You can back up Exchange Server data by using Microsoft Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS).
Before you begin
To create VSS backups, you must have a VSS provider
that is configured for your environment.
If you are backing up Exchange Server databases
in a Database Availability Group (DAG) environment, and you want to
back up your databases to a common node, ensure that you set up a
DAG node name (DAGNODE). (Backing up DAG databases to a common node
is helpful when you want to manage backups with a single policy, regardless
of which DAG server completed the backup.) You can set up the DAG
node name in the DAG Node field in the TSM
Node Names page of the Tivoli® Storage
Manager configuration
wizard, or in the Back up DAG databases to common node field
in the General properties page for your Exchange
workload.
Procedure
To back up Exchange Server data, complete the following
steps:
- Start the Management Console and click Exchange
Server in the tree view.
- On the Protect tab, select one or
more databases to back up. Alternatively, click the Protect
Data shortcut in the start page of the Management
Console.
Filter the list of available databases
in the results pane by entering a keyword in the Search field.
If
you are running in an Exchange Server DAG environment, you can back
up an active database copy or passive database copy. View the copy
status in the DAG Status column in the Protect tab.
- Verify the backup options. If the backup options are not
displayed, click Show Backup Options.
- Set the Offload option to True to
use offloaded backups. An offloaded backup uses another system (specified
with the RemoteDSMAGENTNode parameter) to move
Exchange data to Tivoli Storage
Manager server storage
and runs the Exchange Integrity Check. An offloaded backup can reduce
the load on network, I/O, and processor resources during backup processing.
If
you are going to use offloaded backups, make sure a RemoteDSMAGENTNode is
specified. This option applies only to VSS
backups.
- Click Skip Exchange Integrity Check if
you do not want to run the Exchange Integrity check to verify that
the databases and log files to be backed up do not contain integrity
issues. According to Microsoft advised practices, you can skip the
integrity check if the database you are backing up has two or more
healthy copies within a DAG environment.
Attention: If
you do not verify that the backups are valid by using the Exchange
integrity check, and there is an integrity error when you restore
the database, you must run repairs on the database, which can result
in data loss. If you skip the integrity check and the database is
not recoverable because of integrity errors, contact Microsoft support for help in recovering
your data.
- If you are scheduling the backup of databases in an Exchange
Server DAG, use Minimum Backup Interval to
set the minimum amount of time, in minutes, before a backup of another
copy of the same DAG database can begin. The default value is 0,
which means that you can back up the database again immediately after
a backup operation of that database is complete. The time of the last
backup for the database is determined from the Exchange Server and
not the Tivoli Storage
Manager server.
This
option specifies that only one database copy can be backed up within
a timeframe. This option prevents all of the members in a DAG from
backing up the database, which would be redundant and invalidate the Tivoli Storage
Manager storage
management policy.
This setting is intended to be used with
tasks that are scheduled to be run with the Run Scheduled button,
or in a script to be run with the Tivoli Storage
Manager Scheduler.
- If you are scheduling the backup of databases in an Exchange
Server DAG, set PreferDAGPassive to True to
skip the backup for an active database copy unless no healthy passive
copy is available. If no healthy passive copy is available, the backup
is made from the healthy active database copy. There is no default
value for PreferDAGPassive because PreferDAGPassive is
a switch option.
This setting is intended to be used with tasks
that are scheduled to be run with the Run Scheduled button,
or in a script to be run with the Tivoli Storage
Manager Scheduler.
- In the Action pane,
click Backup Destination to specify whether
you want the data to be backed up to your local server, a Tivoli Storage
Manager server,
or both.
- (Optional) Choose a mode for the current task:
- Run Interactively: Click this item
to run the current task interactively. This selection is the default.
- Run Scheduled: Click this item to convert
the current action into a scheduled task. When you select this item,
the schedule wizard starts, complete with the appropriate command
that is required to complete the task.
- Create the backup by selecting the backup action from the Action pane. You can run a full, copy, incremental, or differential backup
with the VSS backup method.