Acronis Backup & Recovery 11.
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Table of contents 1 Important notices .................................................................................................................... 5 2 Overview ................................................................................................................................. 6 3 General information ................................................................................................................ 6 4 3.1 Agent for Exchange ..........................................
6.4 Selecting target destinations for mailboxes, public folders, or their contents .......................37 6.4.1 6.4.2 6.5 Using Acronis Active Restore for database recovery...............................................................40 6.6 Usage examples .......................................................................................................................40 6.6.1 6.6.2 6.6.3 7 Example 1. Recovering mailboxes to .pst files........................................................
1 Important notices This document describes backup and recovery of Microsoft Exchange Server data by using Acronis Backup & Recovery 11.5 for Microsoft Exchange Server. Important to know Agent for Microsoft Exchange Server is included in the setup programs of both the stand-alone and advanced editions of Acronis Backup & Recovery 11.5. The functionality provided by the agent is the same in both setup programs.
2 Overview Acronis Backup & Recovery 11.5 enables you to back up the Mailbox server role of Microsoft Exchange Server. Mailbox servers host mailboxes and public folders. This data is most critical for any Exchange organization. The following is a summary of the product's key features. Support for Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 (p. 7) Acronis Backup & Recovery 11.5 supports Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 as well as Microsoft Exchange Server 2003/2007. Express full backup method (p.
Acronis Backup & Recovery 11.5 Agent for Microsoft Exchange Server is referred to as Agent for Exchange later in this document. Agent for Exchange is included in the setup programs of both the stand-alone and advanced editions of Acronis Backup & Recovery 11.5. The functionality provided by the agent is the same in both setup programs. However, the following advanced features can be used only in advanced Acronis Backup & Recovery 11.5 configurations: Comprehensive protection of Exchange clusters (p.
3.4 Supported backup locations The table below shows which of Acronis Backup & Recovery 11.5 backup locations are supported by Agent for Exchange. General Backup specific Backup and Express Recovery full backup mode Storages CDP backup scheme Recovery specific Granular recovery Recovery using Acronis Active Restore Online Backup Storage - - - - - Personal vaults + - + + + Acronis Secure Zone - - - - - Centralized vaults + + + + Local folders + + Dedup.
Server version Database backup 2003 2007 2010 Mailbox backup and database backup Database recovery Mailbox recovery Membership in Domain backup operators group. Full Exchange administrator rights for the domain. Full Exchange Full Exchange administrator rights for administrator rights the domain. for the domain. http://technet.micro soft.com/enus/library/bb123926( EXCHG.65).aspx http://technet.microsoft .com/enus/library/bb123926(EX CHG.65).aspx http://technet.microsof t.
Custom backup scheme > There is no option to consolidate an Retention rules > Exchange backup to be moved or Advanced Settings deleted that has dependencies. For more information, see the Custom scheme (p. 25) section. N/A Operations with backups in vaults Exporting backups Backups that have no dependencies are exported without any limitations.
Destination: A custom folder on a file system Yes Mailbox recovery (mailboxes, public folders, e-mails, calendar items, etc) Destination: Recover to Microsoft Exchange Server Yes Destination: Recover to a .
4 Getting started with Agent for Exchange This section lets you quickly implement the most common backup and recovery scenarios for standalone Exchange servers as well as for Exchange cluster environments. 4.1 Simple scenario - a single Exchange server The following steps will guide you through the installation and basic use of Acronis Backup & Recovery 11.5 in simple Exchange organizations. Let's assume you have a single Exchange server that hosts all Exchange services and stores all Exchange data.
1. Make sure that circular logging is disabled for all databases or storage groups of the Exchange server. Otherwise, the transaction log backup will fail. 2. In the management console, click Create backup plan. 3. Under What to back up section, click Items to back up. In Data to back up, select Microsoft Exchange Information Store. In the data tree, expand the machine and select the Microsoft Exchange Information Store check box under the machine's name. Then, click OK. 4.
full backup method and data deduplication require the "Express backup and deduplication" add-on (purchased separately). To be able to revert Exchange data to any custom point in time, we will use the CDP backup scheme (p. 23). In this scheme, you specify when to perform full backups. In addition, the transaction log files are backed up automatically as soon as they are closed by Exchange. In our case, assume full backups will be performed every night.
Details. The console will also be installed so that you can control the management server locally. 2. Install Agent for Exchange on each node of the cluster. a. Log on to a cluster node as domain administrator and start the setup program. b. Click Install Acronis Backup & Recovery 11.5. Accept the terms of the license agreement. c. Select the Back up this machine's data check box, and on the next page make sure that the Microsoft Exchange Server check box is selected. d.
5. In Deduplication, select On. 6. Click Path and then specify the path to the network share where the backups will be stored. 7. Click Deduplication database and then specify the path to the deduplication database. Details. To get maximum benefit from the deduplication, we recommend that you locate the deduplication database and the vault on separate physical devices.
2. In the Navigation tree, expand Vaults > Centralized and then select the vault where you saved the backups. 3. In the Data view tab, in Show, select Microsoft Exchange Information Store. 4. In the catalog tree, select the database that you need to recover. Under Versions, select Point of failure. 5. Click Recover. 6. Under Where to recover section: a. In Data paths, select Original. b. In Mount recovered databases, select Mount with Active Restore. 7.
5 Backup This section describes only the steps and settings that are specific for backing up Microsoft Exchange Server data. The whole procedure of backup plan creation and common backup plan settings, such as selecting backup locations, setting up backup replication, retention and validation are described in the "Backup" section of the product help system or guides for Acronis Backup & Recovery 11.5.
Tracks how far Exchange has progressed in writing logged information to the database file. Storage group In Exchange 2003/2007, a storage group is a logical container for Exchange databases (p. 56), the associated transaction log (p. 58), checkpoint (p. 56), and other system files. All databases in a storage group share a single log stream. A storage group is the basic unit for backup and recovery. In Exchange 2010, the notion of a storage group is discontinued.
Information store structure diagram The following diagram illustrates the information store structure for Exchange 2003/2007 and Exchange 2010. The data items that you can back up at the database level are red-framed. 20 Copyright © Acronis International GmbH, 2002-2012.
5.2 What data items can be backed up and what backup types are used? While creating a backup plan, you can select either the Microsoft Exchange Information Store or the Microsoft Exchange Mailboxes backup type. Microsoft Exchange Information store This data type lets you select the following items to back up: The entire information store. Individual databases (for Exchange 2010 only). Individual storage groups (for Exchange 2003/2007 only).
Note: To back up transaction log files, disable circular logging in Exchange. When circular logging is enabled, Exchange overwrites the first log file after its data has been written to the database. This in turn, breaks the transaction log chain preventing Acronis Backup & Recovery 11.5 from doing transaction log backups. If you enable circular logging after a backup plan creation, the backups will fail.
5.3.1 Simple scheme With the simple backup scheme, you just schedule when to create full backups. Other steps are optional. For the description of the common settings for this backup scheme, such as setting up backup schedule, backup replication, retention and validation see the "Backup" section of the product help system or guides for Acronis Backup & Recovery 11.5 Advanced Editions.
Create full backups using the Express full backup method check box. For more information on express backups, see "Express full backup method" (p. 26). Note: To back up transaction log files, circular logging must be disabled in Exchange. Otherwise, the backup task will fail. 2nd location [Optional] Specify whether to replicate backups to another location. The replication in this scheme is performed after creating a full backup.
Microsoft Exchange Mailboxes: For this data type choose one of the following backup types: 5.3.4 Full backup. Creates full mailbox backups. Incremental backup. Creates incremental mailbox backups. Initially, a full mailbox backup is created. Custom scheme In the Custom backup scheme, you can set up a backup strategy in the way your enterprise needs it most: specify schedules for backups of each type and set up the retention rules. The available backup types depend on the data type (p.
backups to the next location, the backup will be copied there without delay. Only its deletion from the current location is postponed. Replication [Optional] Specify whether to copy backups to another location. For more information about backup replication, see the "Setting up replication of backups" of the product help system or guides for Acronis Backup & Recovery 11.5.
What happens in case of an unexpected system shutdown? An unexpected system shutdown between the express full backups invalidates information maintained by the Express Backup Driver. At the next backup, Acronis Backup & Recovery 11.5 runs the data re-sync backup operation by comparing the current database files with the most recent backup rather than performing a regular full database backup.
7. Click OK to save the created backup plan. Example 2. Backing up to a remote location through a low-bandwidth network connection Case: The company's branch office has a dedicated Exchange mailbox server that hosts 500 GB of data. The network bandwidth available between offices allows transferring about 5 GB per hour. Thus, it requires about 100 hours to back up the Exchange mailbox databases over the network. The amount of daily changes on this server almost never exceeds 5 GB.
6. Click OK to export the backup. Scheduling the express full backups 1. 2. 3. 4. Connect the console to the machine running Agent for Exchange in the branch office. Click Create a backup plan. Under What to back up, select the same data as when creating the initial full backup. Under Where to back up: Select the managed vault containing the exported archive. In Schedule, select Daily and specify the daily backup schedule.
5.4.2 Copy-only backup The copy-only backup method allows creating full database backups without truncating the transaction log files. This way, full backups are created without interrupting other continuous backup plans. The copy-only backups can be easily stored off-site for testing, analysis or other purposes. The copy-only backups can be created with the Manual start (p. 24) backup scheme only. Usage example.
6 Recovery This section describes only the steps and settings that are specific for recovering Microsoft Exchange Server data. The whole procedure of recovery task creation and common recovery task settings are described in the "Creating a recovery task" section of the product help system or guides for Acronis Backup & Recovery 11.5. 6.
2. Selecting the data The backed up data can be selected using the Data view tab, or the Archive view tab. The Data view tab displays all the backed up data by versions (the date and time of backup creation) within the selected archive location. The Archive view tab displays the backed up data by the archives. 6.2.
Select the recovery point by the date and time of backup creation. The data will be recovered to this time. Custom point in time (available for the database backups only). Specify the date and time to recover the data to. During recovery the software will first recover data to the time of the last created full backup before the specified time and then apply the transaction log files from the transaction log backups. See the "Point in time selection" (p. 34) section for details. 6.
5. Click OK. 6.2.3 Searching for specific items in mailboxes and public folders The search allows you to find specific items (such as e-mails, notes, contacts, tasks, and more) within the selected mailbox or public folder for recovery. The search is performed within the item selected in the backup contents tree (for the Archive view (p. 33)). To make the search faster, you can narrow the selection going deeper to the tree (such as particular mailbox or folder rather than entire database). 1.
6.3 Selecting target destinations for databases or storage groups When creating a recovery task on the management server, you can select the Exchange Server to recover the selected data to. To do this, click Browse and select the required Exchange server with the Agent for Exchange installed. In the Data paths drop-down box, select one the following data paths: Original (p. 35) - recover the databases or storage groups to their original paths (the paths are taken from the backup). Custom (p.
To recover the selected databases (storage groups) over the existing ones 1. To the right of the Recover to, select one of the existing databases (storage groups). The existing database (storage group) will be overwritten (if the overwriting is allowed in the properties of the selected databases). 2. Repeat step 1 for other databases or storage groups that you need to recover over the existing ones.
To recover the databases or storage groups to a folder In Path, specify the destination folder where files of the selected database or storage group will be saved. The storage group or database files will be extracted from the backup along with transaction log files. The extracted databases will be in a Dirty Shutdown state. When recovering databases to their original location, the databases can remain in a Dirty Shutdown state and be mountable by the system.
To set up the mailbox recovery, specify the appropriate settings as follows. Overwriting Choose what Acronis Backup & Recovery 11.5 should do if it finds that the target mailbox has items (e-mails, calendar events, contacts, tasks, etc.) with the same ID as those in the backup: Overwrite existing items - this is the default setting that fits most situations.
Note: This format is incompatible with Microsoft Outlook 2002 and earlier versions. Since Exchange server does not have the libraries necessary to create .pst files in Outlook 20032010 format, Acronis Backup & Recovery 11.5 requires that a machine with Microsoft Outlook 2003 or later be installed. Acronis Backup & Recovery 11.5 uses this machine as a proxy for .pst file creation. Machine with Outlook 2003 or later Available if the Outlook 2003-2010 format is selected.
Access credentials Provide credentials for the destination if the task credentials do not enable recovery of the selected data. When entering the name of an Active Directory user account, be sure to also specify the domain name (DOMAIN\Username or Username@domain). 6.
Counsel. The General Counsel simply opens this file by using Microsoft Outlook and sees all of the contents for the required mailbox. Steps to perform 1. 2. 3. 4. Connect the console to the Exchange server running Agent for Exchange. In the Navigation tree, select the vault where the required backups are stored. In the Data view tab, in Show, select Microsoft Exchange Mailboxes. In the catalog tree, select the required mailbox or mailboxes. Under Versions, select a point in time to recover the data to. 5.
retention policies have already been wiped from the mailbox and the employee's user account has already been deleted from the Active Directory. In this case, the administrator picks up the mailbox from one of the backups taken before the employee left and recovers it to the required database.
7 Exchange servers on a management server All administrative operations with Exchange servers in Acronis Backup & Recovery 11.5 are performed in the Microsoft Exchange Servers view of the management server. Add a machine running Exchange to the management server by using the machine's name or IP address, or add multiple machines running the Exchange server application.
Add multiple Exchange Click Add multiple machines. servers In the Add multiple machines window, specify the machines running Exchange servers to add to the management server. You can add machines by: Machine names or IP addresses. Exchange server application installed on the machines. Browsing the network. Browsing an Active Directory domain. Importing the list of the machines from .txt or .csv files.
Delete the selected Exchange server from the management server Click Delete machine from AMS. As a result, the backup plans that have centralized origin are removed and shortcuts to centralized vaults are deleted from the server. If the server is not available at the moment, these actions will be performed as soon as the server becomes available to the management server. Update all information Click Synchronize.
Progress The Progress tab lists all of the selected machine's activities and tasks that are currently running. The tab provides information about task progress, elapsed time and other parameters. 46 Copyright © Acronis International GmbH, 2002-2012.
8 Backing up and recovering data of Exchange clusters This feature is used only in advanced editions of Acronis Backup & Recovery 11.5 (p. 6). The main idea of Exchange clusters is to provide high database availability with fast failover and no data loss. Usually, it is achieved by having one or more copies of databases or storage groups on the members of the cluster (cluster nodes).
Exchange 2003 Cluster and Single Copy Cluster (SCC) for Exchange 2007 Both configurations are failover cluster solutions based on a shared storage. Each of them uses a single copy of a storage group on storage that is shared between the cluster nodes. Only one cluster node can access (manage) shared data at a time. The node that is currently managing shared data is called an active node. Other nodes are called passive or standby.
Database Availability Group (DAG) for Exchange Server 2010 DAG is a failover cluster solution providing high availability and site resilience. DAG uses the combination of two continuous replication technologies found in Exchange 2007: Cluster Continuous Replication and Standby Continuous Replication. DAG is a group of up to 16 Exchange 2010 Mailbox servers. Any node can host a copy of mailbox database from any other node. Each node can host passive and active database copies.
Availability of the management server The management server's availability is mandatory for creating and editing the centralized backup plans, since the management server deploys the backup plan to every node of the cluster. However, its availability is not necessary to run backup and recovery tasks. 8.4 Backing up the Exchange cluster data Normally, clustered data is backed up by creating a backup plan on the management server (centralized backup plan).
This mode is available for selection if Agent for Exchange is installed on each node of the cluster. In this mode, the software will back up data from the active copy of the database or the storage group. If the active copy is not available at the moment, the backup will fail. Backing up data from active copies may slow down the Exchange server performance, but the backed up data will be in the most up-to-date state.
and the number of available database copies). If the same storage group or database exists in the original path, it will be overwritten with one from the backup. When recovering databases to the original path in Exchange 2010 DAG configuration, consider the following: If the database being recovered exists in the original path, the database is always recovered to the cluster node hosting the active database copy. Other nodes are not available for selection.
Password. The password for the account. If the credentials are detected as missing or invalid, you will receive the respective alert. To provide valid credentials, click Fix the issue in the alert. Also, you can provide cluster credentials at the next backup or recovery. 53 Copyright © Acronis International GmbH, 2002-2012.
9 Exchange-specific backup options 9.1 Metadata collection This option applies to database backups. This option defines the amount of metadata collected during a backup. The more detailed the metadata is, the longer the backup creation takes. However, the browsing and recovery of individual e-mails and other items contained in the mailboxes will be faster.
Select this check box and specify the age of backed up items. The items older than the specified age will be skipped from backup. Exclude attachments larger than: ... Select this check box and specify the upper size limit for the backed up attachments. The attachments whose size is greater than the specified value will be skipped during backup.
10 Glossary C Checkpoint file A file that accompanies an Exchange transaction log (p. 58) stream and tracks how far Exchange has progressed in writing logged information to the database file. Circular logging A Microsoft Exchange Server logging mode. In this mode, Exchange overwrites and reuses the transaction log files (p. 58) rather than creating new log files. Continuous Data Protection (CDP) Continuous Data Protection (CDP) allows reverting the protected data to any point in time.
E Exchange database There are two types of Exchange databases. A mailbox database stores contents of mailboxes. Mailbox content is private to the mailbox user. A public folder database stores public folders data. Public folder content is shared among multiple users. Physically, the data stored in the files of the following types: Database file (.edb) Transaction log files (p. 58) (.log) Checkpoint files (p. 56) (.chk).
P Point of failure The point in time when the most recent transaction log file (p. 58) existing in Exchange was created. This is the most recent state Exchange data can be reverted to. S Storage group In Exchange 2003/2007, a storage group is a logical container for Exchange databases (p. 56), the associated transaction log (p. 58), checkpoint (p. 56), and other system files. All databases in a storage group share a single log stream. A storage group is the basic unit for backup and recovery.
In either case, Exchange deletes only those files that are older than the checkpoint. This means that transactions from these files have already been committed and written to databases. 59 Copyright © Acronis International GmbH, 2002-2012.
