Exchange <file nane>.STF files skipped during backup

[Jon_White]

About 90% of the time, my Exchange 2000 server backup job reports 'Completed with Exceptions'. The log says that \\ \C:\Program Files\Exchsrvr\MDBDATA\341e.STF - skipped.
The file name changes, but it is the STF files that are skipped.
Should those STF files be excluded or should the MDBDATA directory be excluded? Or do you think I have something else going on?
Thank you!

[Mark_Pow]

Hi,

Please see this post http://forums.veritas.com/discussions/thread.jspa?threadID=43411&tstart=60 :: What to select when backing up Windows and Exchange 2003?
I know it says 2003 but should apply to 2000.

As long as you have the Microsoft Information Store selected on the Exchange agent or on the System State then you should be OK. This will stop the files being skipped.

[Jon_White]

I read the post, but I am still not sure which directories to exclude. Should the entire Exchsrvr directory be excluded or just the MDBDATA, etc. sub-directories?

[Mark_Pow]

I too would like to know the answer to that as I'm not sure. Generally speaking you shouldn't need to backup the application data so it will be safe to uncheck the Exchsrvr folder from your selection list.

In a restore situation you should be able to restore the exchange server by re-installing the OS along with exchange (with the same server name and organisation) then restore the Information Store using Backup Exec. Unfortunately I don't have the resources here at the moment to test a restore (which I know I should!) can anyone advise?

[Ken_Putnam]

If you want to be able to do a disaster-recovery type restore, you will need all files except the Exchange (and/or SQL) database files.

If you exclude the entire Exchange folder, you would have to re-install Exchange after your DR Restore

[ashwin_pawar]

You mentioned "90% of the time, my Exchange 2000 server backup job reports 'Completed with Exceptions'".Its seems the ACTIVE FILE EXCLUSION feature is disabled in the registry.

Bydefault, this key is ON, which means it excludes any INUSE-OPEN files.


VERITAS Backup Exec (tm) (version 9.x and later) uses the Active File Exclusion feature to eliminate the Microsoft Exchange Server, the SQL Server, the SharePoint Portal Server, and the Lotus Notes/Domino flat-files from the file system backup. This will prevent "in use - skipped" errors on the .EDB, the .STM, and the .LOG files.


http://support.veritas.com/docs/259152



Incase you dont want to Enable this feature, then either EXCLUDE the Exchange\MDBDATA directory or Stop the "Exchange Informaton Store" service which may not be feasible.

[Jon_White]

Thanks for the information. I will check over it and implement when I get a chance.

[SteveVRTS]

As far as recovering exchange in a distery recovery situation this is what you would do.
-resotre the drives and system state\shadow copy components (or rebuild the server).
-run the exchange installation with a /diasterrecovery. This will go out to a DC and get all of the setup info for exchange.
-after that exchange will be ready for a restore of the information store.
-once that information store restore is complete then exchange will be right back at the point that it was when it was backed up.

Basically what I am saying is that you do not need to backup the 'X:\program files\exchsrvr' directory at all if you are backing up the information store.

[Ken_Putnam]

But if you are backing up the system state on the Exchange Server and all Exchange files except the database files, you don't need to reinstall Exchange at all. It will be there exactly as it was when it was backed up, service packs, maintenance, patches, fixes, everything, waiting for the DS restore.