Understanding the CommCell Console
Grouping Mailboxes Into User-Defined Subclients
By Active Directory User Groups
Automatically Manage Mailbox Groupings
Exclude Mailboxes from Backups
Filter Mailboxes using Regular Expressions
Filter Specific Folders from Backups
Include Specific Folders in Backups
Managing the Default Subclient
Add Unassociated Mailboxes to the Default Subclient
Configuring Backups for Disabled Mailboxes
Configuring Backups for Discovery Search Mailboxes
Configuring Backups for Deleted Item Retention Folders
Specifying Domain Information for Backups
Enhancing Mailbox Discovery Using CSVDE Filter
Configuring Mailboxes in Database Availability Group (DAG) Servers
Modifying an Agent, Backup Set, or Subclient
Deleting an Agent, Backup Set, or Subclient
You can create user-defined subclients to divide mailbox backups into groups based on specific criteria. For example, you may want to back up mailboxes in the Administrator Active Directory User group on a nightly basis, whereas mailboxes in the Accounting Active Directory User group may only need to be backed up once a week. Creating a user-defined subclient for each user group allows you to perform backups of them at different intervals based on your resources and backup needs.
By default, the content of the Default Subclient
contains all mailboxes on the Exchange server. When you create a user-defined Subclient, the contents of the user-defined Subclient will be excluded from the Default Subclient. |
You can choose to discover mailboxes based on the mailboxes' Active Directory User Group. Any mailbox that resides in the specified Active Directory User Group will be discovered and automatically assigned to the user-defined subclient.
You can configure a user-defined subclient to automatically discover mailboxes created within a particular database. This is especially useful in cases where a number of databases exist and backups between them need to be staggered for resource leveling.
Regular expressions can be used to discover mailboxes based on unique patterns. For example, regular expressions can be used to discover all mailboxes containing a particular department name within its display name.
When mailboxes are discovered using regular expressions, any mailbox that matches the wildcard expressions are automatically assigned to the associated user-defined subclient. If a mailbox does not match the expressions, it is automatically assigned to the default subclient.
The following table provides some examples of useful regular expressions:
example |
description |
Accounting* |
Auto-discovers any mailbox display name that begins with Accounting followed by any number of any characters (e.g., Accounting Mailbox, Accounting Manager, etc.). |
user_group? |
Auto-discovers any mailbox display name that begins with user_group followed by any one character (e.g., user_groupA, user_group1, etc.). |
[JT]im |
Auto-discovers any mailbox display name that begins with J or T and ends with im (e.g., Jim, Tim). |
[a-k]Lee |
Auto-discovers any mailbox display name that begins with any character in the range of a through k inclusive and that ends with Lee (e.g., aLee, bLee, etc.) |
[!ei]nsure |
Auto-discovers any mailbox display name that ends with nsure but does not begin with e or i (e.g., unsure). |
[!a-k]Lee |
Auto-discovers any mailbox display name that does not begin with a through k and that ends with Lee (e.g., xLee, yLee, etc.). |
[A-K]* |
You can also use a combination of wildcards in a single expression, if the wildcards are supported for the type of operation you are performing. For example, if you wanted to auto-discover all mailbox display names beginning with any characters in the range of A through K inclusive followed by any number of any characters, you would enter the following wildcard combination. |
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Automatic discovery of mailboxes can be disabled in scenarios where it is no longer desired for mailboxes to automatically be included in routine backups. When automatic discovery is disabled, all mailboxes must subsequently be manually assigned to a subclient.
By default, if a change is made to an automatically discovered mailbox that alters the association criteria it was discovered with, the next backup will automatically reassign the mailbox to the appropriate subclient that satisfies the new criteria. For example, if a mailbox was assigned to a subclient based on its parent database and the mailbox is later moved to a different database, the next backup will automatically move the mailbox to the subclient associated with the new database.
If a mailbox is manually assigned to a subclient, it is not rendered available for automatic grouping. However you can manually assign this mailbox to the blank subclient and during the subsequent data protection operation this mailbox gets automatically discovered and assigned to a relevant subclient.
In some cases, it may not be desirable for backups to manage mailboxes in this manner. You can disable this functionality - or enable it again later if it has already been disabled - as follows:
Use one of the methods below to filter data from being backed up. Filters assist in minimizing usage of protected storage and prevents unnecessary folders (Junk, Spam) from being backed up.
You can also apply regular expressions or wildcards patterns to filter
folders in mailboxes from data protection. For example, you may want to
exclude all Sent Items folders that are not essential for recovery. The
pattern you enter will be applied to all content defined for the subclient.
|
example |
description |
Sent* |
To filter out a folder which begins with Sent, specify the name of the folder and the asterisk * wildcard with no delimiters. |
Sent Items\test* |
To filter out a subfolder called test, specify the full path including the leader \ backslash. |
*\test* |
To filter out any path that ends in a folder name, use the full path including the leader \ backslash and the asterisk * wildcard for the first level. |
You can configure the Exchange Mailbox iDataAgent to backup messages that reside in a specific mailbox folder (e.g., Sent Items). Messages residing in any subfolders that exist within the specified mailbox folder will also be backed up.
By default, all mailboxes are automatically assigned to the default subclient. This default behavior is designed to ensure all mailboxes are backed up.
If you do not want all mailboxes to automatically be included in the default subclient, you can do so as described in the following sections.
We recommend that you do not modify these settings. Doing so would disable the default subclient's capability to serve as a catch-all entity for mailbox data. As a result, some data may not get backed up. |
By default, all mailboxes that are not associated with a user-defined subclient are included in the default subclient. If you do not want the default subclient to include such mailboxes, you can disable this behavior as follows:
By default, the Mailboxes whose user accounts are disabled from the Active Directory are not backed up. To include them in the backup operation, follow the steps given below:
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The Discovery Search Mailbox, which is used as the target mailbox for all discovery searches of the Exchange Control Panel, can be backed up using a user-defined subclient as described below.
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By default, Deleted Item Retention folders are not included in backups. In some cases, it may be desirable to include them for record keeping purposes. This can be accomplished as follows:
It may be necessary to specify additional domain names for backups in the following circumstances:
To ensure complete protection in these circumstances, perform the following.
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A Comma Separated Value Directory Exchange (CSVDE) filtering option is provided to increase performance for auto-discovery operations in cases where the discovery process may take a long time to complete.
A CSVDE filtering example is provided below, which will filter out system mailboxes residing on the SERVERNAME server from discovery operations for these agents:
"(&(msExchHomeServerName=*/cn=SERVERNAME)(!(CN=SystemMailbox{*)))"
Use of this option requires expert-level knowledge of CSVDE, which is a Microsoft tool used for extracting and filtering information from Active Directory. Familiarity with constructing LDAP queries is beneficial for successful filtering. Incorrect use of the CSVDE filtering option can result in failed discovery and data protection operations. For more information on CSVDE, refer to documentation from Microsoft Corporation. |
The next time a discovery operation is run, the user-specified CSVDE filter will be used. |
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In addition to the steps above, the following steps are required if the CAS Role is not installed on the Mailbox Role Server.
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There are several configurable properties available for your agent that can be modified from the agent, backup set or subclient level as per your need.
It is recommended that that you do not modify the properties of a subclient when a job is in progress for that specific subclient. If a job is in progress, either wait for the job to complete or kill the job from the Job Controller.
The following table describes the properties that can be configured from the agent, backup set and subclient levels.
Option | Description | Related topics |
Change the Profile Name |
You can modify the profile that is associated with the appropriate
Administrator Mailbox.
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Change the Mailbox Name |
You can modify the name of the mailbox that is associated with the
appropriate Administrator profile.
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Change the Exchange Server Name |
You can modify the name of the Exchange Server that is installed on the
client computer.
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Change the Exchange Version |
You can select and modify the version of the Exchange Server from the
list.
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Change User Account Details |
You must have Exchange administrator privileges to access the Exchange Server and perform backup and restore operations. In the case of backup and restore operations from the CommCell Console, the user credentials to access the Exchange Server are provided initially when you installed the Agent. You can modify the user credentials from CommCell Console. On Windows clients, use <domain>\<administrator_name> To change the Exchange administrator account information associated with this agent:
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Rename Backup Set and Subclient |
You can rename a backup set and subclient: Renaming backup sets:
Renaming subclients:
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Change Storage Policies |
You can modify the
storage policies in any of the following situations:
You can change the storage policies from the subclient level.
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Refer to Storage Policies. |
Data Transfer Options |
You can efficiently configure the available resources for transferring data secured
by data protection operations from the subclient level. This includes the following:
You can configure the data transfer options.
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Refer to Data Compression and Network Bandwidth Throttling. |
View Data Paths |
You can view the data paths associated with the primary
storage policy copy of the selected storage policy or incremental storage
policy. You can also modify the data paths including their priority from
the subclient level.
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Configure a Subclient for Pre/Post Processing of Data Protection |
You can add, modify or view Pre/Post processes for the
subclient. These are batch files or shell scripts that you can run before
or after certain job phases.
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Refer to Pre/Post Processes. |
Configure Activity Control |
You can enable backup and restore operations from the agent and subclient level.
However, you can enable restore operations only from the agent level.
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Refer to Activity Control. |
Configure User Security |
You can configure user security from the agent or subclient
level.
You can perform the following functions:
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Refer to User Administration and Security. |
Enable/Disable Data Encryption |
You can enable data encryption from the suclient level.Encryption must be enabled at the client level prior to configuring any
instances residing on that client.
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Refer to Data Encryption. |
View Software Version |
The Version tab, at the Agent level displays the
software version of
the component.
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CommCell Configuration Report |
The CommCell Configuration Report provides the properties of the
CommServe, MediaAgents, clients, agents, SRM agents, subclients, and
storage policies within the CommCell based on the selected filter
criteria.
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Refer to CommCell Configuration. |
The following sections describe the steps involved in deleting an agent, backup set or subclient.
When you delete an instance or backupset, the associated data is logically deleted and you can no longer access the corresponding data from CommCell Console for recovery purposes. Refer to the troubleshooting article on Recovering Data Associated with Deleted Clients and Storage Policies for information on how to recover data if you accidentally delete an entity. |
You need to uninstall or DeConfigure the agent software from the client computer before deleting from CommCell Browser. After you delete the client software, you can either leave the corresponding data intact for appropriate action or you can remove the data immediately. If you choose to remove the data immediately, you must delete the agent from the CommCell Browser. If you delete the agent, all of the agent's data is irretrievably lost.
This operation will permanently delete the data backed up from this level and it cannot be restored.
Consider the following before deleting a Backup Set:
Click No to cancel the deletion and retain the Backupset, or click Yes to continue the deletion.
Consider the following before deleting a subclient:
Click No to cancel the deletion and retain the subclient, or click Yes to continue the deletion.