Backs Up only some of the mailboxes in Exchange 2003 Informatoin Store

[Dieter_Tontsch]

I am running Backup Exec 11d (60 days trail version yet) on w2k3 SRV SP1 and am backing up Exchange 2003 SP2. I am backing up the Information store consisting of 4 Storage Groups with one or two Stores. I am wondering why it looks like the whole storage group is backed up but I guess that only osme of the mailboxes are able to be restored in case of need. when I am going to Restore and select the last bakced up Infomrmtion Store I see all the stores, but when I expand them in one only on mailbox of about 30 is offered to be restored, on anotherone all of them are available and on two of them none is shown.
the backup was ended with status succesfull, still I can not see in the log any details about which mailbox was backed up since I actually backed up the Information Store and not single mailboxes.
Any idea why not all mailboxes can be restored or where I can enable advanced loggin in order to see which mailboxes are backed up in order to be properly restored or not?

this is what it shows me in jopb history log:

Family Name: "Media created 12.12.2006 23:00:05"
Backup of "\\xxxxx.yyyyy.com\Microsoft Information Store\CER Storage Group "
Backup set #1 on storage media #1
Backup set description: "DailyBackup"
Backup Method: Full - Database & Logs (flush committed logs)
Microsoft Exchange Server Agent: Started
The option to enable the restore of individual items from the database backup was selected for this backup.

Backup started on 13.12.2006 at 04:00:48.
Backup completed on 13.12.2006 at 04:33:00.

-----------------

Backed up 2 Exchange Server stores
Backed up 10 Exchange Server logs
Processed 21.602.247.154 bytes in 32 minutes and 12 seconds.
Throughput rate: 640 MB/min



It also does nowhere tell me the amount of data it backed up, so I am not sure whether the whole store was backed up or just parts.

Thanks in advance,
Dieter Tontsch

[Charles_Eberhar]

I am having the same problem. I tell 11d (HF2, HF6) to back up the store with allow individual mailboxes restore. It completes successfully and the size looks correct. However, in the restore list, only a hand full of my 300 mailboxes shows up.

Whats going on?

[Kenneth_Sheppar]

I'm having the same problem and I'm running the same 11d with the patches. My backups complete perfectly to tape and disk. However, I can only restore some messages and non with rich-text or HTML. I get blank emails upon restore, but there's no errors in the restores.

This code is garbage!

Ken

[Dieter_Tontsch]

Hello Charles, any news on this issue, meanwhile? At least you are running a non-trial version of 11d, I am yet using th etrail versoin and the veritas support told me that on trail versions they do not support me, I should use the forum ... But at least you can call the support hotline since you use a full llicensed version. Maybe they can tell you more and you could give me a hint afterwards :)

Thanks,
Dieter

[Erik_Harriman]

Although I don't have a fix to your current problem, I can make a suggestion.

Microsoft recommends you do not do "brick layer" mailbox backups of Exchange 2003 databases. Instead, backup just the storage groups and set the "deletion settings" on the store to a number that you are comfortable with. Then use Outlook's "recover deleted items" feature in the event of a lost message. If you get into major trouble, Exchange 2003 has a new feature called "Recovery Store" which will allow you to restore the entire mailbox store into a Recovery Store on the same computer and hand-pick the messages you need to restore from there.

I've been setting up all of my clients' 2003 Exchange backups this way for a while now. It saves backup time and is more convenient overall.

Some links for reference. I'd recommend you test this thoroughly and get comfortable with it before you disable the brick layer backups.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/824126
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/228934

[Charles_Eberhar]

Erik,

Our issue is that Outlooks restore feature does not do Folders. The users love to delete folders, and they do not show up on the list. (you know how to make them show up? That would be great lol)

I'll hafta look into the Recovery Store idea, but that still does not fix the underlying issue. BE isn't doing what they say it should do. Is the Store Backup with Recovery option doesn't work, I probably wouldn't have upgraded lol.


Dieter,

Thats my next step. Lets hope they help. I'll let ya know.


~ Charles

[Kenneth_Sheppar]

Erik, I agree with your statement about setting the Exchange recovery to 30 days or so and use the Outlook recovery. However, if you're using BE 11d with the Exchange Continuous protection, you'll not be able to use the Microsoft built-in recovery feature because of the way CPS flushes the logs.

Ken

[Deepali_Badave]

Hello,

As you are backing up 4 storage groups with one or two stores and you cannot see all the mailboxes in the restore selections even though backup is successful, is it happeneing with all the storage groups or only with one?

Regards,

[Peter_Burgess]

Here's a thought. It's a bit of a long shot but I have the same problem and I just stumbled across something.

BackupExec used to have all sorts of problems backing up Exchange mailboxes where the mailbox owner's user account LegacyDN was different to the account name. For example if I create a user account "johnny.user@domain.com" and set the "Pre-Windows 2000" to "j.user" then the LegacyDN will be "j.user".

By the looks of things the mailboxes that are missing from the restore list after a GRT backup are the ones where the LegacyDN is different to the user account name.

Disclaimer : I have about 200 mailboxes to check and I've only checked 5 so far, so I may be barking up the wrong tree.

Pete Burgess

[Shraddha_Dhaval]

Hi,

Copy and save all the mail from a storage group. Empty storage group and then delete it. Create one new with the same name and the path. Copy and paste all the mails again in this storage group. Then try to backup.

Thanks.

[Peter_Burgess]

You can cut and paste from a storage group ?!?!?

[Ken_Putnam]

I think what he meant was move everything out of one storage group, delete and recreate it, then move everything back

[Peter_Burgess]

Wow. Guess Symantec's semantics strikes again.

Unfortunately I don't feel inclined to trial and error my way round some fairly time intensive and unpleasant operations.

BE11 really is ridiculous. Surely backup software is the one thing in the Enterprise that needs to "just work" !

After working with 6 revisions of BE I think I'll be taking the check for this year's maintenance fees and writing it out to Ultrabac instead. I have a fairly significant investment in BE but it's getting to the point where I have to cut my losses.

You've seen all these problems over the last few years too Ken. Surely even your patience is finite ?

[Ken_Putnam]

yeah I started with v6.1 (it was still Arcada at that time, I as I recall, before Seagate bought them)

about the last build that was really ready for prime time was v7.3.2575, I only left that when I had to start supporting Win2K :)

8.6.3878 wasn't bad, but I was never real impressed with v9 or v10, myself.

v11 is a total cluster so far, from what I've seen (haven't even tried to deploy it yet, just been playing around with it so far.)

Maybe it's time to start looking elsewhere. Even CA is starting to sound viable!

(Has UltraBac cleaned up their interface lately? I looked at it back in the NT4 days, and it was almost as non-intuitive as ArcServe and very clunky feeling, though it did work)

[Kenneth_Sheppar]

Ken, I'm like you in that I've been using BE since around version 7.x. I've been supporting networks since the days of NT 3.51 and while I've certainly seen my share of poor code and poor support, I'm quite certain that none has compared to this 11d release and this group of support techs.

For the past month, I've checked this board for updates on the various issues that we're all having with 11d and the only thing we ever see is "can you please update us on your issue" or "have you installed hotfix 2?"

But I've already gotten barked at for non-technical posts and complaints about the product/support, so I guess I need to ask a dumb question to make this post a technical post.

How can a make BE 11d function as described in the Admin Guide?

Ken Sheppard

[Peter_Burgess]

Not sure about the user interface, I haven't looked at it in a long time mostly due to there being no Sharepoint agent but apparently there's one due shortly. Also the feature set isn't as robust as BE, but if the BE features I need don't work (mostly Exchange related) then that doesn't really do much for me. The big deal with the old style UI was that it didn't use Microsoft libraries hence the tiny memory footprint.

I'll admit to being a little biased towards Ultrabac as I used to sell it way back when. So take the following as a pinch of salt, but I spent a couple of days with the company in the late 90's and was really impressed. The head architect is a real sharp guy (and still with the company) and the tech support guys really knew their stuff.

Being able to get hold of someone on the phone who can a) speak English and b) actually listen to what I'm telling them is a pretty big deal for me.

If you aren't worried about brick-level backups for Exchange it's certainly worth looking into.

[Ken_Putnam]

Yeah, I saw that

I've been barked at a few times, I just bark back and go on about my business. Nothing has ever come of it that I am aware of. Never been banned from the forums, never had my account disabled, never gotten a nasty gram from some Tech Support manager.

(if I can find that post again, I may even bark in on that one too)

[Peter_Burgess]

And the correct answer is... http://support.veritas.com/docs/286823

Figured out by me on the 19th, added as a support doc on the 26th. Come one, someone give me some points !

lol

[Kenneth_Sheppar]

Good job, Peter. I do recall your advice on this topic several weeks back. But problems still exist with GRT and the continuous B2D jobs. Like most users, I've been forced to revert to the legacy backup method because I cannot trust the product as a viable disaster recovery product regardless if it's sold as such. When I do my GRT backups to tape or disk (continuous or normal), I cannot successfully restore ANY messages. All I get is the header and subject line--the rest is blank.

Ken

[Jeffrey_Moser-K]

Beware if you change the Legacy Exchange DN. I assume most will be. If you do change it to match the email address, you may have a large inter-company mail issue.

Once e-mails are sent to one another in the company, clients record the legacy DN and use that. For Instance when you send a new message to a user you have talked to before, there name is in the drop-down as you type �Joe Smith " You must make an X500 in the users e-mail address with the full qualified original name

I wonder if anyone here is going to be changing all of there legacyexchangeDN's in there domains? Maybe I am going about it with a harder way of doing it?