Post-Maintenance Procedures

Post-maintenance procedures are designed to quickly and efficiently restore Exchange operations to the environment following maintenance procedures that have required downtime. Devising a checklist for these procedures ensures that there is not unnecessary messaging disruption. The following is a sample checklist for maintenance procedures:

1. Start all the remaining Exchange services.

2. Test email connectivity from Outlook and Outlook Web Access.

3. Perform a full backup of the Exchange Server 2003 server(s).

4. Closely review backup and server event logs over the next few days to ensure that no errors are reported on the server.