Best practices include tips and recommendations to help you use
the Exchange Agent effectively. For more information about the Exchange Agent,
see the Backup Exec 2012
Administrator's Guide.
For best practices on preparing the Exchange
Server for backup, do the following on the Exchange Server:
·
Put transaction log
files on a separate physical disk from the database. If the disk that contains
the database is damaged, the transaction logs are available as a recovery
resource.
·
Set the retention
period for deleted items and mailboxes to a length of time that is appropriate
for the available disk space. The longer the retention period, the more disk
space is required. However, some retention period can prevent you from having
to restore a mailbox or database. If possible, configure the Exchange server so
that items are not deleted until a full backup is performed.
·
Make Write Cache
unavailable on the SCSI controller. Data corruption can occur if the computer
fails before the operation is written to disk.
·
Monitor the Application,
Security, and System logs for any relevant events that may affect Exchange
Server functionality.
·
Allow sufficient disk
space for maintenance and recovery procedures. Refer to your Microsoft
documentation for details.
·
Avoid making the
Exchange server a domain controller. You can more easily restore Exchange if
you don't have to restore the Active Directory first.
·
Install the Exchange
Server into a domain that has at least two domain controllers. With two domain
controllers in a domain, databases on a failed domain controller can be updated
with replication.
·
For Exchange Server
2003, ensure that the latest version of the Esebcli2.dll file is installed. If
the Esebcli2.dll file is installed in more than one location, ensure that all
locations contain the latest version.
·
For Exchange 2010, use
a Database Availability Group (DAG) with at least one passive database copy for
each database to protect against data loss. If you can make more than one passive
copy, the second passive copy should use a log replay delay of 24 hours.
·
For Exchange 2010, a
Windows 2008 SP2 or Windows 2008 R2 x64 Backup Exec server with the Exchange
2012 Management tools that are installed on the Backup Exec server is required.
·
When you run full
backups, enable the option for Granular Recovery Technology (GRT). The GRT
option lets you restore individual mail messages and folders from a database
backup without the need for a separate mailbox backup.
Note:
|
·
Change your default
staging location if you run GRT-enabled backup jobs. The default location is
used for recovery as well as staging GRT-enabled restore jobs. You should
change the location to a volume that is not your system volume for faster
performance.
·
Ensure that the
scheduled maintenance for the Information Store does not run at the same time
as the database backup. If you run these operations at the same time, it can
cause issues with the Exchange Server databases.
·
Run a regular backup
for System State and Shadow Copy Components, if applicable. These selections
back up the Internet Information Service (IIS) metabase and the Windows
registry.
·
When you run offline
backups, back up all of the files that make up the storage group, including any
.Edb and .Stm files, and all transaction log files.
·
For Exchange 2010 DAGs
that have three or more copies of the database, the consistency check can be
disabled.
The following best practices are for using the
Backup Exec continuous protection feature as part of your backup strategy:
·
To copy backup sets to
tape for off-site storage, create a job to duplicate backup data. You can
schedule the job to copy the backup data to tape before or after each
occurrence of the full backup job. The duplicate backup data job copies all of
the transaction logs and the full backup sets to tape.
·
If you duplicate
Information Store backup data to tape and then back to disk, specify the same
volume for the full and the incremental backups. The backup data must be on the
same volume if you want to restore individual items from the incremental
backup.
·
Create a custom filter
to limit the number of recovery points that appear in the Job History view.
The following best practices are for
recovering data for all versions of Exchange Information Store:
·
Be aware of the effect
of the Restore all transaction logs; do not delete existing transaction logs
option. After an operation runs with this option enabled, transactions in
existing transaction logs are applied when you start or mount the Information
Store database. If those transactions include any deletions that occurred after
the backup ran, those deletions are also applied. As a result, the very data
that you intend to recover may be deleted. In this situation, enable the Purge
existing data and restore only the databases and transaction logs from the
backup sets option. This option discards the Exchange data that was generated
after the backup. Alternatively, you can use a second recovery server. You can
also use the Recovery Storage Group feature in Exchange 2003/2007 or Exchange
2010 recovery database to perform the restore.
·
If you must use the
Microsoft Eseutil utility to repair the database, ensure that the recovery
server has sufficient disk space. You may need as much as 125% of the actual
size of the Information Store database. You can also specify another disk or
volume as a temporary location on which to run the Eseutil utility. Refer to
your Microsoft documentation for details.
·
Ensure that you
specify a valid temporary location on the Exchange server for log and patch
files. The temporary location must have enough space to accommodate the
transaction logs that you want to recover.
·
Read the Restore.env
file if issues occur when you mount a database after a restore operation.
Information in this file can help you troubleshoot issues. To read the file,
run the Eseutil utility with the /cm switch. Refer to your Microsoft
documentation for details.
·
Select the Commit
after restore completes option when you configure a restore job so that the
database can be mounted. Run the Eseutil utility with the /cc switch to perform
a manual hard recovery. Refer to your Microsoft documentation for details.
o The recovery server has the same Organization
and Administrative Group names as the source server.
o The storage groups and databases already exist
on the recovery server, and have the same names as the original storage groups
or databases.
The following best practices are for restoring
individual mailboxes and public folders for Exchange 2003:
·
If you redirect the
restore of individual mailbox or public folder items to an alternate location,
ensure that the mailbox or public folder already exists.
·
If errors about
permissions occur, try to restore to the mailbox that is associated with the
Backup Exec logon account that you used for the restore. An example of a
permissions error is Access denied.
·
After a successful
restore of public folders, you may need to rehome some or all of the folders.
Refer to your Microsoft documentation for more information.
·
If the error Unable to
attach occurs, on the Exchange server, run Fixmapi.exe. Then, retry the
operation.
·
If you cannot attach
to the mailboxes node when Outlook is installed on the Exchange server, then
stop the Exchange and Remote Agent services. Run Fixmapi.exe, and then on the
Microsoft Web site, look up any return codes. If there are no return codes,
restart the services and retry the operation.
·
If you redirect a
mailbox restore to an Active Directory in a different forest than the Exchange
server, you must associate an external account with the mailbox. Refer to your
Microsoft documentation for details.
·
If you redirect public
folder data, ensure that the Backup Exec user account has the Owner role on
both the source and destination public folders. Refer to your Microsoft
documentation for details.
·
Perform tests
periodically to ensure that disaster recovery and data recovery scenarios
produce the expected results.
·
Become familiar with
the Microsoft documentation for Exchange database management, disaster plans,
and recovery.
·
Document the Exchange
Server configuration in detail. Document any subsequent changes. Note all
hotfixes and service packs that are applied.
No comments:
Post a Comment