How to use Microsoft System Center Data Protection Manager 2006 to help protect an Exchange server

This article provides information about how to use Microsoft System Center Data Protection Manager (DPM) 2006 to help protect a server that is running Microsoft Exchange Server.

This article provides the following methods to use DPM 2006 to help protect an Exchange server:

• How to use the Microsoft Windows NT Backup program to back up an Exchange server
• How to use DPM 2006 to restore the Exchange server

If you want to use DPM 2006 to help protect and to restore an Exchange server, you may use the Windows NT Backup program to back up an Exchange server onto a file first. After the file is created, you should use DPM 2006 to protect it.

How to use the Windows NT Backup program to back up an Exchange server

To help protect the Exchange server, you must first back up the contents of the Exchange server to a file. To use the Windows NT Backup program to back up an Exchange server and to create a DPM protection group, follow these steps:

1. Configure the Windows NT Backup program or your existing backup solution to perform a scheduled typical backup of the Exchange server to a file.
   
   This file should be in either of the following locations. Note that you should schedule the Windows NT Backup program to back up the Exchange server at a convenient time every night.
   1. To a local volume. For example, schedule the backup to occur in the following location:
      drive:\ExchangeDumps\ExchangeSvr1.bak
      Note This location should not be the same volume as the Exchange logs or as the database to avoid Exchange decrease in performance.
   2. To a network share. For example, schedule the backup to occur in the following location
      \\DumpFileServer\ExchangeDumps\ExchangeSvr1.bak
   Schedule the NTBackup to run at a preferred time every night.
   
   Note This schedule is just an example. However, if you decide to change the time, you must consider correlating the times of the backup to occur before the time of the synchronization and of the shadow copy in the subsequent steps.
   
   For more information about the backup and restore features of the Windows NT Backup program, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:
   326216 How to use the backup feature to back up and restore data in Windows
2. When you step through the Windows NT Backup Wizard, make sure that the Replace the data on the media with this backup option is selected.
3. After the Exchange server has been successfully backed up to a file, the volume, the folder, or the share where the file exists must be protected by DPM 2006. To do this, follow these steps.
   1. Open the DPM 2006 Administrator console.
   2. Create a new Protection Group by using the New Protection Group Wizard for the Exchange server backup file that you created in step 1.
   3. In the New Protection Group Wizard, click Specify Schedule on the Select Protection Schedule screen, and then configure a shadow copy to be taken one hour after the Windows NT Backup is scheduled to complete its backup to the hard disk drive. This action provides DPM 2006 with enough time to synchronize the new data before the shadow copy is taken.
      
      Additionally, schedule a second shadow copy to be taken several hours after this first shadow copy. This second shadow copy is required because you must schedule a consistency check before the consistency check that is performed in step d. For example, if your scheduled backup is set for 11:00 P.M., consider scheduling the first shadow copy to be taken at 1:00 A.M., and the second shadow copy to be taken at 6:00 A.M.
   4. Select Advanced Options and select Schedule daily consistency check. Specify a start time that is at least 1 hour after the first shadow copy is created in step c and at least 4 hours before the second scheduled shadow copy occurs.
      
      Set the maximum duration as 4 hours. This step assumes that your consistency check will be completed in 4 hours. If you determine that your consistency check takes longer than 4 hours, you should increase the maximum duration accordingly.
      
      Additionally, change the second shadow copy time specified in step 4 if your consistency check takes longer than 4 hours. For example, based on the shadow copy example schedule provided in step d, you must schedule the daily consistency check to run at 2:00 A.M.
      
      Note You will likely receive two failed jobs for the synchronization and for the shadow copy everyday. These alerts indicate that the replication that was used to help protect the NTBackup file is invalid after the first shadow copy is created. However, this behavior is expected. These alerts automatically become inactive when the synchronization with the consistency check is finished. Your second shadow copy in step c should be scheduled for 1 hour after the consistency check is expected to be completed.
      
      To verify that the synchronization of the folder or of the share is completed, follow these steps:
      1. On the DPM Administrator console, click the Monitoring menu, and then click the Jobs tab.
      2. View the synchronizations list, and then verify that the synchronization for your protected object has completed. Verify that the Shadow Copy Area entry in the disk allocation is sufficient to hold multiple shadow copies. If this entry is insufficient, you may lose previous shadow copies.

This backup process can be used if you intend to back up the Exchange server one time a day. If you have to back up the Exchange server more frequently, you can adjust your backup schedule and modify the Protection Group schedule for synchronization and shadow copies to fit your needs.

How to use DPM 2006 to restore the Exchange server

If you want to use DPM 2006 to restore an Exchange server, you can restore the file from the DPM 2006 Administrator Console. To do this, follow these steps:

1. On the DPM administrator console, click the Recovery option on the navigation bar.
2. Locate the shadow copy of the desired version of the Exchange Server backup file. For example, locate the shadow copy of the ExchangeSvr1.bak file.
3. After you identify the desired file, click Recover..., and then restore the file to the target.
   
   The recovered file will be named "Copy of ExchangeSvr1.bak" on the original backup volume. Perform a typical Exchange recovery by using the Windows NT Backup program or with your existing third-party backup solution which was used to create the file that was backed up by DPM 2006.
   
   For more information, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:
   296788 Offline backup and restoration procedures for Exchange