Managing Exchange Database Availability Group members by using a single policy

You can prevent Data Protection for Exchange from backing up each database copy separately by backing up the database copies under a single Database Availability Group (DAG) node.

About this task

For Microsoft Exchange Server databases in a DAG environment, several online copies of a database are maintained for high availability. To reduce the number of database backups that are created, set up Data Protection for Exchange to back up database copies from different DAG members under a single DAG node.

All database copies can be managed as a single entity regardless of where the database copies are backed up from, and whether the backup copies are active or passive at the time of the backup. You can set up a minimum interval between database backups, which ensures that the database copies are not backed up at the same time or backed up too frequently.

Procedure

Use the Tivoli Storage Manager Configuration Wizard to configure the DAG node.
- For VSS backups to Tivoli® Storage Manager, ensure that you specify a node name in the DAG Node field on the TSM Node Names page in the wizard. This node is used to back up all the DAG.
- For best results, ensure that all the DAG members are configured with the same DAG node name.
Ensure that the Tivoli Storage Manager administrator issues the grant proxynode command for each member server in the DAG to grant permission to the DAG member server to act as a proxy for the DAG node. If the configuration wizard is not used to configure the Tivoli Storage Manager server, the proxies must be defined. In addition, the backup-archive client node and the Data Protection node need proxynode authority. The backup-archive client node also needs proxynode authority to act on behalf of the Data Protection node. For example, the Tivoli Storage Manager administrator can issue the following commands on the Tivoli Storage Manager server:
```
register node backup_archive_client_node password 
register node data_protection_node password
grant proxynode target=data_protection_node agent=backup_archive_client_node
register node DAG_node password 
grant proxynode target=DAG_node agent=backup_archive_client_node
grant proxynode target=DAG_node agent=data_protection_node
```
Ensure that the DAG node and the Data Protection for Exchange node are in the same policy domain.
Create a backup schedule and specify the /MINIMUMBACKUPINTERVAL parameter in a backup command. You must use the Tivoli Storage Manager scheduler to run this schedule. For example, to use a single Tivoli Storage Manager schedule to back up exactly one copy of a database that contains multiple copies, complete the following steps:
1. Create a command script named C:\BACKUP.CMD by issuing this command:
```
TDPEXCC BACKUP DB1 FULL /MINIMUMBACKUPINTERVAL=60
```
2. Copy the BACKUP.CMD file to all the DAG members.
3. Create one schedule and associate all the nodes with this schedule.
When the backup schedule runs, the minimum backup interval is observed and only one backup is created.
Optional: To decrease the load on the production Exchange server, you can specify that the backups are taken from a healthy passive database copy. If a healthy passive copy is not available, the backup copy is created from the active copy of the database. To add this specification, add /PREFERDAGPASSIVE to a backup command. For example:
```
TDPEXCC BACKUP DB1 FULL /MINIMUMBACKUPINTERVAL=60 /PREFERDAGPASSIVE
```