exchange 2003/agent/aofo

[Mark_McLaughlin]

Hello,
I am having mega problems doing a backup of my exchange(2003) server.
I have tried various things changing the aofo settings etc.
Trying to get a good backup, I am trying only to do the IS, first off and if and when that works I'll do the individual mailboxes and files.
I do have the agent installed on the BU server.
Question is should AOFO agent be installed on the exchange server or not?
Should AOFO be used in the IS backup job itself.
Should the IS, MB's, DB's all be done in seperate jobs?

I can do a backup of the public folders OK.

[Robert_Schmidt_]

Mark - lots and lots of questions...

I STRONGLY suggest you start by carefully reading and digesting the section of the Administrators Guide devoted to the Exchange Agent.

Apart from the strategy appropriate for your business (which only you can decide), most of what you're asking is contained there.

One very short answer - use the agent to back up the storage groups, and you do not use AOFO.

Cheers
Rob

[Sanjay_Raval]

I agree with Robert

Backup exchange storage groups without AOFO.

[Mark_McLaughlin]

Thanks for your responses.
I did read the admin guide and it didn't really answer my questions before I posted.

I think what I failed to mention was that my jobs were failing with various codes. the most common one being...

Final error: 0xfffffea9 - 0xa000fea9 (2684419753)
Final error category: Other Errors

For additional information regarding this error refer to link V-79-65535-65193

and I could not find much help for that one.

A bit more background... when I upgraded from 9X to 10X. I uninstalled the AOFO agent from the mail server, because I read it was not needed. So my backup jobs have been running for over a year, no problem. It included the IS, MB's and all other files.
Now I made seperate new jobs for a complete year end back up. I have created new selection lists and the one I was having problems with had just the IS, MB's and public folders. That one kept failing, with the error above.
Last night, I put the AOFO agent back on the mail server, and ran the job again.
It was successful. The AOFO option was NOT set in the job. So the job fails if the agent is not on the server, but is successful when it is on the server, but not used.
It also, has been working for a year without it, in an existing job.
That's the part that was confusing me.
So, I think now I understand also, that I will not use AOFO in the exchange BU, but will on everything else on the exchange server.

[David_Sanz]

Correct, I never use VSS (AOFO) to backup Exchange, I prefer the agent.

There's no sense that you need the AOFO agent on the mail server and not using it. Maybe what happened is that the AOFO installation fixed some kind of problem the remote agent was experiencing.

Regards

[Robert_Schmidt_]

Hi Mark

It's difficult in these forums to gauge levels of knowledge and you don't want to end up telling other people "how to suck eggs", (is that just an Aussie saying?), but I'll talk a little about your line ...

"Should the IS, MB's, DB's all be done in seperate jobs?"

Wearing my "backup" hat, the most important thing for our business isn't my ability to recover an individual message for someone. Rather, if our Exchange server and storage is destroyed, we want to get back an ENTIRE mail system, at a relatively recent point in time, quickly.

That said, remember that the Exchange IS is divided into 1 or more Storage Group(s) and each Storage Group contains 1 or more Store(s) and the Public Folder Store.

Also remember that each STORAGE GROUP has its own transaction logs.

The important thing about the BE Exchange agent is that it has direct hooks into Exchange. When an entire Storage Group is successfully backed up, BE signals Exchange to FLUSH the transaction logs and start over for a 'new day'.

If you look back to MY 'personal'/business reason for mail backup, this is the "clean" copy I want in case of a disaster.

So, in a separate job, the FIRST thing I do is back up the entire IS (and the other related bits on the server - Shadow Copy Comonents, Utility Paritition, etc.). I want this over and done with, cleanly, every time. NOTE - you do NOT back up the Exchange databases (*.edb and *.stm files) as "files" - ever - selecting the IS in the backup selection list does this for you.

Once my store backup is done, my jobs then move on to "file share" backups.

Now, what about individual mailboxes? Well, this is really business driven. We don't do it at all. Other users in this forum have written in the past about how their managers insist on it. Microsoft, in Exchange 2K3, recommend it not be done. 2K3 provided the Storage Recovery Group - sure, you have to recover a whole store and then use Exmerge to get out a mailbox, but we just don't have to do it that often, if ever, and so we decided to skip mailbox backups.

If you decide to do mailbox backups, be sure to read the Admin Guide about maiboxes to exclude from backup.

A final hint: refer back to that "flushing transaction logs". Check on your Exchange server, where a particular Storage Group is set to write its transaction logs. If the IS backup has finished cleanly, you will find that there are no logs there older than when that backup started. THERE ARE 2 EXCEPTIONS: "res1.log" & "res2.log"; these 2 files are 'special' and should not be touched.

I hope this helps.
Cheers

[Mark_McLaughlin]

Hi Robert,

Thank you for your responses.

First off, telling other people "how to suck eggs" must be an Aussie saying that hasn't made it to Canada yet, as I am unfamiliar with it. I think I get the gist of it though.

So, I went over the Exchange section in the admin guide and think I am clearer on how to do it now, even though I still do have one final (hopefully) question.

Q.. under recommended selection/ file system.. it states.. "do not back up the virtual drive created by Exchange"??? what is that?, I can find no information.

I will not be using AOFO on the exchange data, IS, MB's etc.
The way I read it is that the Exchange agent uses MS VSS behind the scenes, but I do not set it in the AOFO options.

I am going to backup the MB's approx. 40 gb for the year end job that I am currently working on, and then will stop doing that after this is done.

Once again, thanks for taking the time to answer my questions and feel free to use any Aussie slang you want. I probably won't get it anyways.

[Robert_Schmidt_]

Q.. under recommended selection/ file system.. it states.. "do not back up the virtual drive created by Exchange"??? what is that?, I can find no information.

That's a reference to Exchange 2000 - does not apply to 2K3
(There was a virtual drive "M")

[Lancorp]

I've been having problems in 10.1d with backing up the IS with AOFO on (using Microsoft VSS).

I see now, that the IS backup should be done with AOFO turned OFF, but is that possible in a job that combines the IS and file backup? I cannot see a way to have AOFO turned off during the IS backup, then back on for the file backup.

Of course, I can create TWO jobs, one for IS with AOFO turned off, and one for file backup, but I thought I would ask!

Thanks for the info in this thread, BTW.

[Mark_McLaughlin]

Hi Darryl.

It's a bit weird in the fact that I had a job running for over a year that was doing everything including the IS. It had the AOFO option on and is running fine.

I had then created new jobs to do year end backups. One was just going to be the Mail server, and this is where I started having problems and it would not run successfully with AOFO.

I had a seperate job for SQL (for the same reason)and then one for everything else, and now I think I am going to do a seperate job for Exchange also. Basically, I will put any agents SQL, Exchange, Sharepoint, into their own jobs, and then have an AOFO one for the file server, etc.

also when you say "backing up the IS with AOFO on (using Microsoft VSS)", the way I understand it is that the Exchange agent uses VSS and you do not have to set it.