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Configure Exchange Server Backup

Overview

StoreGrid supports backup of Microsoft Exchange servers using two types of plug-ins: 1. The Basic Plugin and 2. Advanced Plugin. Advanced Plugin is much more flexible and efficient while backing up exchange servers than the basic plugin though basic plugin may be good enough for backing up exchange servers with relatively less amount of data.

The Basic (Plugin) Exchange Server backup uses the NTBackup utility to dump the Storage Groups' data and thereafter uploads the locally dumped file to the backup server. Furthermore, this dump file will be maintained locally in client machine for further differential log backups.

The Advanced (Plugin) Exchange Server backup uses the ESE API to backup Storage Groups and Mail Stores. In the Advanced Exchange Server backup, the initial backup will be compressed and dumped locally and thereafter transferred to the backup server. Locally dumped files will be deleted once the files are successfully transferred to the backup server thus releasing disk space in the local exchange server.

The Advanced Exchange Server Plugin ESE API backup supports backup of storage groups in entirety, as well as individual databases within the storage groups. Because each storage group uses a single set of log files covering all of the databases in the storage group, restore and recovery operations should be done for the entire storage group.

Backing up databases individually provides greater storage management flexibility. For example, critical databases might be backed up more frequently. Infrequently used or less critical databases might be backed up less frequently. Restoration of the storage group, however, should combine the archives and logs from all of the appropriate storage media, so that the database can be restored and recovered with minimal data loss.

IMPORTANT: Please ensure the following before configuring a Exchange Server backup.

  1. Ensure that the Storage Group/Mail Store configured for backup is mounted. A database must be online to be backed up. If a database has been dismounted it cannot be backed up, and the log sequence will not be truncated.
  2. If the Storage Group is configured for either incremental or differential log backups, then the circular logging option should be disabled for the Storage Group. Once you disable circular logging, we recommend that you run a fresh full backup before running an incremental or differential backup.
How to get here in the StoreGrid Web Console?
 In the top menu, select: "Backup-> Create Exchange Server Backup"

Requirements

Exchange Server 2000 with Service Pack 3 / Exchange Server 2003 / Exchange Server 2007.

Exchange Server Backup Configuration

  • Step 1: Schedule Name

    Enter Backup Schedule Name: The first step in configuring the Exchange Server backup is to give a name for the backup schedule. StoreGrid supports creating multiple backup schedules each with its own configuration. The backup schedule name will uniquely identify the backup. While restoring your backup data, you need to choose the data to be restored using its schedule name.

  • Step 2: Select Backup Source

    On the left side of the "Create Exchange Server backup schedule" Page, is the tree with a list of Storage Group and Mail Stores of the Exchange Server detected in the client machine. If the Storage Group or Mail Store is already configured as part of another schedule, it will not be possible to include it in other backup schedules. In this case, the Checkbox will be displayed as an image.

    Granularity up to Mail Store level backup is supported with the Advanced Exchange Server Plugin. Granularity up to Storage Group level backup is supported with the Basic Exchange Server plugin.

  • Step 3: Set Basic Configuration

    Plugin Type : Drop-down box will, by default, opt for the "Advanced Exchange Server Plugin", if the advanced version of the (SQL + Exchange) plugin is currently enabled in "Advanced Options > Plugin Settings" page. With the advanced version of the plugin enabled, you will have an option to choose either the Basic or the Advanced plugin backup for "Exchange Server Backup". The tree listed on the left side of the "Create Exchange Server backup schedule" page content will be refreshed when the Backup Type is changed from "Advanced Exchange Server Plugin" to "Basic Exchange Server Plugin" and vice versa. If the advanced version of the (SQL + Exchange) plugin is currently disabled in "Advanced Options > Plugin Settings" page, then this field will be non-editable and set to the "Basic Exchange Server Plugin".

    Backup Type

    Same Machine: When the Exchange Server databases contain large amount of data, it might take significant amount of time to transfer all the data to a remote backup server over WAN/Internet. In such cases, you can take backup of the Exchange Server databases to a local external drive connected to the client machine and then physically move the external drive to the backup server location to migrate the data into the backup server. In such cases, you can select the backup type to be 'Same Machine'. Once the data is migrated to the backup server, you will have to perform Local to Remote Migration (under Administration -> Advanced Options) in the client machine to make it to run its backups to the remote server directly thereafter. Please note: You will not be able to restore from the backup data present in the local external drive. It is meant only for quickly moving the large amount data to the remote backup server. Once the data is migrated to the remote server from the external drive, the client can restore from it.

    Local Backup location: Enter the location/directory path to which the backup has to be stored in the same machine. Please ensure that you have enough disk space in the configured location (where the Exchange Server backup has to be saved).

    Remote Server: Select this option if you want the backup data to be transferred to a remote backup server directly when the backup schedule runs.

    Select Backup Server : This is the list of peers/backup servers on which the backup data can be stored. Unlike regular data backup schedules in StoreGrid (where multiple backup servers are supported), only one backup server is allowed for an Exchange Server backup job.

    Set CPU Utilization : For each backup schedule, you can also specify the CPU utilization level as Low, Medium or High. When you set the CPU Utilization to high, the backup will be really fast - but the backup process may affect the speed of other active applications. If CPU utilization is set to Low, the backup will take longer but will be done in a non-intrusive manner allowing you to comfortably work on the computer as the backup continues in the background. In general for a continuous backup, it is best to set the CPU utilization to Medium or Low. For backups which are done everyday or every week in ‘off-hours’, the CPU utilization can be set to High. Actual performance is obviously a function of your individual machine and your network. We encourage you to experiment with different settings to figure what works best for you.

    Set Compression : Should the data be compressed or not.

    Enable - Compresses the data to the maximum. It might reduce the rate at which the client can send data to the backup server but it might save significant bandwidth and time when the data is backed up to a remote server over a WAN/Internet with limited bandwidth speed. Also, this saves disk space in the backup server.

    Disable - This option is suitable (fastest) for backing up data within a local network where bandwidth is not the limitation, but occupies more space on destination machine as no compression is being done.

    Temporary location to store the backup dumps - Enter the location/directory path to which the Exchange Server database dumps has to be stored temporarily before uploading to the backup server. Please ensure that you have enough disk space in the configured temporary location (where the backup dump has to be saved). If the Advanced Exchange Server Plugin is enabled, backup dumps stored in the temporary location will be deleted once backup dumps are transferred successfully to the remote backup server. For the Basic Exchange Server Plugin backup, this dump file will be maintained locally in client machine for further differential log backups.

  • Step 4: Set Password Protection

    Password Protect This Backup - This option is to enable or disable encryption of the data that is being backed up. StoreGrid uses the well known encryption algorithm, Blowfish. If enabled, a password has to be specified which will be used for generating the encryption key. Encrypting data ensures that it cannot be read in the destination machine (backup server) where your backup is stored, and is especially relevant for sensitive information.

    Encryption Key Size - StoreGrid supports encryption using variable length (64 to 448 bits) keys. The key is generated using the password you provide. Basically the longer the key size you give the more difficult it is for someone to decrypt the encrypted files. For normal backup purposes the default 64 bit encryption should be good enough.

    Type Password - Provide a password here to generate the encryption key. If the password is forgotten the data can never be recovered as the data cannot be decrypted without this password. So, please ensure that you keep your password in a safe place.

  • Step 5: Full Backup Scheduling (Decide When To Do Full Backup)

    This step allows you to configure the frequency at which a full backup of the selected database has to be done. A full backup is a complete backup of the selected databases and all necessary log files. Once full backup completes, all log files older than the time when full backup started would be deleted. Since full backups take more time to complete than a differential or incremental log backup, a full backup is typically configured to run weekly or monthly or much less frequently than differential or an incremental backup. Configuring a full backup scheduling is mandatory, i.e. this step cannot be skipped. StoreGrid will do a full backup dump of the Exchange Server database(s) whenever the full backup is scheduled and back it up.

    This step has the following options from which any one can be chosen.

    Run Monthly At - Choose the time and day of the month the backup should run. StoreGrid will run the backup every month on the particular day and time chosen. StoreGrid will run at the stipulated time/day only.

    Run Weekly - Choose the time and the day of the week the backup should run. StoreGrid will execute the backup every week on the particular day and time chosen. Note that you can select multiple days of the week if you wish to run the backup on multiple days of the week. StoreGrid will run at the stipulated time/day only.

    Run Daily - Choose the time at which the backup should run daily. This will execute the backup everyday at the time you have provided. StoreGrid will run at the stipulated time only.

    Run Every Few Hours - Choose the hours/minutes interval between each time StoreGrid must run. If StoreGrid is restarted in the interim, the backup will run once StoreGrid starts. Thereafter, StoreGrid automatically reschedules the next backup after the period you’ve set. For example, if you created a backup schedule at 10 am and set it to run every 1 hour, StoreGrid will first run the schedule at 10am and the next scheduled time will be 11am. However, if at 10.15am, StoreGrid is restarted, then the schedule will run once at 10.15am and the next scheduled time will now be set to 11.15am.

    Additionally, you can also select the days in which this schedule should run. For example, if you do not want to run this backup schedule on Saturdays and Sundays, uncheck the checkbox against these days.

    Run Once Only - Choosing this option will do the backup only once at the stipulated time.

  • Step 6: Log Backup Scheduling (Optional Step)

    Advanced Exchange Server Plugin users will have a drop-down box to optionally choose between Incremental/Differential Log Backups. Basic Exchange Plugin users will be allowed to configure only a Differential Log Backup. StoreGrid will do a Incremental/Differential log backup dump of the database with respect to the previous full or incremental log backup whenever this Incremental/Differential log backup is scheduled.

    Incremental Log Backup : An incremental log backup backs up only the log files since the last full or incremental backup. Once an incremental backup completes, all log files older than the time when incremental backup started would be deleted. You cannot perform an incremental backup when circular logging is enabled in your exchange server settings. Since only changes are backed up, incremental backups typically run faster than full backups. Also, as only the log files since the last backup are backed up, incremental backups will run faster than differential backups too. Hence incremental backups are always configured to be scheduled more frequently than a full backup. Configuring incremental backup scheduling is optional.

    Differential Log Backup : A differential backup backs up only the log files since the last full backup even when the last backup was a incremental backup. The logs are not deleted after the differential backup completes. You cannot perform a differential backup when circular logging is enabled in your exchange server settings. Since only changes are backed up, differential log backups typically run faster than full backups. But, as all the log files since the last full backup are backed up, differential backups will take longer to finish than an incremental backup. Hence differential backups are configured to be scheduled more frequently than a full backup. Configuring differential backup scheduling is optional.

    This step has the following options from which any one can be chosen.

    Run Weekly - Choose the time and the day of the week the backup should run. StoreGrid will execute the backup every week on the particular day and time chosen. Note that you can select multiple days of the week if you wish to run the backup on multiple days of the week. StoreGrid will run at the stipulated time/day only.

    Run Daily - Choose the time at which the backup should run daily. This will execute the backup everyday at the time you have provided. StoreGrid will run at the stipulated time only.

    Run Every Few Hours - Choose the hours/minutes interval between each time StoreGrid must run. If StoreGrid is restarted in the interim, the backup will run once StoreGrid starts. Thereafter, StoreGrid automatically reschedules the next backup after the period you’ve set. For example, if you created a backup schedule at 10 am and set it to run every 1 hour, StoreGrid will first run the schedule at 10am and the next scheduled time will be 11am. However, if at 10.15am, StoreGrid is restarted, then the schedule will run once at 10.15am and the next scheduled time will now be set to 11.15am.

    Additionally, you can also select the days in which this schedule should run. For example, if you do not want to run this backup schedule on Saturdays and Sundays, uncheck the checkbox against these days.

  • Step 7: Advanced Options

    There are four options here on how the backup should be scheduled.

    Maximum Number Of Full Backups : You can specify the maximum number of full backups that need to be stored in the server. For example if you configured a monthly full backup, then StoreGrid will take a full backup every month. After 6 months you will have 6 separate full backups in the backup server along with differential or incremental logs under each of the 6 full backups. If your policy is to retain only backup data for 6 months, then you can configure "Store maximum of 6 full backups" here. On the 7th month, StoreGrid, after finishing the 7th full backup, will delete the first full backup along with its differential or incremental log backups thus retaining the last 6 months (full) backups.

    Differential Backup Count : If the Exchange Server differential log backups are configured more frequently [Run every few hours] in StoreGrid Exchange Server backup and the Exchange Server database(s) are changing rapidly, then the clients backup space usage will grow faster. To avoid this, you can specify maximum number of Differential backups to be kept in the server. If the number of differential backups count exceeds this count then the oldest differential backup files are deleted. This option is available only for Basic Exchange Plugin users.

    Run this backup immediately after saving this configuration (thereafter, Backups will be scheduled as per the schedule stipulated) : If you enable this option, then this backup schedule will be executed once immediately after you save this backup schedule – even if its not yet ‘time’ as per the schedule. For example if you configure a daily backup at 10.00 AM but you configured the backup at 8.00 AM, then the backup schedule will be run once immediately (8.00 AM) and then as per schedule (eg. daily at 10.00 AM).

    Attempt to run this backup every 5 minutes in case of non completion because of a problem (Network error etc.) : If enabled, this backup will be rescheduled to run after 5 minutes whenever an attempted backup is incomplete because of a network error, server crash etc. The number of times the backup will be rescheduled (due to an error) can be configured to between 1–5, with the default setting as 5. This is to ensure that an incomplete backup is completed as soon as possible without waiting for the next actual schedule time. Note that this option is enabled by default.

    Saving the configured backup

    Once all the Exchange Server Storage Group(s)/Mail Store(s) to be backed up are chosen and the configuration options are set, you simply need to click on the "Configure/Save Backup” button to activate the backup as per the schedule- on to the configured backup servers.

Troubleshooting Tips

Exchange Server is not installed or not available in the system. Show/Hide

Cause : If Exchange Server services running in the local machine were not detected during StoreGrid installation process.

Solution 1: Please verify that the following files "XchangeServer.sgpl" & "ExchangeServer.sgpl" exist in "<StoreGrid_Home>\Vembu\StoreGrid\plugins" folder. If these files don't exist in the location, please try installing StoreGrid on top of the existing installation and check if you were able to create Exchange Server Backup schedule without errors.

Solution 2: Open the file "SGConfiguration.conf" file present in "<StoreGrid_Home>\Vembu\StoreGrid\conf\" folder and check the "PluginLicense" attribute value. If the "PluginLicense" attribute value is set to "0", change this attribute value to "1". And then restart StoreGrid from system tray and check if you were able to create Exchange Server Backup schedule without errors.

The following message is displayed in the backup report "The database missed a previous full backup before the incremental backup". Show/Hide

Cause 1: After a successful restore, if incremental or differential logs backup is performed before running a full backup then Exchange Server backup report will display the above error message.

Solution 1: Check the option "Run additional full backup after saving this configuration" in the "Edit Exchange Server Backup Schedule" page to run additional full backup and then proceed with the incremental or differential log backup.

Cause 2: If a new MailStore is added to existing Storage Group which was already configured for backup.

Solution 2: Check the option "Run additional full backup after saving this configuration" in the "Edit Exchange Server Backup Schedule" page to run additional full backup and then proceed with the incremental or differential log backup.

Cause 3: This issue could arise when StoreGrid is trying to run an incremental backup on an Information Store in a Storage Group when at least one of the remaining Information Stores in the Storage Group had not been configured for full backup at least once. In such a situation, Exchange Server will not allow StoreGrid to purge the logs files for the configured Information Store.

Solution 3: Configure full backup for the remaining Information Stores temporarily. And later you can delete this backup schedule if this backup is not needed.

The following message is displayed in the backup report. "No new/modified files for backup". Additionally in Basic Exchange plugin, Backup report displays "Error occurred while dumping Exchange Server data in [Path *.bkf] file. Please refer the NTBackup log file for error details." Show/Hide

Cause 1 : If you try to do an incremental or a differential log backup on a exchange server that has circular logging enabled, Exchange server generates the above error message that the incremental or differential backup cannot be done.

Solution 1 : Turn off circular logging do an incremental or a differential log backup. To verify that circular logging is disabled, open Exchange System Manager and navigate through the console tree to Administrative Groups -> your administrative group -> Servers -> your server -> the storage group you want to check. Right click on the storage group, select properties, and verify that the "Enable Circular Logging" checkbox is not selected.

Cause 2 : If the temporary dump directory configured for backup schedule doesn't have enough space.

Solution 2 : Please ensure that you have enough disk space in the configured temporary location (where the backup dump has to be saved). In Basic Exchange Server plugin backup, dumps stored in the temporary location will be retained for further differential log backup and hence enough disk space should be available in disk before transferring files to remote server.

The following message is displayed in the backup report. "Backup is already active". Show/Hide

Cause : This message would be displayed in the client backup report in the following conditions :

  1. If the same Storage Group or the Mail Stores from the same Storage Group configured for backup is backed up by some other process.
  2. If StoreGrid is killed or stopped and started immediately, while exchange server data dump was in progress. Then a previous instance of Backup (Ntbackup.exe/ESE API) could still be running in the background and it still has a connection open to the specified service. In this case a second instance will not be able to connect to the exchange server.

Solution : Use Task Manager to identify and stop any other instances of Ntbackup.exe that are not responding. In ESE API case, if the failed backup is a full backup, then edit the backup schedule to take an immediate full backup. For other backup schedules click schedule now button in the "List of Backup Schedule" for the backup schedule to take the backup.

In NTBackup log file the following message is displayed "NTBackup error: 'The saved selection file "<INSTALL_HOME>\plugins\ExchangeServer\ExchangeServer_<BACKUP_NAME>.bkf" cannot be found.' Show/Hide

Cause : This message would be displayed in the NTBackup log files ["C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Windows NT\NTBackup\data" location] in the following conditions:

  1. The NTBackup's saved selection file does not exist in the basic Exchange Server backup plugin folder "<StoreGrid Home>\plugins\ExchangeServer\"
  2. The NTBackup's saved selection file is empty in the basic Exchange Server backup plugin folder "<StoreGrid Home>\plugins\ExchangeServer\"

Solution :

  1. If the .bkf file doesn't exist, delete the backup schedule and recreate the Exchange Server backup schedule afresh. Please ensure the Exchange Server Information Stores and Mail Stores are listed correctly while configuring Exchange Server backup schedule.

  2. If the .bkf file is empty, you can follow either the above step 1 or manually edit the .bkf file to fix this issue by following the instructions given below:

    1. Open the "<StoreGrid Home>\plugins\ExchangeServer\ExchangeServer_<backup name>.bkf" file in Notepad.

    2. Add the Information stores/mail stores details in the following format.

      1. For configuring all Exchange Server Information Stores, add all the information stores in the following format:
        JET <Exchange Server Name>\Microsoft Information Store\<Information Store Name 1>
        JET <Exchange Server Name>\Microsoft Information Store\<Information Store Name 2>
        JET <Exchange Server Name>\Microsoft Information Store\<Information Store Name 3>
        ...

      2. For configuring all Mail Stores under a particular Information Stores:
        JET <Exchange Server Name>\Microsoft Information Store\<Information Store Name>\

      3. For configuring particular Mail Stores under a particular Information Stores:
        JET <Exchange Server Name>\Microsoft Information Store\<Information Store Name>\<Mail Store Name>

        You can add multiple Information Stores/Mail Stores entries in the .bkf file in each line.

      4. Save the .bkf file in "Unicode" text encoding format and reschedule the Exchange Server backup schedules.

The backup schedule fails with connection failure message [SG083, SG132...] in the backup report. Show/Hide

Cause : When StoreGrid is doing the local dump of the exchange server data, the client's socket connection to the backup server will be idle. Depending upon the time the dump process takes, some firewall/router/NAT settings may close this idle socket connection after a timeout period. Hence, after the dump process, when StoreGrid tries to transfer the dump file to the backup server, the connection is found to be invalid and the backup schedule fails.

Solution : Enable the Keep Alive setting for the backup in the StoreGrid configuration file [<StoreGrid Path>\conf\SGConfiguration.conf] by following the instructions given below:

  • Stop StoreGrid
  • Edit <StoreGrid Path>\conf\SGConfiguration.conf
  • Set the <StoreGrid><Configuration><Module> tag, "KeepAliveEnabled" attribute's value as "1" and set the "KeepAliveTime" attribute value to desired value.
  • Save the configuration file and restart StoreGrid.

Limitations

  1. If locally dumped Exchange Server backup data is deleted manually while backup is in progress, then StoreGrid will not have the information about the manually deleted file in client machine backup report and in server backup report.
  2. Local Dump path configured for Exchange Server backup should not contain special characters like single quote('), double quote("), forward slash(/), backward slash(\), question(?), colon(:), asterisk(*), lesser than(<), greater than(>), pipe(|) and plus(+).
  3. Local temporary Dump location configured for Exchange Server database(s) backup schedule cannot be edited/reconfigured to another location for the same schedule.
  4. If Exchange Server backup schedule is suspended while local dump is in progress, then StoreGrid will suspend the transfer of files to the backup server (till after the local dump process is completed). On resuming the same backup schedule, the dump process will not occur in the next schedule; instead, the locally dumped files will be transferred to server and an error message will be reported in backup report.
  5. Please ensure that the dump location configured for the backup schedule has enough space and has valid read and write permission to accommodate the exchange dump data. Also, the dump location (full path) should be less than 256 characters.
  6. If the Storage Group or Mail Store is configured as part of one schedule, then it cannot be included in other backup schedules. If Mail Stores under same Storage Group are configured as separate schedules, then enabling Multi-threaded scheduling in StoreGrid is not recommended for Exchange Server backups.
  7. A Storage Group configured for backup using the Basic Exchange Server plugin cannot be configured with the Advanced Exchange Server Plugin. If required, the schedule has to be deleted first and thereafter configured using the Advanced Exchange Server Plugin.
  8. Everytime a new Mail Store is added under a Storage Group of the Exchange Server, then before running a differential or incremental backup, "Additional Full Backup" should be configured to run through the "Edit Exchange Server Backup" configuration.
  9. When you try to restore an Exchange Mail Store's full backup which was empty during its first full backup, then restore operation will fail. Hence you should ensure that Exchange Mail Store is not empty when a full backup is scheduled.
  10. If NT Backup utility is killed or NT Backup utility is interrupted due to insufficient space in the dump location, then StoreGrid will incorrectly report the Exchange backup status as 'Successfully Completed' in its client side and server side reports.
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