Exchange Brick Level Backup??? 3

[Jabulani]

I have a couple of questions about backing up Exchange using ARCServe.

I am currently backing up Exchange but only at IS and DS level.

Ig I do a Brick level backup, is it necessary to keep backing up the IS separately as will

2. Does a brick level backup save 2 copies of user mailboxes, one as part of the IS and a second as individual mailboxes or does it just allow mailbox level access, in other words would I increase my tape useage by adding brick level backup?

 

[cichlid]

I'm not sure about the answer to your question - we don't use the brick level backup - it is rumoured to take 20 minutes per mailbox ( i hope i am wrong ).

I would stick to just backing up the entire Exchange DB, using it as a backup for the server rather than individual mailboxes - we tell users that if they delete mail then they mustn't want it anymore.

 

[cdav]

I agree with cichlid - that's the way we do it as well.

cdav

 

[dand1]

I do both the full Exchange backup and the bricks level. Full backup for disaster recovery, Bricks level for restoring an individual mailbox.
Using Exchange 5.0 on Pentium 200 backing up across 100baseT to Pentium 90 with DLT IV tape drive (I know, it's time to upgrade) I get the following: Full Exchange bkup @ 75mb/min, Bricks Level bkup @ 8.37 mb/min. I'm sure it would be faster with new hardware, but this should give you something to compare to your installation.
Sorry cichlid and cdav, if the owner calls and says he screwed up his mailbox, I'd rather be the hero than have to tell him tough luck, especially if he found out that individual mailbox recovery could have been possible.

 

[Peteksi]

A few things about exchange and Arcserve:

1) A bricks level is slow, and has many problems. Forget using McAfee Groupshield 4.5 with it too, cuz that dont work a t'all.

2) Bricks can only back up message and a few other things in a mailbox. It's not a perfect restore of a mailbox. Also, it will not recover a server for disaster recovery.

3) If you do online backups, be sure you KNOW how to handle a disaster recovery, esp involving how to handle LOG FILES in exchange. Usually you will want to disable circular logging of the stores, and SET THE BACKUP AGENT TO DELETE THE OLD LOGS. This is kinda important.

Try recovering a server BEFORE IT BLOWs TO HOLY HECK. You might be surprised- it's usually a nightmare for the uninitiated and most people just screw up on how to properly handle the log files in bringing the restored server up. cheap advice- visit all the newsgroups and review others' nightmares before you try. The insigths are very good. THEN get the microsoft whitepaper on recovering an exchange server- it'll make a lot more sense after hearing other people cry how unfair the whole process is.

4) We run bricks level here because we're insane and want to waste $40 DLT tapes cuz we can. We get about 80mb/min to Arcserve using fibre everything.

5) Best solution of all: use 30 day deleted item recovery on each store and force each mailbox to "use information store defaults" on the "limits" tab!!! This is WAAAAAY easier than actually restoring a bricks-level mailbox. And WTF, if the server eats it, you have your full store backups to bring it up on ANOTHER DUPED SERVER KEPT AROUND FOR DISASTER RECOVERY.

 

[Shad007]

I use both IS and brick level..brick level isn't a disaster recovery option, however I have found it helpful in the past (it certainly saved the neck of one of our sales agents when he lost a particular mail item)..if you configure the NT client agents you can get better speeds (a giganet network helps too

 

[Yetti2]

Bricks can be handy, but it takes some tinkering to get working optimum. I run all my bricks last in the back up so if it crashes I still have everything else. The other thing I found helpfull is to shut down anything else going on while the bricks is running (including A/V).
In theory you must have 2 copies of the mail box by using bolth levels of back up because you will get the mail box back bolth ways, The differance (according to arc serve)is do you want to restore the whole IS or just one mailbox.
I attended a seminar where they told me bricks is intended for only very high priority mail boxes (CEO's or Presidents....)
The quick and dirty is yes it will increase you tape use, I think what you mean is do I need it. How important is you clients E-mail and how dependable is your mail server? Even with bricks a restore isn't without greif!!

 

[Yommex]

I perform Brick-Level Backup of Individual Mailboxes, Public Folders and IS. Though initial configuration of Brick-level backup requires creating a dbagent account and granting the account peculiar rights so as to be able to log into user mailboxes, its advantages cannot be over-emphasized. To avoid repeatition, Yetti2 has expressed my view of this matter.

 

[Pilsum]

Backing up the Exchange Information database is backing up the individual mailbox "containers". The contents of these mailboxes requires a brick level backup. One restores the information database first, so that there are "containers" for the mailbox content to be restored in the correct designated mailbox id.

 

[dellboy]

FAO Yommex - if you return

Could you enlighten us a little more regarding the DBagent account. I am having similar problems and have noticed Backup Agent RPC constantly fails, erroring with a DBagent title

Living in hope

Dellboy

 

[twilson]

I need to restore a mailbox from tape using ArcServe 6.5. I am using file from \\Exchange/dbaxchg2/mailusers box but where should I restore to? It gives error when I try to restore to same location. Should I restore to exchsrv/mdbdata? It gives errors and will not work here either. Has anyone done an install and had it work?

 

[godcom]

Dellboy,

Have you configured the dbagent with the relevant permissions and rights? If so, then log onto your exchange server with the dbagent name and password, run the arcserve database agent configuration and this should configure it.

The following URL is pretty helpful

support.ca.com/techbases/asnt/16049.html

 

[Guest_imported]

I have done everything suggested in the above document and always get

"failed to read exchange server name from registry"

any ideas ?

 

[Guest_imported]

Chris Mad

Sounds like you have installed the multi-byte patch for exchange. If you dont have the multi-byte version, and who does, that causes that problem. Replace the two dll's files back to the older version in the dbaxchg folder.

I have spent many hours trying to get brick level backups to work. I can backup a selected few just fine no problems, bt when I choose all my users, the dbagent either hangs and causes very high utilization or flat out stops altogether.

All the crazzy work that goes into setting up the dbagent with the permissions and outlook, there are still so many problems with it. Im going to recommend not using the brick level backup until CA gets it working reliably.

Jason