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file exclusions for MS Exchange 2013 clients

sdo
Moderator
Moderator
Partner    VIP    Certified

Environment:

NetBackup Client v7.7.3 on Windows Server 2012 R2 with MS Exchange Server 2013 CU13 in a four node DAG with four node CAS.

NetBackup Master/Media Server v7.7.3 on Appliance 5230 v2.7.3.

Backup type: plain NTFS volume\folder\file style backup (we are already excluding the live mailbox database files)

.

Situation:

I have found a folder on disk, and therefore in backups:

D:\Program Files\Microsoft\Exchange server\V15\TransportRoles\data\Queue

...which contains a 24GB "mail.que" file and a small "tmp.edb" file and a small "trn.log" file, and a few other related files... which altogether appear to be some form of quasi live binary database/application file set... which typically one might ordinarily consider excluding from backups.

There are also, other folders:

D:\Program Files\Microsoft\Exchange server\V15\TransportRoles\Logs    at 2.3 GB

...and...

D:\Program Files\Microsoft\Exchange server\V15\Logging        at 12.5 GB

.

Question:

Is it typical, and/or best practice, and/or even required, that these days with MS Exchange 2013 we can/should/must exclude any of these three paths from regular file system backups?

D:\Program Files\Microsoft\Exchange server\V15\TransportRoles\data

D:\Program Files\Microsoft\Exchange server\V15\TransportRoles\Logs

D:\Program Files\Microsoft\Exchange server\V15\Logging

.

Thanks in advance.

4 REPLIES 4

PatS729
Level 5

I am sure you have MS-Exchange policies. Indeed its a good practise if you could exclude them from FS backup. I have been excluding it in environments i am managing.

sdo
Moderator
Moderator
Partner    VIP    Certified

Thanks Pat.  I'm trying to get a case raised with Microsoft Support.  I'll post back if / when I get some clarity from MS.

FYI - I did search through the NetBackup v7.7.2 Admin Guide for Exchange, and I couldn't find anything related to "mail.que" or "\data\Queue" or "TransportRoles".

I googled it and found this helpful article. It explains what this database is, why it's so big, and how to make it a little smaller.

https://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/office/en-US/528c23f9-2fe0-4151-81ed-4ee41bcf325e/large-...

This link tells how to move it to a different volume:

https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb125177%28v=exchg.150%29.aspx?f=255&MSPPError=-21472173...

sdo
Moderator
Moderator
Partner    VIP    Certified

Thanks Lowell.  Yes, I think I read one of those last night, plus several posts in other MS related forums regarding this file and the "Safety Net" feature within MS Exchange 2013.

My questions to MS are around:  is it actually sensible to restore "mail.que" (and it's friends) in a full DR server recovery scenario, i.e. might we be ill-advised to restore this file and associated files?  i.e. in my mind it's not just about is it ok to exclude, but also is it bad to restore it... i.e. the distinction between "ok/safe to exclude" versus "bad to restore".