Exchange 2003 Backup to USB HD

[enbw]

Hi,

I know this topic comes up regularly but I feel we need more coverage on backup/restore. We have a backupserver 2003 with a tape device and a exchange server 2003 with Arcserve Exchange agent.

At present we backup the exchange to brick level to the tape device. However, I would like to install a local USB drive for backup as well, connected directly to the exchange server. I am thinking that I would use NT backup for this.

I would like the USB drive incase the tape restore fails and is more portable.

I was thinking of running the nt backup schedule first and then the backup to tape on a nightly basis.

Is this a good idea? Should I install a copy of arcserve directly onto the exchange?

Thanks in advance.

 

[ShackDaddy]

This isn't a bad idea, especially since the Exchange backup usually runs last in a collection of backup jobs (like you have for the full tape backup) and running the backup to USB first would truncate the transaction logs and save space for the backup that comes next.

NTBackup should do the job just fine.

Ideally your backup would have two things: a backup of the mdbdata directory at the file level in case of full restore situations, and a backup of the information stores in case of database corruption or mailbox loss. You don't have to do brick-level backups if you are doing a regular Exchange-aware backup, because Exchange 2003 has the Recovery Storage Group feature that allows you to mount a restored .edb file (restored to a different directory!) and extract specific mailboxes from it. That negates the need for brick-level backups. Brick-level backups were great in previous versions of Exchange, but have become unnecessary.

ShackDaddy
Shackelford Consulting

 

[enbw]

Thanks for the advice and quick reply.

 

[Zelandakh]

You want to backup to disk in case the restore from tape fails? I don't understand.

If the backup fails one night, the next night will work and have a play forward option of the logs that were not flushed. Restore works from the backed up data.

I wouldn't do it like that, I'd stick with traditional.

RSGs are great for getting a single email from a whole restore but the time taken is quite large so I'd recommend a copy of Aelita Recovery Manager if you have the budget.

 

[58sniper]

or Ontrack's PowerControls

Pat Richard, MCSE MCSA:Messaging CNA
Microsoft Exchange MVP
Want to know how email works? Read for yourself -

http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc2821.txt

 

[enbw]

Well we had a situation where we had a fatal server failure, lost all of the RAID. The previous IT technician had changed the tape for about two weeks. I know this is a fundamental issue! The backup failed and with arcserve we couldn't restore the data from the Tape because the server failed during backup. The tape drive is a large rack mounted scsi device which although not impossible is impractical to move around and install.

My main focus of this request is to have coverage on the media if possible.

Thanks for the advice.

 

[Zelandakh]

So rather than spending time and effort on a second backup, make sure that the first one is working.

The backup during failure should not be a problem - your TLs are on one volume, your store on another. Take the last good backup, restore it and play forward the TLs.

 

[enbw]

I agree with you in principle. I just want redundancy on backup media.

 

[Zelandakh]

So in Arcserve, do a full backup overnight and an incremental 12 hours later to the same tape.

 

[58sniper]

Backup to disk, then commit that to tape.

Pat Richard, MCSE MCSA:Messaging CNA
Microsoft Exchange MVP
Want to know how email works? Read for yourself -

http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc2821.txt

 

[Zelandakh]

Pat - that's only 1 backup though. Is that any safer than arcserve on its own?

Admittedly, I would go for ditching AS in favour of BE.

 

[58sniper]

You still end up with two copies of the data, though, and you're only hitting the production disks once. A full backup to disk would flush the logs. Committing that to tape would then give some redundancy, and allow for offsite storage.

Pat Richard, MCSE MCSA:Messaging CNA
Microsoft Exchange MVP
Want to know how email works? Read for yourself -

http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc2821.txt

 

[enbw]

Thanks for all the comments.