This article describes how to use DPM 2006 to help protect
an Exchange server. The methods that this article describes are for the
following Exchange Server versions:
Microsoft Exchange Server 2003
Microsoft Exchange 2000 Server
Microsoft Exchange Server version 5.5
Note The methods in this article are tested with the Windows
NT Backup program. If you select to use a third-party backup solution, follow
the recommended third-party procedures for backing up the Exchange server before you use DPM 2006 to help protect the Exchange server.
If
an Exchange server is online, DPM 2006 cannot be used to directly protect the Exchange
server. However, you can back up an online Exchange server by using the Windows NT Backup program and then using DPM 2006. Therefore, you must back up the Exchange server to a file
before you can use DPM 2006 to help protect the Exchange server. Then,
you must store this file on a share or on a volume that is a member of a DPM
Protection Group. You can use the Windows NT Backup program or a
third-party backup solution to back up the Exchange server either online
or offline. However, it is best to avoid doing offline backups.
An
offline backup is a manual, labor-intensive process that is prone to human
errors. In a situation where an error occurs, there can be interruption of the
Information store service. Additionally, you cannot validate the checksum on
each page of the database when you perform an offline backup.
If you
want to back up the Exchange server online, back up the Exchange
server without quitting the program. If you perform an online backup of
the Exchange server, the following services that are included in the
Information store continue to run as expected:
Pages continue to be updated in memory and transferred to
the database files on the hard disk drive.
Transactions are recorded in the log files.
The checkpoint file process continues.
During an online backup, the backup program manages files for
you. Online backups are the single most valuable tool for detecting corruption
and for performing data recovery.
For more information about how to perform
online or offline backups in Microsoft Exchange, click the following article numbers to view the articles in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:
This article provides information about how to use Microsoft System
Center Data Protection Manager (DPM)
2006 to help protect a server that is running Microsoft Exchange Server.
This article provides the following methods to use DPM 2006 to help protect an Exchange server:
How to use the Microsoft Windows NT Backup program to back up an Exchange server
How to use DPM 2006 to restore the Exchange server
If you want to use DPM 2006 to help protect and to restore
an Exchange server, you may use the Windows NT Backup program to back
up an Exchange server onto a file first. After the file is created, you should use DPM 2006 to protect it.
How to use the Windows NT Backup program to back up an Exchange server
To help protect the Exchange server, you must first
back up the contents of the Exchange server to a file. To use the
Windows NT Backup program to back up an Exchange server and to create a
DPM protection group, follow these steps:
Configure the Windows NT Backup program or your existing
backup solution to perform a scheduled typical backup of the Exchange
server to a file.
This file should be in either of the following
locations. Note that you should schedule the Windows NT Backup program to back
up the Exchange server at a convenient time every night.
To a local volume. For example, schedule the backup to
occur in the following location:
drive:\ExchangeDumps\ExchangeSvr1.bak
Note This location should not be the same volume as the Exchange logs
or as the database to avoid Exchange decrease in performance.
To a network share. For example, schedule the backup to
occur in the following location
\\DumpFileServer\ExchangeDumps\ExchangeSvr1.bak
Schedule
the NTBackup to run at a preferred time every night.
Note This schedule is just an example. However, if you decide to change
the time, you must consider correlating the times of the backup to occur before the time of the synchronization and of the shadow copy in the subsequent steps.
For more information about the backup and restore features
of the Windows NT Backup program, click the following article number to view
the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:
How to use the backup feature to back up and restore data in
Windows
When you step through the Windows NT Backup Wizard, make
sure that the Replace the data on the media with this backup
option is selected.
After the Exchange server has been successfully
backed up to a file, the volume, the folder, or the share where the file exists must be protected by
DPM 2006. To do this, follow these steps.
Open the DPM 2006 Administrator
console.
Create a new Protection Group by using the New
Protection Group Wizard for the Exchange server backup file that you created in
step 1.
In the New Protection Group Wizard, click
Specify Schedule on the Select Protection
Schedule screen, and then configure a shadow copy to be taken one hour
after the Windows NT Backup is scheduled to complete its backup to the hard disk drive. This action provides DPM 2006 with enough time to
synchronize the new data before the shadow copy is taken.
Additionally, schedule a second shadow copy to be taken several hours
after this first shadow copy. This second shadow copy is required because you
must schedule a consistency check before the consistency check that is
performed in step d. For example, if your scheduled backup is set for 11:00 P.M., consider scheduling the first shadow copy to be taken at 1:00 A.M.,
and the second shadow copy to be taken at 6:00 A.M.
Select Advanced Options and select Schedule daily consistency check. Specify a start time that is at least 1 hour after
the first shadow copy is created in step c and at least 4 hours before the
second scheduled shadow copy occurs.
Set the maximum duration as 4
hours. This step assumes that your consistency check will be completed in 4
hours. If you determine that your consistency check takes longer than 4 hours,
you should increase the maximum duration accordingly.
Additionally, change the
second shadow copy time specified in step 4 if your consistency check takes
longer than 4 hours. For example, based on the shadow copy example schedule
provided in step d, you must schedule the daily consistency check to run
at 2:00 A.M.
Note You will likely receive two failed jobs
for the synchronization and for the shadow copy
everyday. These
alerts indicate
that the replication that was used to help protect the NTBackup
file is invalid after the first shadow copy is created. However, this
behavior is expected.
These alerts automatically become inactive when the synchronization with
the consistency check
is finished. Your second shadow copy in step c should be
scheduled for 1 hour after the consistency check is expected to be completed.
To verify that the synchronization of the folder or of the share is
completed, follow these steps:
On the DPM Administrator console,
click the Monitoring menu, and then click the
Jobs tab.
View the synchronizations list, and then verify
that the synchronization for your protected object has completed. Verify that
the Shadow Copy Area entry in the disk allocation is
sufficient to hold multiple shadow copies. If this entry is insufficient, you
may lose previous shadow
copies.
This backup process can be used if you intend to back up the
Exchange server one time a day. If you have to back up the
Exchange server more frequently, you can adjust your backup
schedule and modify the Protection
Group
schedule for synchronization and shadow copies to fit your needs.
How to use DPM 2006 to restore the Exchange server
If you want to use DPM 2006 to restore an Exchange server, you can restore the file from the DPM 2006 Administrator Console. To do this,
follow these steps:
On the DPM administrator console, click
the Recovery option on the navigation bar.
Locate the shadow copy of the desired version of the Exchange Server backup file. For example, locate the shadow copy of the ExchangeSvr1.bak file.
After you identify the desired file, click
Recover..., and then restore the file to the target.
The
recovered file will be named "Copy of ExchangeSvr1.bak" on the original backup
volume. Perform a typical Exchange recovery by using
the Windows NT Backup program or with your existing
third-party backup solution which was used to create the file that was backed up by DPM 2006.
For more
information, click the following article number to view the article in the
Microsoft Knowledge Base:
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