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Plan your backup jobs for this agent by reviewing the following information:
The Exchange Database iDataAgents support the following backup types:
The Exchange Mailbox iDataAgents support the following backup types:
The Exchange Public Folder and Exchange Web Folder iDataAgents support the following backup types:
This agent has the following unique functionality.
For the Exchange Database iDataAgents, Pre-Selected backups may be either Incremental Backups or Differential Backups as determined during installation or through configuration of the Agent Properties (General) tab for an Exchange Database iDataAgent.
In situations When a Non-Full Backup is Automatically Converted to a Full Backup (such as after a restore), the system will report the status of the backup with the type the user specified (i.e., incremental or differential) although a full backup was run in place of the pre-selected type.
When using Windows Server 2003, you can enable VSS for Exchange Database backup jobs, see VSS for Exchange Database iDataAgents for more information.
The Cluster Continuous Replication (CCR) capabilities offered by Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 provide a high availability backup solution that integrates seamlessly with the Exchange 2007 Database iDataAgent. CCR is designed to continuously replicate Exchange Database transaction logs residing on the active node of a CCR cluster to the passive node where they are replayed, so that in the event of failover the replica database will be available to users.
The Exchange 2007 Database iDataAgent is able to take advantage of CCR to provide you with the ability to perform a VSS-enabled backup of the replica database and transaction logs. Backing up the replica database and logs in this manner means that you do not have to disrupt availability of the production environment to perform backups. It can also reduce the frequency at which full backups must be taken, reduce the volume of backup data and media usage, as well as shorten the time it takes to recover from failure.
Another advantage of using the Exchange 2007 Database iDataAgent in a CCR environment is that backups taken of the CCR active node can be used to seed data on the passive node. "Seeding" is the process of transferring data and logs from the active node to the passive node to establish a baseline of the database for replication. In cases where large amounts of data must be transferred from the Source computer (active node) to the Destination computer (passive node), but the connection between the source and the destination is constrained, such as a slow WAN connection, this may be a more efficient method to seed the data to the passive node than "Automatic Seeding".
In order to use the Exchange Database iDataAgent for CCR seeding, you must first configure the agent as described in Configure CCR Backup Options. Afterwards, perform a full backup of the Exchange database and logs residing on the CCR active node. Then you will need to perform an out-of-place restore to the destination client (i.e., the passive node) using the backup taken of the active node (see Restore Out-of-Place (Exchange iDataAgents) for step-by-step instructions on performing an out-of-place restore to a non-Exchange location). For more information on seeding, refer to the Microsoft TechNet article on How to Seed a Cluster Continuous Replication Copy.
Once the CCR cluster has been properly seeded, and logs are copied and replayed on the passive node, the agent must be configured to use VSS to back up the replica database as described in Configure CCR Backup Options. After the agent has been configured, then you can begin performing full or incremental backups of the passive node using VSS.
Some points to keep in mind when using the Exchange 2007 Database iDataAgent in a CCR environment are as follows:
The Consistency Check Throttling feature for Exchange Database iDataAgents allows users to define pause points in the consistency check process for Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS) enabled backups.
| This feature is not supported with non-VSS enabled backups. |
Pause points allow Exchange system resources to be made available periodically to other processes during prolonged consistency checks of large databases or when there is a high load on the Exchange Server. For example, establishing pause points in the consistency check process allows users to send and receive e-mail messages without a significant delay, by avoiding a bottleneck of I/O transactions from building up in the queue.
VSS requires the data to be in a consistent state to ensure application integrity before considering a VSS backup to be valid. However, consistency checks can degrade I/O transaction processing performance. To address this performance issue, while ensuring integrity of the backup data, Exchange Database iDataAgents for Exchange Server 2003 (with Service Pack 2) and Exchange Server 2007, provide the throttling option to specify the maximum throughput (in Megabytes) as a trigger to periodically pause the consistency check in order for other I/O transactions to occur. The following formula is used to calculate the throughput for the purpose of establishing the pause points:
Maximum throughput rate = 512KB per I/O * number of I/Os between 1-second pauses
Once the consistency check throttling has been configured, and a pause point is reached after the specified number of Megabytes, the consistency check process sleeps for one second to allow other processes use of Exchange system resources before continuing on. Exchange Server 2003 (with Service Pack 2) uses ESEUTIL to verify the integrity of the database, whereas Exchange Server 2007 uses the CHKSGFILES API to perform this function.
For step-by-step instructions, see Configure Consistency Check Throttling.
The Exchange Mailbox iDataAgent can use the Data Classification Enabler to facilitate selecting data for data protection operations. Using the enabler is especially useful if you will be running incremental backups.
| If you enable the Data Classification Enabler for this agent, it is recommended that the next Exchange data backup that you run be a full backup. |
Before performing any backup procedures for this agent, review the following information:
Exchange Database iDataAgent
Because Recovery Storage Groups (RSGs) cannot be manually discovered or auto-discovered for the Exchange 2003 Database iDataAgent, they cannot be added to subclient content, and therefore cannot be backed up.
The Exchange Database iDataAgent for Exchange Server 2007 will not automatically filter out Recovery Storage Groups (RSGs) from subclient content. Hence, if you do not want to back up RSGs, then you will need to create a user-defined subclient and assign the RSGs as content. Afterwards, ensure that the subclient containing the RSGs do not have backups scheduled to run for it.
Exchange Mailbox iDataAgent
Filters can be used in conjunction with the "Items That Failed" list on the data protection Job History Report to eliminate backup or archive failures by excluding items which consistently fail that are not integral to the operation of the system or applications. Some items fail because they are locked by the operating system or application and cannot be opened at the time of the data protection operation. This often occurs with certain system-related files and database application files.
Also, keep in mind that you will need to run a full backup after adding failed files to the filter in order to remove them.
Including Disabled Mailboxes in Data Protection Operations
The Exchange 2000/2003 Mailbox iDataAgent, Exchange 2000/2003 Mailbox Archiver and Exchange 2000/2003 Compliance Archiver Agents do not back up or archive disabled mailboxes by default. However, if you would like to include disabled mailboxes in the data protection operations for these agents, you can add the nBackupDisabledMailBoxes registry key. Note that mailboxes marked as disabled in Exchange Server 2007 are disconnected by default and therefore cannot be archived or backed up.
The Exchange Public/Web Folder iDataAgents and/or Exchange Public Folder Archiver Agent back up/archive both local and remote folders on the Exchange Server.
Filters can be used in conjunction with the "Items That Failed" list on the data protection Job History Report to eliminate backup or archive failures by excluding items which consistently fail that are not integral to the operation of the system or applications. Some items fail because they are locked by the operating system or application and cannot be opened at the time of the data protection operation. This often occurs with certain system-related files and database application files.
Also, keep in mind that you will need to run a full backup after adding failed files to the filter in order to remove them.