Backup of Information Stores

[salc76]

How can I backup the Private and Public mail information stores on the exchange 2000 server. And, what would be the correct procedure to do this?

 

[Davetoo]

You need an Exchange aware backup program. NTBackup is Exchange aware.

I'm Certifiable, not cert-ified.
It just means my answers are from experience, not a book.

 

[salc76]

We do run a Veritas backup however, the backup crashes after a percentage of the exchange backup is complete.
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WARNING: "Administrator [administrator]?Top of Information Store?Inbox?Delivery Status Notification (Failure)" is a corrupt file.
This file cannot verify.
-----

We are in the process of upgrading our server to 2003 and exchange to 2003 from 2000. As a quick work around, I would like to copy the .DBF's to another drive.

 

[Davetoo]

Be sure you're not doing a bricklevel backup and are just backing up the IS's. Did you purchase and are you using the Exchange agent for Veritas? It's a separate item to purchase and install.

I'm Certifiable, not cert-ified.
It just means my answers are from experience, not a book.

 

[salc76]

The exchange agent was purchased and installed. As of last month, Veritas was successfully backing up the IS's, selected drives, exchange mailboxes, and system state. Since then we have been experiencing problems.

-----
WARNING: "Administrator [administrator]?Top of Information Store?Inbox?Delivery Status Notification (Failure)" is a corrupt file.
This file cannot verify.
-----

I would like to know a workaround solution to backing up the private and public IS's on the exchange in case the Exch server crashes/cakes on us.

 

[Davetoo]

Hmm...odd. Did you go into that mailbox and delete that email that it references?

I'm Certifiable, not cert-ified.
It just means my answers are from experience, not a book.

 

[salc76]

The error is associated with a specific email? I wil try to del it.

 

[Davetoo]

If I'm decrypting it properly, it appears to me to be indicating an email in the administrators inbox entitled "Delivery Status Notificatin (Failure)".

I'm Certifiable, not cert-ified.
It just means my answers are from experience, not a book.

 

[paulha]

We get the same sort of thing with Veritas on our server occasionally too, it does point to a specific email in the indicated mailbox.

Whilst the job report is logged as a failure and highlighted in red text, everything apart from the rogue email is backed up sucessfully.

I have yet to find the cause of the corruption. salc76: do you use GFI by any chance ?

 

[salc76]

Yes we do... GFI Mail Essentials

 

[paulha]

Ah. Thanks for that, I'm off to the GFI forums then, I have suspected for a while that GFIME may be involved somehow with the corruption.

Saying that, the fact that you use also GFI and have the same problem is not conclusive evidence that GFI is the source of the problem, it does nudge me a bit in that direction though.

I will post back anything I may find of interest

 

[paulha]

Well, I didn't get anything on the GFI site, I found a similar problem on Experts Exchange which had the thread abandoned due to no conclusive solution.

The EE thread did point to the following, which more or less tells you to delete the offending message :

http://seer.support.veritas.com/docs/255047.htm

Not much help as far as finding the source of the problem, but it does indicate that the backups are good though.

 

[salc76]

Thanks paulha and others for all your help.