How to prevent exchange backup from failing while mail is in use

Hello,

What is the exact error message as in the job log? Please paste the exact error code for further troubleshooting.

Note:- if we do not receive your reply within two business days, this post would be assumed answered and archived.

Backup- \\TREMAP01\Microsoft Exchange Mailboxes V-79-57344-33928 - Access is denied.
Access denied to file Sandra Lau Top of Information StoreInboxFALCF 5YR 49/54.
V-79-57344-33928 - Access is denied.
Access denied to file Sandra Lau Top of Information StoreInboxCDX IG6 36.5/37.
V-79-57344-33928 - Access is denied.
Access denied to file Stephen Tkachyk Top of Information StoreInboxFW: Economic Weekly of National Bank of Canada - May 05, 2006.
V-79-57344-33928 - Access is denied.
Access denied to file Stephen Tkachyk Top of Information StoreInboxMay 9 News Package.

Hello,

Please see the technotes to resolve the issue:

http://support.veritas.com/docs/243524

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


Please revert if the problem persists.

Thanks,

NOTE : If we do not receive your reply within two business days, this post would be marked assumed answered and would be moved to answered questions pool.

my problem is neither related to moving a mailbox to another name on the same server, nor corrupted attachments.

the mail is in use and therefore access is denied.

I don't want my backup to fail every single day because 1 mail out of 10,000 was not backed up.

About all that you can do is implement some kind of forced logoff, and run it before the Exchange backup runs.

Used to be several freeware/shareware utilities that would do this, but I haven't looked around recently.

from the error messages you posted, I'm guessing you're doing a mailbox backup.
- if that's the case, your whole backup isn't bad - you just missed some individual messages in mailboxes because they were in use. In our org., we've made the call that an individual missed message here or there in a particular backup isn't that much of a concern.

But, are you doing a "store" backup before you do the mailbox backup? That's the one you need for a restore in case of disaster, and the one that flushes the Exchange transaction logs.

The only real solution to this is to stop "brick level" backups of Exchange. They are not supported by Microsoft, and always have this kind of issue in a business where backups clash with user time. Having worked in a 24x7 environment recently, it is impossible to force users off of the system as it causes far reaching issues, both political and business.

If you are using Exchange 2003, Microsoft have provided a perfectly suitable mechanism for effecting a restore of an individual mailbox or even a single item within a mailbox through the use of the Recovery Storage Group. And all of this from just backing up the Stores.

Not only will this save a vast amount of time when backing up Exchange, but it will not fail unless there really is a problem.

For more information on Recovery Storage Groups and disaster recovery, I would suggest using your favourite search engine to search for the words "exchange", "2003" and "restore".

I hope that helps.

Steve

thanks all, I will let my backup fail until we upgrade to 2003 in a month or two.
I know a few mail is not important as the next backup most likely captures it.
but i don't like seeing red and my supervisor will question why I haven't reported any problems when he sees all the history is red.

I didn't remember my job failing everyday due to open mails. I guess people are working harder these days.

I will look into Recovery Storage Group and Stores and plan a new backup strategy in the future. I would think veritas would just put open mail as an exception instead of an error.

Tired of non-helpful tech support? I have yet to gain any helpful/useful information from the Symantec/Veritas techs. They want to move as many topics to the "answered" section as possible. The "two-day, automatically assumed answered" policy is absurd, in my opinion.

For these reasons, I have started a new backup exec group at google.

If you're interested, please check it out, and spread the word if you like it.

http://groups.google.com/group/backupexec

Since it's new, I need you guys to start the ball rolling by posting some questions. :)

Owen