvpTiKZ2AHA.1032@tkmsftngp03...