Advanced - Exchange Public Folder iDataAgent Configuration

Table of Contents

Understanding the CommCell Console

Adding Public Folders to Backups

Grouping Public Folders into User-Defined Subclients

Filtering Public Folders from Backups

Configuring Backups for Deleted Item Retention Folders

Modifying an Agent or Subclient

Deleting an Agent, Backup Set, or Subclient

Understanding the CommCell Console

The Exchange Public Folder iDataAgent uses the following entities to manage backup and restore operations from the CommCell Console.

Agent

Defines the Exchange Server to be backed up.

Backup Set

Facilitates security settings for all subclients to be backed up.

Subclient

Defines the public folders and the filtering criteria that will be used for backups.

Adding Public Folders to Backups

You can add additional public folders to backups as follows:

  1. From the CommCell Browser, navigate to Client Computers | <Client> | Exchange Public Folder | defaultBackupSet.
  2. Right-click the default subclient and then click Properties.
  3. Click the Content tab and then click Browse.
  4. Select the folders you want to back up and then click Add.
  5. Click Yes to confirm and then click Close.
  6. Click OK.

Grouping Public Folders into User-Defined Subclients

The Exchange Public Folder iDataAgent provides the facility to divide your backups across a select grouping of public folders. This is accomplished by creating User-Defined Subclients, each of which may contain any combination of public folders. Distributing the public folders using subclients can help improve backup performance and provide flexibility for scheduling data protection operations. Any content not assigned to a user-defined subclient remains as content in the default subclient.

  1. From the CommCell Browser, right-click the backup set on the source client, and click All Tasks | New Subclient.
  2. Enter a new subclient name in the General tab.
  3. Select a Storage Policy for the new subclient and click OK.
  4. Specify if a backup schedule should be associated to the new subclient and click OK.
  5. Right-click the subclient and select Properties.
  6. Click the Content tab and then click Browse.
  7. Select the folders you want to back up and then click Add.
  8. Click Yes to confirm and then click Close.
  9. Click OK.

filtering specific folders from backups

You can filter specific public folders from backups as follows:
  1. From the CommCell Browser, right-click a subclient  and click Properties.
  2. Click the Filters tab, then click Add next to Exclude the following folders.
  3. Select a public folder to exclude.
  4. Click Add.
  5. When finished selecting the items, click Close.
  6. Click OK.

The next time a data protection operation is run, the filter will be used to exclude the folders.

configuring backups for deleted Item Retention Folders

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:

  1. From the CommCell Browser, right-click the Exchange Agent and then click Properties.
  2. From the Options tab, select the Backup Deleted Item Retention option.
  3. Click OK.

Modifying an Agent or Subclient

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 Public Folder.
  1. From the CommCell browser, navigate to Client Computers | <Client> | iDataAgent.
  2. Right-click the iDataAgent and click Properties.
  3. Select General tab.
  4. Type the Profile Name.
  5. Type the Mailbox Name.
  6. Click OK.
  
Change the Exchange Server Name You can modify the name of the Exchange Server that is installed on the client computer. However, the Exchange server name should not be the same as Client or Host Name.
  1. From the CommCell browser, navigate to Client Computers | <Client> | iDataAgent.
  2. Right-click the iDataAgent and click Properties.
  3. Select General tab.
  4. Type the Exchange Server Name.
  5. Click OK.
  
Change Account You can change the Exchange administrator account information associated with this agent.
  1. From the CommCell browser, navigate to Client Computers | <Client> | iDataAgent.
  2. Right-click the iDataAgent and Click Properties.
  3. Select General tab.
  4. Click Change Account.
  5. Type the Account name in Exchange Administrator Account box.
  6. Type the Password in Password box.
  7. Type the password again in Confirm Password box.
  8. Click OK.
  
Backup Deleted Item Retention You can choose to backup the Deleted Item Retention folder.
  1. From the CommCell browser, navigate to Client Computers | <Client> | iDataAgent.
  2. Right-click the iDataAgent and Click Properties.
  3. Select General.
  4. Select Backup Deleted Item Retention check box.
  5. Click OK.
  
Change the Exchange Version You can select and modify the version of the Exchange Server from the list.
  1. From the CommCell browser, navigate to Client Computers | <Client> | iDataAgent.
  2. Right-click the iDataAgent and Click Properties.
  3. Select a version from the Exchange Version list.
  4. Click OK.
  
AD Server This feature allows you to to specify the domain name of one or more Exchange Servers containing public folders and accounts that reside in a non-default domain or in multiple domains.
  1. From the CommCell browser, navigate to Client Computers | <Client> | iDataAgent.
  2. Right-click the iDataAgent and Click Properties.
  3. Select AD Server tab. The AD Server list displays the domain names of one or more non-default exchange servers.
  4. Click Add to include the domain name of a non-default exchange server.
  5. Click Delete to remove the domain name of a non-default exchange server.
  6. Click OK.
  
Rename Backup Set and Subclient

You can rename a backup set and subclient:

Renaming backup sets:

  1. From the CommCell browser, navigate to Client Computers | <Client> | iDataAgent | Backup Set.
  2. Right-click the backup set and then click Properties.
  3. Type the new name in the Backup Set field.
  4. Click OK.

Renaming subclients:

  1. From the CommCell browser, navigate to Client Computers | <Client> | iDataAgent | Backup Set | <user-defined Subclient>.
  2. Right-click the subclient and then click Properties.
  3. Type the new name in the  Subclient name field.
  4. Click OK.
  
Change Storage Policies You can modify the storage policies in any of the following situations:
  • To include a different media for the backup operation.
  • To use a storage policy with a different retention criteria.

You can change the storage policies from the subclient level.

  1. From the CommCell Browser, right-click the subclient.
  2. Click Properties.
  3. Click Storage Device.
  4. Select the Storage policy from the drop-down menu.
  5. Click OK.
 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:
  • Enable or disable Data Compression either on the client or the MediaAgent.
  • Configure the transfer of data in the network using the options for Network Bandwidth Throttling and Network Agents.

You can configure the data transfer options.

  1. From the CommCell Browser,right-click the subclient.
  2. Click Properties.
  3. Click Storage Device.
  4. Click Data Transfer Option tab.
  5. Choose the appropriate software compression option for this subclient.
  6. Select Throttle Network Bandwidth and set the required bandwidth.
  7.  Click OK.
 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.
  1. From the CommCell browser, right-click the subclient.
  2. Click Properties.
  3. Click Storage Device.
  4. Select Storage Policy from the drop-down menu.
  5. Click Data Paths.
  
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.
  1. From the CommCell browser, navigate to Client Computers | <Client> | iDataAgent.
  2. Right-click the iDataAgent and Click Properties.
  3. Click Properties.
  4. Click Pre/Post Process.
  5. Click one of the following phases and type the full path of the process that you want to execute during that phase. Alternatively, click Browse to locate the process (applicable only for paths that do not contain any spaces).
    • PreBackup Process
    • PostBackup Process
  6. Click OK.
  7. Select Run Post Backup Process for all attempts to run a post backup process for all attempts.
  8. For subclients on Windows platforms, Run As displays Not Selected.

    If you want to change the account that has permission to run these commands, click Change.

    1. In the User Account dialog box, select Use Local System Account, or select Impersonate User and enter the user name and password. Click OK.
    2. If you selected Local System Account, click OK to the message advising you that commands using this account have rights to access all data on the client computer.
 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.
  1. From the CommCell browser, right-click the subclient.
  2. Click Properties.
  3. Click Activity Control, select or clear option(s) as desired.
  4. Click OK.
 Refer to Activity Control.
Configure User Security You can configure user security from the agent or subclient level.

You can perform the following functions:

  • Identify the user groups to which this CommCell object is associated.
  • Associate this object with a user group.
  • Disassociate this object from a user group.
  1. From the CommCell browser, right-click the subclient.
  2. Click Properties.
  3. Click Security.
  4. Select the appropriate user groups to which you want to associate to the CommCell object from the Available Groups pane, and then move the user group to the Associated Groups pane.
  5. Click OK.
 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.
  1. From the CommCell browser, right-click the subclient.
  2. Click Properties.
  3. Click Encryption.
  4. Select the desired encryption.
  5. Click OK.
 Refer to Data Encryption.
View Software Version The Version tab, at the Agent level displays the software version of the component.
  1. From the CommCell browser, right-click the agent.
  2. Click Properties.
  3. Click Version.
  4. Click OK.
  
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.
  1. From the CommCell browser, click Reports icon.
  2. Select CommCell Configuration.
  3. Click Run.
 Refer to CommCell Configuration.

Deleting an Agent, BackupSet or Subclient

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.

Deleting an Agent

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.

  1. From the CommCell Browser, navigate to Client Computers | <Client>.
  2. Right-click the <Agent>, and then click Delete.
  3. A confirmation message is displayed with the following message:

    This operation will permanently delete the data backed up from this level and it cannot be restored.

  4. Click OK to continue with the deletion operation., or click No to abort the deletion.

Deleting a BackupSet

Consider the following before deleting a Backup Set:

  1. From the CommCell Browser, navigate to Client Computers | <Client> | <Agent>.
  2. Right-click the <Backup Set>, and then click Delete.
  3. A confirmation message is displayed, asking if you want to delete the Backup Set.

    Click No to cancel the deletion and retain the Backupset, or click Yes to continue the deletion.

Deleting a Subclient

Consider the following before deleting a subclient:

  1. From the CommCell Browser, navigate to Client Computers | <Client> | <Agent> | <Backup Set>.
  2. Right-click the <subclient> that you want to delete, and then click Delete.
  3. A confirmation message is displayed, asking if you want to delete the subclient.

    Click No to cancel the deletion and retain the subclient, or click Yes to continue the deletion.