9.1 Minimizing risk

monitoring and managing microsoft exchange 2000 server
Chapter 9 - Backup and Recovery Operations
Monitoring and Managing Microsoft Exchange 2000 Server
by Mike Daugherty  
Digital Press 2001
 

9.3 Scheduling Exchange Information Store backups

Performing regular backups of the Exchange Information Store is an important part of creating a fault-tolerant messaging environment. You should schedule a daily normal (full) backup of the Information Store. Scheduling the backup reduces the amount of human interaction and reduces the possibility that someone may forget to perform the backup. As with any type of backup, it is important that you always verify the success of the backup operation.

Exchange is designed to be backed up while it is running. You do not and should notstop any Exchange services or dismount any Exchange databases when you do a backup. Because Exchange is still running, your users can continue to send and receive e-mail while the backup is in progress. You can use the following procedure to schedule backups for an Exchange Information Store:

  1. Start the Backup process from the Windows 2000 Start menu by selecting Programs   Accessories   System Tools   Backup (Figure 9.2).

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    Figure 9.2: The initial backup dialog box

  2. From the Backup window, select the Schedule Jobs tab (Figure 9.3).

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    Figure 9.3: The Schedule Jobs tab

  3. On the Schedule Jobs tab, select the Add Job button to start the Backup wizard.

  4. On the Backup Wizard welcome window, select Next to display the What to Back Up window (Figure 9.4).

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    Figure 9.4: The What to Back Up window

  5. On the What to Back Up window, select Back up selected files, drives , or network data .

  6. Select Next to display the Items to Back Up window (Figure 9.5).

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    Figure 9.5: The Items to Back Up window

  7. Expand the Microsoft Exchange Server section to display the Exchange servers in your organization. Expand the server containing the Information Store you want to back up. Expand the Microsoft Information Store section to display the Storage Groups contained within the Information Store.

  8. You can back up the entire Information Store, selected Storage Groups, or selected databases. If you select multiple databases, Backup will write them to the backup tape one after another.

    • Select Microsoft Information Store to backup all Storage Groups and databases within the Information Store.

    • Select a Storage Group to backup all databases within the Storage Group .

    • In the details pane, select a database to backup the single database.

    Because all databases in a storage group share the same set of transaction log files, you can improve the speed of the backup process by backing up an entire storage group at the same time.

  9. Select Next to display the Where to Store the Backup window (Figure 9.6).

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    Figure 9.6: The Where to Store the Backup window

  10. Use the Backup media type drop-down list to select a tape device or file where the backup data will be written. If you do not have a tape device, the wizard automatically selects File by default. In Backup media or file name , enter the file name for the new backup file.

  11. Select Next to display the Type of Backup window (Figure 9.7).

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    Figure 9.7: The Type of Backup window

  12. Use the drop-down list to select the type of backup you want to perform. Your choices are: Normal, Differential, Incremental, Copy, or Daily. Normal backups (also known as full backups) are strongly recommended for two primary reasons:

    • Normal backups minimize the number of tapes required to recover data, thus minimizing the time required to recover the data. Both incremental and differential backups require multiple tapes to recover the same amount of data.

    • After backing up the transaction log files, the normal backup deletes the log files from disk, thus recovering the disk space.

    Exchange continues to run and database changes can occur during the backup process. To capture these changes, the database engine maintains a patch file that logs these last-minute changes. The backup utility writes the patch file to the backup tape after copying the transaction log files.

  13. Select Next to display the How to Back Up window (Figure 9.8).

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    Figure 9.8: The How to Back Up window

  14. Select the Verify data after backup check box. Verification reads the backed-up data to verify its integrity. This takes extra time, but helps ensure that you will be able to recover data from this backup tape. If you are using a tape drive capable of compressing the data, you can select the Use hardware compression, if available check box. Compression allows you to store more data on the backup tape. However, you can only restore compressed backup tapes using drives that support the same type of compression.

  15. Select Next to display the Media Options window (Figure 9.9).

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    Figure 9.9: The Media Options window

  16. If the backup tape or file contains a previous backup, select one of the following options:

    • Select Append this backup to the media to keep the previous backup and append the new backup.

    • Select Replace the data on the media with this backup to replace the previous backup.

  17. If you are creating a new backup (i.e., you are not appending this backup to a previous one), you can select the Allow only the owner and the Administrator access to the backup data and to any backups appended to this media check box to limit access to the backup.

  18. Select Next to display the Backup Label window (Figure 9.10).

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    Figure 9.10: The Backup Label window

  19. The Backup label field contains the default description of the backup set. The Media label field contains the default label that will be used to identify the media. You can change either of these descriptions if necessary.

    The Backup wizard will display a Set Account Information dialog box asking for an account and password. The account will be used to run the backup job. Enter the account and password for the backup job security context.

  20. Select Next to display the When to Back Up window (Figure 9.11).

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    Figure 9.11: The When to Back Up window

  21. Select Later to schedule the backup for a later time or select Now to perform the backup as soon as you finish with the Backup wizard. In the Job name field, enter a name for this backup job.

  22. Select Set Schedule to establish the backup schedule.

  23. You can use the Schedule Task drop-down list to elect to perform the backup just once, daily, weekly on selected days, or monthly on selected days of the month (Figure 9.12). For each of these options, you can specify the time when the backup should start. Optionally, you can select to perform the backup each time the system starts up, each time you log on to the system, or whenever the system is idle for a specified number of minutes. Because backups can affect server performance, you should schedule the backup for a time when there is moderate to low load. Select OK to return to the When to Back Up window.

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    Figure 9.12: The Schedule Job dialog box

  24. Select Next to display a summary window. Select Finish to schedule the backup job.

 


Monitoring and Managing Microsoft Exchange 2000 Server
Monitoring and Managing Microsoft Exchange 2000 Server (HP Technologies)
ISBN: 155558232X
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2000
Pages: 113

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