dmigonz Posted July 31, 2002 Report Share Posted July 31, 2002 OS: Windows NT 4.0 Server Exchange: 5.5 Using Retrospect Server Exchange Agent: ver 1.2.113 I have been reading the documentation online (knowledge base), user manual and the readme.txt that comes with the Exchange Agent and none are clear about what exactly needs to be backup when using the Exchange Agent. According to what I have read, the following needs to be backup for a successful restore of Exchange: 1) Boot drive (okay) 2) The drives that hold Exchange server ???? 3) HD that holds the Exchange DB (I am guessing they mean the script that runs that backs up the folder to which the Agent copies the files to) I do not understand number 2? I thought the whole point of the Agent was to backup the server when its live? If certain files/folders need to be copied additional to the Agent (Info and Dir Store) what are they? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChuckS Posted August 7, 2002 Report Share Posted August 7, 2002 What #2 is talking about is, basically, Exchange and the system in their entirety. Exchange has many ties to the registry, and restoring only Exchange data to a different/new install of Exchange isn't very transparent at all. Microsoft calls this a restore to a "non-production server", i.e., when you restore Exchange data to a different computer than the one the data originally came from. Exchange 5.5 is less complex, and makes it easier to do so. Exchange 2000 is much more involved, especially given its integration with Active Directory. Basically, what Dantz is saying is that in addition to running the Agent and backing up the Agent's copy of the database files, you should, for ease of restore, back up the whole Exchange server. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dmigonz Posted August 7, 2002 Author Report Share Posted August 7, 2002 So are they talking about the Sever Offline? Then there would be no point in using the Agent. I have read some tech notes from MS and said for a succesfull restore/backup of exchange, you would need to have the priv.edb, pub.edb, dir.edb, edb.log(s), priv.pat, pub.pat, and edb.chk. The .chk files are not included in the copy but according to MS and Retropsect, the API only copies what is needed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChuckS Posted August 7, 2002 Report Share Posted August 7, 2002 No, they are not talking about taking the server offline. What it means is that, unless you intend to go through a number of steps to configure a "blank" copy of Exchange to use the restored data, you should also use Retrospect to back up the whole Exchange server. You cannot simply drop database files from one copy of Exchange into another and have them work. The concept is to first run the Agent to have it make the live copies of the database files, then have Retrospect back up the entire server, not just the Agent's copy of the database. The live database files will not be backed up, as they will be in use, but Retrospect will then back up the copies that the Agent has made. The restore process would then involve using Retrospect to restore the Exchange server (minus the database files, of course), then use the Agent to plug the copied database files back in to the restored Exchange server. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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