In Commvault version 7 the Public Folder iDataAgent will only back up content for local public folders.  Any public folders for which there is no local replica on the Exchange server being backed up will not be included in the backup.

In Commvault version 8 the Public Folder iDataAgent will back up both local and remote public folders.  This means that if the local public folder database has replicas for say 5Gb of the total 20Gb of data in that public folder hierarchy, it will back up the remaining 15Gb from a remote public folder database.

If the remote public folder database that it connects to is over a slow WAN connection then you run the risk of two undesirable outcomes:

• WAN link saturation during the backup window
• Very long running public folder backup jobs

There are three approaches that you could take to resolve this:

1. Replicate all public folder data to any server that is running Public Folder iDataAgent backup jobs. This may increase local storage requirements and WAN utilization caused by public folder replication (though you can optimize this in the public folder replication settings to suit your network).
2. Only run the Public Folder iDataAgent backup job at a central site that holds replicas for all public folders in the hierarchy.  This is probably the least administrative effort.  However it requires that any data restores also be run at that site and then replicated to the remote site that needs it, which potentially lengthens the total restoration timeframe.
3. Narrow the scope of the Public Folder iDataAgent backup job to only those folders in the hierarchy for which there are local replicas.  This solves the problem now but could lead to new folders created later not being included in the backup scope.

Related posts:

• Public Folders Not Replicating Between Exchange 2007 and 2010
• Review of GFI Backup Business Edition
• Error “Object is Read Only” During Exchange Server 2007 Public Folder Database Removal
• Causes of MapiExceptionNotAuthorized Error Sending to Public Folders
• How to Migrate Public Folders from Exchange 2003 to Exchange 2007

This article Commvault iDataAgent and Remote Public Folders is © 2010 ExchangeServerPro.com

Get more Exchange Server tips at ExchangeServerPro.com

Installation

Installing GFI Business Edition was quite simple following an easy to understand setup wizard.  I installed it on a virtualized server running Windows Server 2008 with Service Pack 2.

There are no complex set up requirements such as SQL databases to worry about.  GFI Backup installs its own web server and listens on a custom port (you can change the port if you wish) for administration access, as well as ports for communications with remote agents.

Though I found this very easy to install I had to manually open firewall ports on the Windows Server 2008 server to allow remote administration access as they weren’t opened automatically by the installer as with some  other applications.

Backing Up Files

Remote agent deployment can be performed using Group Policy or by manually initiating it from the remote server.  There is no push option available to roll out remote agents.

The GPO deployment option would be suitable for deploying the remote agents to desktops and laptops but not as convenient for servers.  For servers the manual agent deployment is best, though the most effort.  If you want to save time you could script the server agent install but whether that saves you time will depend on the size of your environment and your scripting skills.

Backup types are file/folder, or SQL only.  There is no option to backup Exchange Server or Active Directory.  This would seem to be the greatest weakness of GFI Backup however for small businesses that run in a workgroup configuration without Active Directory, or have their email service hosted in the cloud these aren’t going to present a problem.

The default backup inclusions/exclusions that define a broad range of common productivity file types are useful especially when creating backup jobs for PCs.

The backup destination is quite flexible.  Backing up to central location (can be disk or tape) on one main server is available, but each agent can also be configured to backup to its own local drive instead.  This is again very useful for PC backups, as they can be configured to backup their most important user files to a second hard drive on the machine without consuming more expensive server disk or tape capacity.

The backup files themselves can optionally be compressed using ZIP compression.  In my test this saved about 50% space for the Windows Server 2008 server.  The ZIP files can also be password protected and AES encrypted.

Backups can be scheduled and include options for email notifications to backup administrators.

Restoring Files

There are two restore options driven by yet another simple wizard.  You can restore either an entire system or perform item-level restores.

Unfortunately there is no bare metal restore capability, but with the speed of modern OS installations (ie Windows 2008 and Windows 7) and alternatives such as Windows Deployment Services it would still be feasible to quickly reinstall an operating system or SOE onto bare metal and then use GFI Backup to recover all of the user data for that system.

Overall Impression

GFI delivers on the ease of use promise with only a few trade offs.  I found myself looking for the type of features and settings that I normally see in enterprise class backup products, but quickly realised that the ones that aren’t there are not really necessary for most small to medium businesses anyway.

The lack of support for Exchange and Active Directory backups makes GFI Backup less suited to Windows Small Business Server networks.  Theoretically you could use pre and post tasks in GFI Backup to run scripted Windows Backups first, and then backup those files using GFI Backup but that adds a little too much complexity for my liking.

You could also use Windows Backup for those components and GFI Backup for everything else but again that detracts from the ease of use benefits of GFI Backup.

My only other complaint was the lightbox effect in the web administration console, which could perform poorly when remotely supporting clients over low bandwidth connections.

Overall I would consider GFI Backup Business Edition and good backup solution for the small or medium sized business that runs email and other applications in the cloud, and needs a simple backup solution for their Windows PC’s, file servers, and database servers.

Related posts:

• Commvault iDataAgent and Remote Public Folders
• GFI MailEssentials Winners
• GFI MailEssentials Giveaway Contest Closes Soon
• Win GFI MailEssentials for Your Business
• Review of GFI MailEssentials

This article Review of GFI Backup Business Edition is © 2010 ExchangeServerPro.com

Get more Exchange Server tips at ExchangeServerPro.com

What if You Never Backed Up Your Exchange Server Again?

A look at how the new replication and retention features of Exchange Server 2010 can be used so that you never need to back up your Exchange Server (though you probably still will ).  Read more…

What if You Never Backed Up Your Exchange Server Again? (Part 2)

Follow up to the previous post describing the use of lagged database copies to enable point in time recovery in case of logical corruption.  Read more…

Understanding Exchange Server Accepted Domains

Describes the concept of Accepted Domains and how each of the domain types (Authoritative, Internal Relay, and External Relay) can be used in difference scenarios.  Read more…

Protecting Distribution Groups with Exchange Server 2010 Email Moderation

Exchange Server 2007 was not very flexible when it came to protecting email distribution groups from misuse, but the new Moderated Transport feature of Exchange Server 2010 solves the problem.  Read more…

Designing an Exchange Server Database Layout

I’ve been working on database layouts for big Exchange environments lately so this topic has been on my mind a lot.  Read more…

Exchange Server 2007 Availability Service Explained

One of the more misunderstood implications of Exchange Server 2007 and 2010 is the movement away from Public Folders for storing schedule free/busy information for users of Outlook 2007 and beyond.  Read more…

9 Benefits of Hosted Antispam Services

A look at some of the benefits of choosing a hosted antispam service over on-premises solutions.  Read more…

Related posts:

• Exchange Server 2007 Backup and Recovery
• Exchange Server 2010 and the Benefits of Commercial SSL Certificates
• Exchange 2010 Hub Transport Server Backup and Recovery
• Improved Database Integrity Checking in Exchange Server 2010 SP1
• Exchange 2010 Edge Transport Server Backup and Recovery

This article Some Recent Articles is © 2009 ExchangeServerPro.com

Get more Exchange Server tips at ExchangeServerPro.com

• Part 1 – What needs to be backed up for Exchange Server 2007?
• Part 2 – How to backup and restore Mailbox Servers
• Part 3 – How to backup and restore Hub Transport and Edge Transport Servers
• Part 4 – How to backup and restore Client Access Servers
• Part 5 – How to recover individual mailbox items using Recovery Storage Groups

Related posts:

• Some Recent Articles
• Exchange 2010 Hub Transport Server Backup and Recovery
• Exchange 2010 Edge Transport Server Backup and Recovery
• How to Share an Email Domain Between Two Mail Systems
• Block Users Sending to Specific Domains with Exchange Server 2007

This article Exchange Server 2007 Backup and Recovery is © 2009 ExchangeServerPro.com

Get more Exchange Server tips at ExchangeServerPro.com

A welcome addition is the new volume snapshot backup plugin for Windows Server 2008.  Currently Exchange Server 2007 cannot be backed up by the built-in backup application that ships with Windows Server 2008.  Microsoft announced nearly a year ago that they were working on adding this functionality in a future update to Exchange, which we can now expect in SP2 when it is released soon.

The backup plugin doesn’t operate in the way we’re familiar with in previous version of Windows Server when backup up Exchange.  The MS Exchange Team explains the backup and restore operations in more detail in this blog post.

Related posts:

• Some Recent Articles
• Preparing a New Server for Exchange Server 2007
• Exchange Server 2007 Backup and Recovery
• Event ID 9554 and Backup Exec 11d backup failures for Exchange Server 2007 Mailbox Servers
• Exchange Server 2007 replication problems can lead to backup issues

This article Exchange Server 2007 Service Pack 2 Announced is © 2009 ExchangeServerPro.com

Get more Exchange Server tips at ExchangeServerPro.com

The backup job fails with the following error:

Backup- \\SERVER.domain.local\Microsoft Information Store\First Storage Group V-79-57344-33928 – Access Denied. Cannot backup directory Mailbox Database and its subdirectories.

However a backup of the Exchange server to a Backup-to-Disk (B2D) device is successful.

The cause of the error is outlined in this Symantec support article.

The above error occurs if the logon account being used in the backup job has insufficient rights or because of the presence of one or more disabled Active Directory User Accounts which still have mailboxes in the mailbox store.

You may also find one or more instances of Event ID 9554 in the Exchange server Application Event Log, which correspond to the disabled mailbox accounts.

Event Type:    Warning
Event Source:    MSExchangeIS
Event Category:    General
Event ID:    9554
Date:        1/12/2008
Time:        8:07:05 PM
User:        N/A
Computer:    SERVER
Description:
Unable to update Mailbox SD in the DS. Mailbox Guid: 8ee3f344-9005-4f2e-bc81-d53821dbbe6c. Error Code 0×80070005

You can trace the disabled mailbox account using the Mailbox Guid in the event log entry by following the instructions in this Microsoft support article.  The process is as follows:

1. Download ADFind here (http://www.joeware.net/freetools/tools/adfind/index.htm) and extract the zip file to a location on the Exchange server.
2. Run the following command, substituting the Mailbox Guid from your own event log message where appropriate:

   C:\Admin>adfind -gc -b "" -binenc -f " msExchMailboxGUID=
   {{GUID:8ee3f344-9005-4f2e-bc81-d53821dbbe6c}}" -dn

3. The command will produce output similar to this:

   AdFind V01.37.00cpp Joe Richards (joe@joeware.net) June 2007
   
   Transformed Filter:  msExchMailboxGUID=D\F3\E3\8E\05\90\2EO\BC\81\D58\21\DB\BEl
   Using server: DC1.domain.local:3268
   Directory: Windows Server 2003
   
   dn:CN=John Smith,OU=Users,OU=Corp,DC=domain,DC=local

Now that the mailbox user “John Smith” has been identified you can either remove the mailbox via the Exchange Management Console, or re-enable the account, so that the next scheduled instance of the Exchange backup job will run successfully.

Related posts:

• Some Recent Articles
• Exchange Server 2007 Backup and Recovery
• Exchange Server 2007 Service Pack 2 Announced
• Exchange Server 2007 replication problems can lead to backup issues
• Commvault iDataAgent and Remote Public Folders

This article Event ID 9554 and Backup Exec 11d backup failures for Exchange Server 2007 Mailbox Servers is © 2008 ExchangeServerPro.com

Get more Exchange Server tips at ExchangeServerPro.com

In the author’s own words:

 

Instead of focusing on any individual backup product, this book recommends corporate procedures and policies that need to be established for comprehensive data protection.

It provides relevant information to any organisation, regardless of which operating systems or applications are deployed, what backup system is in place, or what planning has been done for business continuity.

It explains how backup must be included in every phase of system planning, development, operation, and maintenance. It also provides techniques for analyzing and improving current backup system performance.

I’ve tangled with many different backup systems in my career and in at least half of those environments the problems with the backup systems were not due to sloppy implementation, rather they were due to unclear corporate policies and lack of high level support for a proper investment in data protection.

Enterprise Systems Backup and Recovery: A Corporate Insurance Policy covers everything from basic concepts, common myths, human responsibilities, retention policies, recovery strategies, handling of media, through to advanced enterprise concepts, how to provide documentation and training, and how to monitor an enterprise backup system.

Buy it now: Amazon | CRCPress | Booktopia

Related posts:

• Some Recent Articles
• Exchange Server 2007 Backup and Recovery
• Free Microsoft Exchange ebooks
• Commvault iDataAgent and Remote Public Folders
• Exchange 2010 Hub Transport Server Backup and Recovery

This article Enterprise Systems Backup and Recovery (Book) is © 2008 ExchangeServerPro.com

Get more Exchange Server tips at ExchangeServerPro.com

However, if you choose to implement LCR or SCR you should be aware of the implications for your backups.  A normal Exchange backup will truncate the transaction logs for your storage group, however when LCR or SCR are deployed this truncation may not work as you first expect.

One example of this is when using SCR to replicate your storage group to another mailbox server.  The source mailbox server ships each transaction log to the SCR target where it is replayed into a replica of the database.  In this scenario there are two queues created – the copy queue and the replay queue.

[PS] C:>Get-StorageGroupCopyStatus -StandbyMachine SERVER2 

Name                      SummaryCopySt CopyQueueLeng ReplayQueueL LastInspecte
                          atus          th            ength        dLogTime
----                      ------------- ------------- ------------ ------------
First Storage Group       Healthy       2             3232         25/04/200... 

The copy queue length is the number of transaction log files yet to be shipped to the standby server.  The replay queue length is the number of transaction log files yet to be replayed into the replica database (in this case the default 24 hour replay delay has been used).

Now that the source server knows it is shipping logs to a standby server it will be sure not to remove any transaction logs that are yet to be shipped.  This would mean that if replication is suspended or fails for any particular reason, and the copy queue length begins to grow quite long, that the source server will not truncate the logs during a normal backup.

However, even when SCR appears healthy and has a zero length copy queue there may be problems with the RPC calls between the servers to notify of log truncation events.  If the source and target cannot verify with each other that the logs have shipped and replayed then the source server will not truncate the logs during a normal backup.

To monitor for these types of scenarios it is wise to check for MSExchangeRepl warnings and errors on the target server.  For example:

Event Type:    Warning
Event Source:    MSExchangeRepl
Event Category:    Service
Event ID:    2137
Date:        19/02/2008
Time:        6:31:25 AM
User:        N/A
Computer:    SERVER2
Description:
Log truncation request to the Information Store using RPC has failed for storage group ‘SERVER1\First Storage Group’. Error code: 4294966264.

For more information, see Help and Support Center at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.

When such SCR issues are interfering with backup operations one of the simplest ways to resolve the issue is to reseed the SCR target.

[PS] C:\>Suspend-StorageGroupCopy "SERVER1\First Storage Group" -StandbyMachine
SERVER2 

[PS] C:\>Update-StorageGroupCopy "SERVER1\First Storage Group" -StandbyMachine
SERVER2 -DeleteExistingFiles 

[PS] C:\>Resume-StorageGroupCopy "SERVER1\First Storage Group" -StandbyMachine
SERVER2

In the near future I’d like to nail down some more specific scenarios, causes and remedies, but for now I’ll just summarise by saying if you are having backup problems in an environment where LCR or SCR are deployed, look to your event logs for MSExchangeRepl errors and consider reseeding your replicas to get your backups behaving normally again.

Related posts:

• Exchange Server 2007 May Not Warn of Active Mailboxes When Removing Databases
• Browsing Mailbox Databases in Exchange 2007 and 2010
• How to Enable AutoAccept on Multiple Exchange 2007 Room Mailboxes
• Some Recent Articles
• How to Modify Recipient Scope in the Exchange Management Shell

This article Exchange Server 2007 replication problems can lead to backup issues is © 2008 ExchangeServerPro.com

Get more Exchange Server tips at ExchangeServerPro.com

The path for this database is invalid because it contains extra backslash characters. You must remove the extra backslash characters before the database can be backed up.

The solution provided by Symantec is here, and references instructions from Microsoft here on detaching and reattaching the database with the correct path.

In some cases the database in question will actually be the Symantec Backup Exec database created by the installation.  The database is usually named “BEDB”.  In these cases you may follow the instructions above, and then find that the problem returns after the next backup is run.  In the case I worked on no matter how many times I detached and reattached the database to remove the extra backslashes in the paths, the problem would return.

I found the solution to be a registry change on the Symantec Backup Exec server.  In the registry key HKLM\SOFTWARE\Symantec\Backup Exec For Windows\BEDatabase look for the values “Server Database Path” and “Server Database Log Path“.  If these values have trailing backslashes like so:

“Server Database Path”=”E:\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL\Data\”
“Server Database Log Path”=”D:\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL\Data\”

then remove them so that they appear like this instead:

“Server Database Path”=”E:\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL\Data”
“Server Database Log Path”=”D:\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL\Data”

You should now find that the documented solution from Symantec works properly.

Related posts:

• Commvault iDataAgent and Remote Public Folders
• Review of GFI Backup Business Edition
• Some Recent Articles
• Exchange Server 2007 Backup and Recovery
• Exchange Server 2007 Service Pack 2 Announced

This article Symantec Backup Exec 11d Double-backslash Bug is © 2007 ExchangeServerPro.com

Get more Exchange Server tips at ExchangeServerPro.com