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Backup Exchange 2013 Public Folders

Not_Jake
Level 4

Hi,

Good Day.

Just want to ask how to perform a backup operation for Exchange Server 2013 public folders.

I just had successfully backup the Microsoft Information Store of Exchange Server 2013 (stand alone). As per checking in Activity Monitor, however, public folders is not included in the items that to be backup. Is there any way to backup the public folders? Do i need to create a new policy just for backing up the public folders aside from policy for exchange (Information Store)? Cause i believed, starting in MS-Exchange 2010, all you need is to backup the Information Store and you will have the items needed for MS-Exchange Server.

For clarifications, if i missed something kindly input and please correct me i'm wrong.

 

NetBackup 7.7.3 (Master/Media) - WinSer 2008 R2

NetBackup 7.6 (Client) - WinSer 2012 / Exchange 2013 / Stand-Alone Server (no DAG config)

 

Thanks!

 

Regards,

Jake

3 REPLIES 3

Marianne
Moderator
Moderator
Partner    VIP    Accredited Certified

Firstly - PLEASE upgrade NBU on Exchange server without delay. 
NBU 7.6 reached EOSL a couple of years ago. 
If you run into issues with Exchange backup or restores, Veritas Support will tell you to upgrade firsr.

About Public Folders - you need GRT-enabled policy.

Extract from NBU 7.7 for Exch manual:

When a backup uses GRT, users can restore individual mailbox and public folder items
directly from any full database backup.
See “About Exchange backups and Granular Recovery Technology (GRT)” on page 49.

Hi Ma'am,

This is noted, will wait for the backup job to finish then we'll see if we're going to see the public folders in BAR.

Thank you and best regards!

Jake

Lowell_Palecek
Level 6
Employee

Please upgrade your NetBackup client.

Exchange 2013 doesn't have a public folder database. It has public folder mailboxes that reside in regular mailbox databases.

This introduced some weirdness that took us a bit to figure out. There are ways to shoot yourself in the foot with how you organize the folders, because you can create multiple public folder mailboxes. When you create a public folder, put any subfolders in the same mailbox, as in the following examples from PowerShell:

Bad:

Identity                             ParentPath    ContentMailboxName
--------                             ----------    ------------------
\                                                  PF-mailbox
\admin-root                          \             PF-mailbox
\admin-root\Admin-Level1-FolderA     \admin-root   PF-mailbox
\admin-root\firefly-under-admin      \admin-root   PF-Firefly

\Firefly-root                        \             PF-Firefly
\Firefly-root\admin-under-firefly    \Firefly-root PF-mailbox
\Firefly-root\Firefly-Level1-FolderA \Firefly-root PF-Firefly
\Firefly-root\Firefly-Level1-FolderB \Firefly-root PF-Firefly

Good:

Identity                             ParentPath    ContentMailboxName
--------                             ----------    ------------------
\                                                  PF-mailbox
\admin-root                          \             PF-mailbox
\admin-root\Admin-Level1-FolderA     \admin-root   PF-mailbox
\admin-root\admin-under-admin        \admin-root   PF-mailbox

\Firefly-root                        \             PF-Firefly
\Firefly-root\firefly-under-firefly  \Firefly-root PF-Firefly
\Firefly-root\Firefly-Level1-FolderA \Firefly-root PF-Firefly
\Firefly-root\Firefly-Level1-FolderB \Firefly-root PF-Firefly

If you have cross-populated your folders as in the bad example, it's easy to fix in PowerShell.