11.11 Monitoring Exchange backups

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Regular backups of the Exchange servers are essential to the long-term reliable functioning of the messaging infrastructure. Monitoring the backup process will ensure that this critical activity is completed without error and on schedule.

The Exchange administrator should perform the monitoring, and any resulting alerts should be automatically generated on the completion of the backup process. An Informational notification message should be sent on the successful completion of the backup process. If differential or incremental backups are used (not recommended), then a Warning notification should be sent if a differential or incremental backup fails. An Urgent notification message should be used to indicate the failure of a full backup or of a second sequential differential or incremental backup failure. This notification message should be sent to the operations group's on-call technical support person who is directly responsible for the backup. The Exchange administrative group also should be similarly informed.

The Exchange administrator should regularly test Exchange backups. Most large enterprises use a 'recovery server' concept. You can use a recovery server in the event that Exchange hardware fails and also to perform regular testing of Exchange restores. You can (and should) also use a recovery server to practice emergency Exchange recovery procedures. In the event that Exchange experiences a catastrophic failure, being familiar with recovery procedures directly affects the speed of your recovery.

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