Re: Exchange 2003 Backup

Hi,

as i recommanded before, for simpely backup of Datasets you can use the
NTBackup, regard the restore issues you are able to restore data in item
level by using Recovery groups.
if you want to engage a centeral backup solution, the NTBackup is not a
solution.


Kind Regards,
Niv Raz

"Hank Arnold" <rasilon@xxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:OgDKBoFkGHA.3572@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
I'm a bit confused.... You are paying a non-trivial amount of money to
have your Exchange data stored somewhere. What are you planing to do if
you have a disaster like the ones that Dave B mentions? You have to
accommodate the fact that the server in question could be completely hosed
and/or unusable.

I'm with Dave on putting a burden on the vendor to
document/demonstrate/prove that you are "in good hands" (apologies to
State Farm).....

I would also suggest that circular logging be turned off. Your nightly
NTBACKUP of the data stores will clean them up. Circular logging will only
make recovery more complicated and increase the possibility of losing data
with no benefit.

Regards,
Hank Arnold

Victoria Bolton wrote:
Thankyou very much Dave, I was aware they were a reseller, their pricing
was
just a little better than Livevault directly.

We are not in a situation to be able to buy spare redundant servers so
I'm
not completely sure how to go about testing a recovery situation. I have
some 60 day trial versions of Windows & Exchange 2003. Can I just put
these
on an old computer we have around and use that as a test server to try
this
out on?

We are going to be keeping at least 30 days of backups with US Datatrust
and
I have a terrabyte drive that we will be keeping in an offsite safety
deposit box. We are a courthouse in Louisiana so disaster preparedness is
what we are looking at hard right now. I plan on taking secondary monthly
backups of all our in-court audio recordings which are just too big to
justify storing on livevault, userfiles and any other backup files onto
that
drive and taking it offsite. Eventually I would like to get a second
terrabyte drive that will mirror the first so that if one fails for some
reason we have a duplicate.

Circular logging is enabled but I will be doing an NTbackup of exchange
onto
the terrabyte drive in addition to livevaults service.

Thankyou for your help, I will be in close contact with their support but
I
also wanted to get an 3rd view on what I was doing.

Victoria


"daveberm" <david.bermingham@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:1150306881.509801.247660@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Victoria,

You are correct- LiveVault is a well respected backup solution for
Exchange. However, you have contracted with USDATATRUST, which appears
to be a value added reseller of LiveVault. You have put your trust in
that company to configure and maintain the integrity of your backups
using a well respected product, LiveVault.

I would start by getting written verification from USDATATRUST that
your configuration is capturing everything the need to restore your
Exchange server. Because you are off the beaten path of what Microsoft
recommends for backups, it may be impossible for anyone but a LiveVault
expert to tell you for sure that you are configured correctly.

After USDATATRUST confirms you are configured correctly, I would
schedule a test recovery to verify the consistency of the data and
document the steps required to recover. With you not being an Exchange
Administrator, I can understand your anxiety. You may want to get an
idea of what types of failures you may need to recover from, and then
work with USDATATRUST to document the recovery procedures. And then
test, test and test some more! The worse time to do your first restore
is during an actual failure.

Here are some situations you may want to test against...

- The boss deleted an email 6 months ago that now needs recovered.
Does USDATATRUST keep archived copies of the Exchange databases, or
just the most recent copy from the snapshot 15 minutes ago? I would
recommend at least a weekly full backup be made to tape using NTBACKUP
to clear the log files (if circular logging is not already turned on)
and sent to a different offsite location.
- The Information Store won't mount due to database corruption. You
probably want to become familiar with the Exchange tools to fix
corrupted databases.
- The buidling went up in flames along with all of your Exchange
servers and domain controller. (IMPORTANT - Exchange requires an AD
domain controller, you want to make sure you account for recovering
your AD controllers as well as your Exchange servers in the event of a
disatser). You also want to become familiar with the Exchange Disaster
Recovery Guide.

WIth all of that being said, if you are paying good money to
USDATATRUST, I would have them do all of this leg work for you and just
demonstrate how to recover from these types of failures on a quarterly
basis.

David Bermingham
MCSE, MCSA:Messaging
www.steeleye.com


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