Best practise for backing up Exchange 2007 running on Server 2008 R2

[nLinked]

In our network we have Exchange Server 2007 running on Windows Server 2008 R2.

We also have Backup Exec 2010 running on Windows Server 2003.

The remote agent is installed on the Exchange server.

When running a backup of mailboxes, we now get the following error which we didn't get before when Exchange was running on Server 2003:

Final error: 0xe000ff12 - A communications failure has occurred with an Exchange Store resource. Final error category: Resource Errors

and

V-79-57344-65298 - The Exchange Store service is not responding. Backup set canceled

Is there any best practise for backing up Exchange on 2008 R2?

[ZeRoC00L]

Best is to update BE to 2010 R3 (can be done with an inplace upgrade, no new license keys are requiered) and make sure the same version of the Exchange 2007 management tools are installed as on the Exchange 2007 server (must be SP3 as this is the only version supported on 2008R2).

[CraigV]

Here are 2 links to read up on:

http://www.symantec.com/business/support/index?page=content&id=HOWTO21796 <-- Exchange agent BP

http://www.symantec.com/business/support/index?page=content&id=TECH51740 <-- configuring Exchange 2007 for GRT backups/restores.

[sbora]

If the issue persists after upgrading to 2010 R3 as suggested by ZeRoC00L then check if backup exec remote agent service has crashed on Exchange server or backup exec server during the backup. If yes copy the event from Application log that talks about the crash and paste in the next post. Also confirm if this is a GRT backup.

[nLinked]

Thanks. I am trying the upgrade. I've downloaded the R3 ISO. But I am installing it on a different machine as a test.

When it asks for the license, I have tried importing the license file and manually typing the number but it says "the license key belongs to a previous version of Backup Exec".

Our current version of backup exec is plain old 10.

Do I have to install this on the production machine for it to accept the license? Or will our license still not work even though we're on 10?

[sbora]

Backup Exec version 10 licenses cannot be used with BE version 2010 R3/R2 or R1. If you are using version 10 on production server as well then you are running an unsupported configuration as BE 10 doesnt support Exchnage 2007 or Windows 2008. You can install BE 2010 R3 in evaluation on the test server and test backups of Exchange databases.

[ZeRoC00L]

Backup Exec 10 does NOT support Exchange 2010 !

For Exchange 2010 you will have to upgrade to BE 2010.
If you have a valid maintenance contract, you can contact Symantec for new license keys.

[nLinked]

This is strange. We are able to successfully backup Exchange databases for staff, but we get errors when doing the same for student exchange storage groups. The errors being:

Final error: 0xe000ff12 - A communications failure has occurred with an Exchange Store resource. Final error category: Resource Errors

and

V-79-57344-65298 - The Exchange Store service is not responding. Backup set canceled

There must be a way to fix this if it is working for the staff Exchange storage group?

[ZeRoC00L]

Have you installed exact the same Exchange 2007 Management tools (service pack and rollup update) on the Backup Exec Server ?

And what is the exact version of Backup Exec you are running, you speak about 2010 and 10d.

[nLinked]

I can confirm both the Exchange server and Backup Exec servers have the same Exchange Management Tools 2007 installed. Have restarted both and tried the backup again but got these:

Final error: 0xe000ff12 - A communications failure has occurred with an Exchange Store resource. Final error category: Resource Errors

and

V-79-57344-65298 - The Exchange Store service is not responding. Backup set canceled.

and

Unexpected end of backup set encountered on IBM 2.

V-79-57344-34004 - End of data set was unexpectedly encountered.

... in that order.

Backup exec 2010 About dialogue says:

Media server and admin console: v13.0 rev 2896

Desktop and laptop option: 3.1 rev 3.42.48b

Not sure the backup exec version, doesn't mention it.

[CraigV]

Rev. 2896 was R1. BE 2010 R3 is out, and if you still haven't fixed this I'd recommend upgrading to that, installing BE 2010 R3 SP1 and then running LiveUpdate. Once done, push-install these updates out to any remote servers you might have and then rerun the backup.

Thanks!