backup of Exchange 2016 on VMware

[alphaT]

Hi all

I'm in the middle of a migration from Exchange 2010 to 2016 and have to configure the backup with Backup Exec 16. A coworker already configured it but he's on vacation right now. Exchange 2016 is a VM running on VMware. The agent is installed on VMware and the Exchange VM. Currently there are two jobs configured:
- 1 job for backing up the complete VM through Vcenter
- 1 job for backing up the Exchange DB with GRT (Monday to Thursday - incr., Friday - full)

Last Friday the second job ran correctly (full DB backup). On Saturday the first job ran correctly (VM backup). Yesterday the second job failed (incr. DB backup) because the first job (VM backup) also did a full backup of the Exchange database. On the Exchange DB I can see this job as the last one that did a full DB backup.

Now my question: How do I have to configure the backup to get a complete backup of the Exchange VM and also to be able to restore the Exchange DB/mailboxes/singe items.

Unfortunately, the best practices guides for Backup Exec are all down.

Thanks for the help.

[Colin_Weaver · Accepted solution]

Why are you doing a DB backup job separate from the VM one, do you have a DAG setup inside the VMs or are the Exchange database or log files not held  inside VMDK but on drives that are externally presented into the VM? (both of which would limit application GRT)

Just make sure Application GRT is enabled in the VM backup - and you can do full and Incremental VM backups and the Exchange logs will be truncating so no need for separate backup jobs and you can restore individual e-mail or the complete Exchange (VM) server. I think not running 2 sets of jobs could also save space on your backup storage device.

As for the documentation being down - there is information on Vmware backup in the Admin Guide - which you should be able to access inside the BE admin console itself

[alphaT]

I don't know why it was configured like this (a co-worker configured it and he's on vacation).

But I think he did it this way because there is only a weekly backup job for all the VM's and for the rest there are also daily jobs.

I'll sugest to him to change the VM backup jobs to include also daily incremental.

Thanks for the help.

[Colin_Weaver]

OK so if you find a good reason for wanting to do Exchange backups then the following sequence should work

Full VM backup Weekly (With Application GRT for Exchange enabled)

Full Exchange backup scheuled to follow (a couple of hours after) the Full VM backup weekly (with GRT enabled)

Daily Incremental Exchange backups with GRT enabled

Basically as long as there are no snapshot request against the VM (or volumes of the VM) after the Full Exchange backup, the incrementals should work, meaning as long as the Exchange full is always run after ANY VM backup then incremental Exchange backups can run

[alphaT]

This also sounds like a good possibility. I will tell this my co-worker.

I have another question:
Today I configured a new VM backup with GRT enabled and a full backup ran already. Then I wanted to test a restore of a single mail but I can't find a way to restore it. I can restore single files from the Exchange VM (i.e. on the C: drive) but I can't see inside the Exchange databases.

Is there a guide somewhere how I can achieve this? I guess I need to change something in the backup configuration.

[Colin_Weaver]

Find the GRT setting for Virtual Machines in the backup job configuration and make sure that application GRT for Exchange is enabled.

I think there is info on this in the Admin Guide (possibly under virtual machines).

Also make sure when when looking for restore selections you are looking at the object indside Backup Exec that represents the Exchange VM and not the host - I suspect you are doing this bit correctly though as you have stated you can see individual files to restore from (in the restore wizard you also do have to pick one of the Exchange restore options and not the file system ones when you get are offered a choice)