Backup Exchange2010SP3 with BE2014SP1 - GRT and management tools

[flips01]

Hi ,

i have a question about BE2014 SP1 and backing up and restoring Exchange 2010 SP3.

My BE2014 is installed on a Windows 2012R2 server.

I have a backup agent for Applications and Databases and this supports Exchange 2010SP3.

I backup an Exchange2010 SP3 CU5 server and i dont get errors. (GRT is enabled in the backup options for Exchange).

Now i need to restore some mail items and i can get into the mailbox items (although Exchange Management Tools are not installed).

I read the following in the BE2014 SCL :

"3. To back up Microsoft Exchange Server 2010, you must install Backup Exec on a Microsoft Windows 2008 SP2 64-bit server or on a Microsoft Windows 2008 R2
64-bit server. You must also install the Exchange Management Tools for Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 on the Backup Exec server."

So my questions are,

Do i need the Exchange management tools installed on my 2012R2 media server to properly backup AND restore the Exchange Server on GRT level ?

Are the Exchange 2010SP3 management tools supported on the Windows 2012R2 server to properly backup and restore?

Kind regards,

Filip

[Laurie_Downey]

Filip,

I have reached out internally for you to answer this question. I will let you know what i find out.

[ARemboldt]

Hello Filip,

As of Backup Exec 2014 SP1, the Exchange Management tools are no longer a requirement to perform Exchange GRT backups and restores.

We are working to update the SCL to reflect this and this update should be available on the official SCL page (http://www.symantec.com/business/support/index?page=content&id=TECH217478) very soon.  

If you encounter any issues with your restoration, a Symantec engineer or one of our Trusted Forum Advisors should be able to assist.

[pkh]

What about previous versions, like BE 2014 (without SP1), BE 2012 and BE 2010? Is the Exchange Management tools still a requirement?

[flips01]

ok ,

i did my first full backup this night with BE2014SP1 and i will test again.

Yesterday i tried a GRT restore and i encounterd the EWS error (Final error: 0xe00003bf - Cannot open one or more mail messages because of unknown Exchange Web Service errors. Review the job log for more information.).

I fixed this with adapting the hosts file (ping localhost responses to 1). Afterwards i tried a GRT restore and BE2014 said completed successfully. When i went into the mailbox i got 1 email from BE saying that it restored emails but i couldn't find them , so probably management tools are a requirement to do the restore in BE2014 WITHOUT SP1  ?

[maurijo]

As far as I know it is a requirement still if you don't have SP1

[ARemboldt]

Our documentation is being modified in SP1.  On 64 bit media server platforms, the Management Tools have not been a requirement for some time in practice. The EWS issue you seem to be encountering would be well past the initialization of ese.dll, which is what the management tools would provide to BE, so you seem to have a different issue.  Issues with Exchange Web Services (EWS) can be diagnosed by enabling EWS logging, per http://www.symantec.com/docs/TECH124453. I also would suggest a support case so that our engineers can investigate further and assist with intrepretation of the logging result.  If you want to post the case number here, I can look over the logging once my colleages are able to gather it.  Additionally, I would try a restore of another mailbox from a different set and test for the same issue, and also attempt restoring the same data to PST if possible to determine if the issue is with the source data or the EWS process.