Has anyone seen this kind of configuration before?

[MarkGlynn]

I've encountered a configuration put in place for backing up Exchange 2010 that I need some clarification on.

The backup product is Symantec BE 2010 R3. The Exchange 2010 environment is; 3 CAS servers and 3 Mail server in a DAG.

The attachment shows the  "backup server", Prod-back-02, is listed as a "mail server" within exchange. I've been told that this is done to facilitate the backing up of the exchange databases. I've never heard of such a thing before. I know you need to load the Exchange Console on the backup server and have the exchange agent on the backup server. I've always had success even at a granular, single piece of email, retore, based on the previous statement.

Can anyone shed any light, point to any Symantec documentation or even an urban myth as to why you would define your backup server as a mail host inside Exchange 2010?

Thanks for any input.

[pkh]

You can load BE on the same server as the mail server.  There is nothing that stipulates that BE must be on a separate server from the mail server. In fact, if you are using the Small Business edition of BE 2010, it must be loaded in the server with a Small Business edition of an OS which will include Exchange.

[Sush---]

Hello Mark,

    If your Backup Exec server does not have Mailbox role of Exchange installed on it then it should not be showing up in Exchange Console. I suspect that during the install of Exchnage Management console mistakenly even mailbox role is installed on the Media server.

Regards,

-Sush...