Using Windows Backup | MCSA[s]MCSE

When you install Exchange Server 2003, an enhanced version of Windows Backup is installed that supports online Exchange server backups . This section briefly explains how to use Windows Backup to perform an online backup of an Exchange server.

Note ‚

If you have a dedicated backup server, as many organizations do these days, you do not need to install Exchange Server onto it to get the updates to the Windows Backup utility. Simply installing the Exchange System Manager onto that server will update the Windows Backup utility to work with Exchange Server 2003.

Performing a Backup

You can find Windows Backup in the System Tools program group . When the program starts, you can run the Backup or Restore Wizard (seen in Figure 14.2) or go right to the Backup tab and configure everything yourself. In this section, we look at how to use the Backup tab. If you choose to use the Backup or Restore Wizard, you make all of the same selections that are shown in this section but in a different fashion.

Figure 14.2: The Backup Or Restore Wizard

To go directly to the Backup tab, click the Advanced Mode link on the Welcome to the Backup Or Restore Wizard page. The Backup tab is shown in Figure 14.3 with the System State option selected and the Microsoft Exchange Server container expanded.

Figure 14.3: Configuring a backup

The Backup tab shows a hierarchical directory of the entire system. You can back up anything on your server that you like, including Microsoft Exchange Server. You can choose as much or as little of your Exchange organization to back up as you like ‚ a single database on one server or even multiple servers from different routing groups. You can even back up one database on one server and one on another, should you wish.

Note ‚

If you choose to back up System State information, you must back up all of it. You cannot select individual components within the System State container.

Once you have selected all of the components you wish to back up, you must specify where to back them up. Use the Backup Destination drop-down list to specify whether you want to back up to tape or to file. Then, use the Backup Media Or Filename field to specify the tape drive or the drive and filename to which you want to back up. When you ‚ re satisfied with your choices, click Start Backup. This opens the Backup Job Information dialog box, shown in Figure 14.4.

Figure 14.4: Setting backup information

The basic information you need to supply is the name of the backup set and whether or not media should be overwritten or appended if there is already a backup present on the media. When you are ready to go, click Start Backup, and the backup will begin. You are shown the backup progress and a summary when the backup is finished.

If you wish to perform a backup type other than normal, click the Advanced button to open the Advanced Backup Options dialog box. From the Backup Type drop-down list, you can choose to perform a normal, incremental, differential, copy, or daily backup. You can also use the Advanced Backup Options dialog to set additional options, such as verifying and compressing data. The complete steps for performing a backup are outlined in Exercise 14.1.

EXERCISE 14.1: Backing Up an Exchange Server

Click Start > Programs > Accessories > System Tools > Backup.
Click the Advanced Mode link on the Welcome to the Backup or Restore Wizard page.
Select the Backup tab.
Select the check box next to the System State container.
Expand the Microsoft Exchange Server container.
Expand the server that contains the databases you want to back up.
Expand the Microsoft Information Store container.
Select the check boxes next to the stores you want to back up. If you want to back up individual databases, expand the store containers and select the check boxes next to the databases.
Click the Browse button and select a location to hold the backup.
Click the Start Backup button.
Enter a backup description and choose whether to append the backup to any backups already on the media or to overwrite information on the backup media.
Click the Advanced button.
On the Advanced Backup Options dialog box, make sure that the normal backup type is selected.
Click OK.
Click Start Backup. The Backup Progress dialog will keep you informed as to the status of the backup.
When the backup is finished and the summary dialog box is displayed, click OK.

Note ‚

If you have Exchange Server 2003 databases on the same volume as the Windows Server 2003 OS, you will have backup problems when you attempt to back up the System State information and databases at the same time. This is due to a limitation in the ntbackup.exe application. See Microsoft Knowledge Base Article 820272 at http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;820272 for workarounds to this issue.

Performing a Restore

Restoring from an online backup is basically the reverse process of performing the backup, with one caveat: You must configure the specific databases you want to restore to allow the restoration to occur. Failure to select the This Database Can Be Overwritten By A Restore option on the Database tab (seen in Figure 14.5) of the store properties page will prevent the restoration from occurring, oftentimes with little to no useful information in the Application log. Also, if you will not be taking advantage of the Recovery Storage Group feature of Exchange Server 2003 (discussed in the next section of this chapter), then you will need to dismount the store before attempting the restoration process.

Figure 14.5: Configuring the store to allow a restoration

With the store configured to allow restoration, you can get back to work in the Windows Backup utility. First, you have to specify which backup set you want to restore. In Windows Backup, click the Restore and Manage Media tab (see Figure 14.6). All available backup jobs are displayed, and you simply drill down and select which backup job and which components of that job you want to restore.

Figure 14.6: Selecting a backup set to restore

In the bottom-left corner of the Restore and Manage Media tab, you need to specify whether to restore files to their original location, to an alternate location, or to an individual folder. If you are restoring an Exchange server, you will use the first option. If you are using a backup to move items to another server or to a newly installed server, you will usually use the second option. Restoring to an individual folder is useful if you want to try to find some particular piece of data within the backup job.

The Start Restore button opens the Restoring Database Store dialog box shown in Figure 14.7. Here, you can redirect the restore to another Exchange server, if you want. Also, you need to enter a temporary folder to hold the backed up log and patch files during the restore. First, Exchange Server 2003 will apply the older transaction logs from the temporary location to the database, and then it will apply the more recent logs from the original location.

Figure 14.7: Setting restore options

If the Last Restore Set option is specified, Exchange Server 2003 will begin replaying the log files to rebuild the database as soon as the backup set is restored. If you will be restoring multiple databases in the same storage group, you should not set this option until the final backup set is being restored. Click OK when you have finished, and the restore will start. When it is done, you are shown a summary of the job. If you selected the Mount Database After Restore option, the database is now mounted. Exercise 14.2 details the process of restoring a backup set.

EXERCISE 14.2: Restoring a Backup Set

Click Start > Programs > Accessories > System Tools > Backup.
Click the Restore and Manage Media tab.
Expand the media hierarchy, and select the check boxes next to items you want to restore.
Choose whether to restore files to their original location or to an alternate location.
Click the Start Restore button.
Enter a temporary location for the log files.
Select the Last Restore Set (as applicable ) and Mount Database After Restore options.
Click OK.
When the restore process is completed and the summary dialog box is displayed, click OK.
From the Exchange System Manager, be sure to mount the store if you did not select the Mount Database After Restore option previously.

Scenarios for Restoring Exchange Server

Now that you know the basics of using the Windows Backup tool to restore a backup set, it is helpful to examine a few scenarios in which restores may be used:

Restoring a database to the same server Restoring a mailbox or public folder store to the same server on which you perform the backup is useful if one of your databases becomes damaged. You must dismount the damaged database, replace it from the last successful backup, and then mount the database again.

Restoring multiple databases to the same server If you want to restore two databases from the same storage group during one operation, you must choose different directories in which to save the temporary logs. If you choose to use only one temporary location, you must ensure that the first restore is complete before starting a second restore of another database in the same storage group. To complete the first restore, you must choose the Last Restore Set option and then allow the log file replay to complete.

Restoring a database to a different server Restoring a database to an Exchange server that is different from the one on which you performed the backup provides one way to move a database to a different storage group. It also provides a way to recover individual items from a backup without restoring over a server that is in use.

Restoring after a complete server failure Performing a complete server restore involves several important steps:

Reinstalling Windows Server 2003 First, you must reinstall the same version of Windows Server 2003 that was on the failed computer. You must also install Windows on the same hard disk and using the same paths as the previous installation. Be sure that you use the same computer name and that you select all of the same components that were installed on the original computer. Do not rejoin the domain during installation.

Restoring the system drive Next, you should run Windows Backup to restore full backups of the system drive and any other drive on which application data was installed.

Restoring the System State information Next, run Windows Backup to restore the System State information for the computer. This returns the computer to its original domain and restores the IIS metabase and Windows Registry information. After restoring the System State information, you ‚ ll have to restart the computer. When it restarts, you may see a number of error messages relating to failed services. These are usually Exchange services that Windows expects to find but does not, because Exchange has not yet been restored.

Running Exchange Setup in Disaster Recovery mode Next, run Exchange Setup in Disaster Recovery mode using the command line setup /DisasterRecovery . For the most part, the Setup program works the same as when performing a normal installation. However, at the component selection screen, you must ensure that Exchange is installed to the same drive and path as the original installation and that the Disaster Recovery option is set for all components that were previously installed.

Restoring the Exchange databases Finally, you must run Windows Backup using the procedures you ‚ ve learned in this chapter to restore the Exchange databases to the server.

Recovering deleted mailboxes If you set a deleted-item retention period on a mailbox or public store, users can restore messages after they have been deleted from their mailbox. By default, the deleted-item retention period is 0 days. If you do not set a deleted-item retention period, or if the retention period has expired for an item, you must restore deleted messages from backup. You do this by restoring the appropriate mailbox store to an alternate server, moving the messages to a PST file, and then making the PST file available to the user .