FAQ#100066 How To -- Backup Exchange Server Stores 09/27/2021 20:25:14 FAQ Article Print Category: Vault Votes: 0 State: public (all) Result: 0.00 % Language: en Last update: 12:05:29 - 11/03/2015 Keywords backup,Exchange,stores Symptom (public) Problem (public) Solution (public) Overview When using the Select service plan we support live backup of Exchange 2003, Exchange 2007, Exchange 2010 (or better) on Windows Server 2003 or 2008 (or better). For these configurations backup is done natively using the Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS). We fully support older versions of Exchange on Windows Server 2003, but require a few seconds of downtime while a volume snapshot is taken. For older versions of Exchange Server on older versions of Windows you can either (a) backup a copy of Exchange database (recommended), or (b) use the ntbackup program that comes with Windows (or other backup software) to backup your Exchange Server Database to a file on a regular basis and use our software to backup these backup files remotely. Exchange Server 2003 or 2008 or 2010 (or better) on Windows Server 2003 or 2008: - Create a sub-account for each Exchange Server machine, as needed. - Login to each Exchange Server machine as a windows user that has rights to read the Exchange Server database files (*.edb, *.stm, *.log, *.chk). - Install and configure our software on each Exchange Server. - Use the Folders page to add the folder (directory) containing your Exchange Server database files (*.edb, *.stm, *.log, *.chk) to the backup. If your logs are stored in a separate directory (recommended) then you should also add the folder containing the transaction logs to the Folders page also. Even though you are performing a full backup, you must backup the transaction log files (*.log). - On the Folders page, right click the folder containing your Exchange Server files and choose Properties (if you have multiple folders with Exchange database and transaction log files, do this for each folder). - Change the "Verify Database Files" option in the "Exchange Server" section to Yes. If you do not see this option, follow these steps: - Close the Folder Properties page. - Go to the Options page and then the Backup tab. - Click on the value for the "Full path to eseutil.exe" setting and find the location of eseutil.exe. This is typically located in c:\Program Files\ExchSrvr\bin or c:\windows\system32. eseutil.exe is required to perform an integrity check on your Exchange database and transaction log files. - Save the option changes. - Go back to the Folders page and open the properties for the folder containing the Exchange database files. - Change the "Verify Database Files" option in the "Exchange Server" section to Yes. - Also change the "Always Check Block Fingerprints" option to "On." This ensures that even if Exchange does not update the modification date/time of the database file (which can happen with some configurations), the backup will still scan the file for changes. - IMPORTANT: The system state must be backed up for your Exchange server and domain controller(s). To backup the system state, click the Add button on the Folders page, and choose System State. Use the dialog to set the schedule (normally weekly is recommended). System state backups will automatically be taken according to the schedule you've chosen. It is important that you are backing up your System State data, because the Exchange database relies on information in the active directory, and backing up the system state includes a backup of active directory. You will not be able to restore your Exchange server after a disaster without a backup of the active directory information inside the system state. Important Notes: - If you are using Microsoft Small Business Server 2003, then the Exchange VSS writer is turned off by default. You will need to turn this on in order for Exchange backups to work properly. Please refer to [1]Microsoft KB Q838183 for instructions. If you are using SBS 2008 the Exchange VSS writer is already enabled by default. - If you plan to do both remote and local backups of Exchange, then go to the Backup tab of the Options page and check the 'Restrict Concurrent Backups' option. Exchange is fundamentally limited to one backup at a time, so this Page 1 FAQ#100066 option ensures that one backup will wait until the other finishes so that they do not conflict. We will automatically perform differential, live backups of your Exchange Server database. Our server will always store the most current version of the files, and historical versions are stored using backwards deltas. This is safer than forward deltas because it does not rely on the integrity of all of the deltas in order to recover the most recent version. It will automatically use the eseutil program (with the /k switch) to verify the integrity of each page in your database before it's uploaded. This ensures that your local hard disk has not corrupted your Exchange Database before a new version is backed up. Older versions of Exchange on Windows Server 2003: In this scenario the volume shadow copy service (part of Windows Server 2003) will allow a snapshot to be taken of the filesystem after your Exchange services are stopped. Once the snapshot has been created (typically takes a few seconds), your Exchange services can be started immediately. Thus, this will allow your backups to proceed with only a few seconds of downtime for the Exchange server. - First, follow the instructions in the previous section to configure the system to backup the directory containing your Exchange database. - Next, go to the Options page, Backup tab. Change the "Preinit Stop Services" to the following value: MSExchangeES, IMAP4Svc, POP3Svc, RESvc, MSExchangeIMC, MSExchangeSRS, MSExchangeMGMT, MSExchangeMTA, MSExchangeIS, MSExchangeSA - Change the "Postinit Start Services" to the following value: MSExchangeSA, MSExchangeIS, MSExchangeMTA, MSExchangeMGMT, MSExchangeSRS, MSExchangeIMC, RESvc, POP3Svc, IMAP4Svc, MSExchangeES - Save the settings. - IMPORTANT: The system state must be backed up for your Exchange server and domain controller(s). To backup the system state, click the Add button on the Folders page, and choose System State. Use the dialog to set the schedule (normally weekly is recommended). System state backups will automatically be taken according to the schedule you've chosen. It is important that you are backing up your System State data, because the Exchange database relies on information in the active directory, and backing up the system state includes a backup of active directory. You will not be able to restore your Exchange server after a disaster without a backup of the active directory information inside the system state. Older versions of Exchange Server or Windows: This scenario requires that you either (a) backup a regularly updated copy of the Exchange database files, or (b) use ntbackup to backup the Exchange database, and then remotely backup the bkf file generated by ntbackup. We highly recommend option (a), because the incremental backups will be small. However, option (a) requires that the Exchange server be (automatically) brought offline for a brief period of time while the files are copied. If even a few minutes of down time is unacceptable, you must use option (b). Using option (b) will allow the Exchange server to be backed up while online, but the incremental backups will be very large. Option A: Backing up a regularly updated copy of Exchange: This option will shutdown your Exchange services and will then use a batch file to make a copy of your Exchange database. The Exchange services will then be restarted. You will then select the directory containing the copied data for remote backup. - Write a batch file that will stop Exchange and will copy the database. For example create the file c:\BackupExchange.bat that contains: net stop MSExchangeES net stop IMAP4Svc net stop POP3Svc net stop RESvc net stop MSExchangeIMC net stop MSExchangeSRS net stop MSExchangeMGMT net stop MSExchangeMTA net stop MSExchangeIS /Y net stop MSExchangeSA /Y xcopy "D:\program files\exchsrvr\mdbdata\*" "E:\ExchangeOfflineBackup" /E /D /V /C /I /F /H /R /K /O /Y net start MSExchangeSA /Y net start MSExchangeIS /Y net start MSExchangeMTA net start MSExchangeMGMT net start MSExchangeSRS net start MSExchangeIMC net start RESvc net start POP3Svc net start IMAP4Svc net start MSExchangeES - Use the Scheduled Tasks in windows to schedule that batch file to run every day at a certain time (e.g. at 3:00am every day). - Add the folder containing the copied Exchange database to the backup set. - Make sure that time scheduled for backups to begin is long enough away from the start of the file copy of the Exchange database that the file copy will finish before the remote backup begins. - IMPORTANT: The system state must be backed up for your Exchange server and domain controller(s). To backup the system state, click the Add button on the Folders page, and choose System State. Use the dialog to set the schedule (normally weekly is recommended). System state backups will automatically be taken according to the schedule you've chosen. It is important that you are backing up your System State data, because the Exchange database relies on information in the active directory, and backing up the system state includes Page 2 FAQ#100066 a backup of active directory. You will not be able to restore your Exchange server after a disaster without a backup of the active directory information inside the system state. Option B: Using ntbackup: Use the ntbackup program (or other backup software) to backup your Exchange Server database to a file. Please see [2]these articles for more information. You should then have our software backup the directory where you place your *.bkf files.