Forum Discussion

2000_Computer_S's avatar
2000_Computer_S
Level 3
15 years ago

Replicating Exchange 2003 over a WAN

I have two Exchange 2003 servers at different locations connected over a site-to-site VPN. The remote Exchange server will be used only for backup and disaster recovery. I would like to maintain a duplicate of the Exchange database at the remote location. I don't want to have to do full backups of the entire 40-60 GB database over a LAN. How can I do this with Backup Exec 2010 R2 at the remote location and the Exchange Agent on the active server? I was told by someone in presales that Replication Exec was the "Cadillac" way of doing it but I presume there is a way to do it with just Backup Exec and the Exchange Agent. I don't care if I need to intervene manually to make use of the duplicate Information Store, but I don't actually want to have to restore from a backup to disk folder when necessary either-- I just want a working store to be available on very short notice.
2010
Agent for Microsoft Exchange Server
Backing Up
Backup and Recovery
Backup Exec
disaster recovery
High availability
  • 2000_Computer_S's avatar
    2000_Computer_S
    Level 3
    15 years ago
    From what I've read in the manual for CPS, it will require a full backup of the Exchange database, which in this case is 40-60 GB over a VPN on a WAN link between different physical locations. I don't think that's too practical on a regular basis. If VRE will do it, that's fine as long as it doesn't cost more than an upgrade to Exchange 2007.
  • Colin_Weaver's avatar
    Colin_Weaver
    Moderator
    15 years ago

    Not really sure CPS is your answer - CPS is designed to do continuous Exchange replication to a storage location (disk) on the media server. It enables a continous element by doing a form of log shipping however, it is not intended to replicate the store to an Exchange DR server.

    I believe VRE might have a white paper explaining how to do it - however VRE is an almost obsolete product that is no longer under development so not really the best option.


  • teiva-boy's avatar
    teiva-boy
    Level 6
    15 years ago
    CPS is your solution from Symantec.  Read the manual on it's capabilities.

    SCR is simpler though.
  • Nimish_Patel's avatar
    Nimish_Patel
    Level 5
    15 years ago

    If you have the exchange configured in a Cluster then Backup Exec will/can not see the exchange database as the local resource of one of the cluster nodes and hence not allowing the backup.

    However a workaround as I see it would be to stop Exchange services on the server from where you want to backup yoiur Exchange and then backup the .edb, .stm and log files using BE, however this will be just like a flat file backup and will not flush the logs and also at the time of restore it will let you restore .edb, .stm and log files after which you/MS will be resposible for playing out those log files and bringing the database in clean shut down state and mount it.

    However, As a Symantec Tech as well as from an Administrator's point of view, I will strongly recommend you NOT to use the above mentioned method.

  • 2000_Computer_S's avatar
    2000_Computer_S
    Level 3
    15 years ago

              From what I can tell, CPS requires periodic full backups of the entire Exchange store, which in this case is 40 to 60 GB. I'm not sure I want to be pushing that much data across a VPN link on a regular basis. Am I wrong? I also don't want to have to do a restore from a backup-to-disk folder when I need that data; I want it sitting on the backup Exchange server in an EDB and STM set (possibly with the current Exchange log files) ready to be mounted or even already mounted (if possible). I don't need instant automatic failover, but I do want no-hassle manual failover that can be accomplished in a few hours at most.