Exchange 2010 backup

[hawksupport]

Hello All;

So we are new to Symantec Backup Exec 2012.  We are using it to back up our exchange server 2010 & I'm looking for best practices.

I've read over: http://www.symantec.com/business/support/index?page=content&id=HOWTO21796 but still running into questions.

Exchange 2010:
4 different databases

• Archive
• Elevated
• Staff
• Client

Our jobs are setup nightly for FULL backups every night for each different database.  BUT we are only copying the databases.

• 6PM - Full -> Archive
• 7PM - Full -> Elevated
• 8PM - Full -> Client
• 10PM - Full -> Staff

My worry is that we are not backing up drives, logs, transactions logs, etc. - We have 4 Drives and they are seperate for databses and transaction logs. 

Should I be backing up the drives on an different job nightly ?  Just looking for other people insight as we are new to hosting exchange.

thanks for your help. 

[Colin_Weaver]

Exchange full backups do truncate the logs and backup the whole information store.

For DR purposes if you do not also backup the operating system and volumes than your restore would be

1) Install and patch OS

2) Install Exchange in Disaster Recovery config (patch it as well)

3) Install BE remote agent (assuming this server is not also the media server)

4) Restore your Exchange Information stores (one at a time)

Please note if you select the volume holding Exchange to back it up then Active File Exclusion will automatically (and silently) exclude the Exchange data anyway as that has to be backed up by selecting the Information Store.

[hawksupport]

so I am backing up the transaction log but I need to configure & make sure we can get back to POF (Point of Failure).  

I see your instructions for DR. Are you advising to go ahead and create another job to run nightly or weekly backing up different drive information ?
Example: 
Create Job > D:\Program Files\Microsoft|Exchange Server\v14\ ..... 
                    E:\Exchange\ (Mailbox & Public Folders) ...
                   E:\Exchange Server\  (Mailbox & Publix Folders) ...
                   etc etc

 

thanks for your assistance

[Kunal_Mudliyar1]

You don`t have to do a flat file backup of these folders

D:\Program Files\Microsoft|Exchange Server\v14\

E:\Exchange\ (Mailbox & Public Folders) ...

E:\Exchange Server\  (Mailbox & Publix Folders)

as backing up databases will backup this data automatically.

[hawksupport]

oh great. Didn't know that. So backing up the databases does all i need it to do. I'm new this with backup exec for exchange. 

Does this purge the documents since they are backed up nightly ?

[Kunal_Mudliyar1]

Does this purge the documents since they are backed up nightly ?

Are you talking about Exchange log files ??

If you do a full backup of Exchange it will truncate the exchange logs.

[hawksupport]

okay confused again.

i am only backing up databases and nothing on individual drives. I want to make sure logs are being purged so I don't overload the drive

[Kunal_Mudliyar1 · Accepted solution]

Full server backup

If you want to fully protect your exchange server you need to select all the resources (c: system state and exchange) and because BE is smart enough to understand that you have selected databases from the exchange node it will not backup the EDB and log files twice.

Exchange part of the backup

If you backup the exchange database using the full backup method, it will backup the database (EDB) and the log files (.log) from the folders and after the backup is completed successfully it will purge the logs from the log folder