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Exchange Backup - machine and store or just store?)

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Hello,

 

I have just taken over our Acronis enviroment and have rebuilt it from the ground up due to the previous admin not using a service account.

 

Qusetion: I have setup an Exchange Information Store backup to run. Do i also need to backup the Machine which runs exchange? As the information store is large I just dont want to be backing up the same thing twice.

So in a DR situation if i just have the exchange information store will we be safe? Or is it best to backup the full machine (including exchange DB) and the Informaiton store

 

THanks

Ryan

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Hello Keith,

If you're OK with re-installing the operating system with all applications from scratch, then you can only back up the Exchange Information Store. Important note here: if you'll restore the DB to another location, you'll need to make sure the Exchange version supports the databases stored in the backup. More information here Recovering storage groups or databases to a custom path

You may want to create a full backup of the entire server less frequently to have both granular Exchange copies and the full system image for faster restore. E.g. you can check your system for errors to avoid any bad sectors or filsystem glitches to be written to the master image, then create a full backup of all partitions (if you have a spare drive or a virtual environment I'd also recommend testing restore to be on the safe side in case of real disaster). If the image proves to be sound, you can keep it for DR situation in order not to re-deploy everything from zero and after recovering the system just restore the latest available copy of the Exchange DB to have up-to-date information. 

Thank you, 

Thank you  Ekaternia, this information has been very helpful in clearning up the best strategy for our Backup and DR strategy

Sorry, one more question. With what you said above could I just backup the C drive as a machine? (All applications stored there).

D drive holds the database (its larger 1TB) which I assume is the exchange DB\store. So instead of backing up the whole server C: and D: including DB i could backup the C drive (OS and apps of the machine) and then if DR happened could restore that then resotre the Exhange information store from the seperate backup after into a new D drive?

Thanks

Ryan

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Yes, I think you should be fine with backing up only the system partition assuming the D drive contains only Exchange databases, that will be protected in a separate backup plan.

I have a question along the same lines here.  If my Exchange Server is running in a VM, do I need to install the Acronis agent in the VM operating system to properly backup my Exchange databases?  Or should I backup the whole VM using the Acronis Backup on the Hyper-V server? 

Thanks, 

Rick Hogan

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While both options will bring you to the almost the same result - you'll be able to recover Exchange databases or individual items (only mailbox level for disk backup though), Agent for Exchange and a separate backup plan provide more flexibility in terms of recovery (see What data items can be recovered?). Recovery of Exchange from a disk level backup requires some additional steps to bring the recovered databases/mailboxes online (see Mounting Exchange Server databases) and with a dedicated plan for Exhange you can recover the databases to the original, new path or just a set of files. The same with individual items.