Thanks. We used that whitepaper as a guideline back when we put together our backup procedures and VBscripts for NTBACKUP (remember I posted the script that does it all?)
I was looking at this paper last night too, but was being distracted by other issues and missed this part: "Microsoft IT backs up Exchange at the mail database store level rather than the storage group level. More specific reasons for backing up this way include: * It reduces the size of the .bkf flat file created during the backup process on disk. A storage group backup would produce one ~200-GB flat file, whereas a mail database store backup would produce multiple ~30-GB to ~40-GB files (one per mail store). The time savings of using a mail database store backup is significant because if an error occurs when streaming this content to tape, the retry occurs with a ~30-GB to ~40-GB file rather than a ~200-GB file. * It allows for running more concurrent jobs when streaming to tape (one scheduled job per flat file), depending on the number of tape devices available to process requests. However, it must be noted that backing up by mail store rather than by storage group makes recovery more complicated in the event that an entire storage group has to be recovered due to log replay requirements. Other IT organizations who manage smaller mail stores may choose to perform storage group backups for its comparative simplicity." -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Michael B. Smith Sent: Friday, February 03, 2006 10:35 AM To: Exchange Discussions Subject: RE: Backup individual stores or entire storage group? There is a white paper on the Microsoft "IT Showcase" site that tells how they back up their exchange servers. It goes through this scenario (and what it means to recovery situations) in great detail. If you can't find it based on those clues, let me know and I'll track it down. I don't have the link handy. -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Fyodorov, Andrey (Citco) Sent: Friday, February 03, 2006 1:37 AM To: Exchange Discussions Subject: Backup individual stores or entire storage group? Hi all. We do backup to disk using NTBACKUP. The resulting .BKF files are backed up to tape. It seems like I can get more flexibility if I use separate backup jobs to back up individual mailbox stores. If I need to restore a mailbox store, I can ask for just that .BKF file from tape. The BKF file carries the EDB and STM files + all the transaction logs that the mailbox store needs. Here is my problem. I am rehearsing a scenario of restoring all mailbox stores in a storage group and it is not quite working out with per-store NTBACKUP restore jobs. And I am bumping into some issues. First I dismount all the stores, for each store check the option "this store can be overwritten by restore", then delete all the current transaction logs and database files. Then I can restore the first mailbox store fine with the "Last backup set" selected. It mounts fine. But the "Last backup set" causes Exchange to generate a new set of E00.log, E0000001.log, E0000002.log, etc. in the transaction log directory. Next I run the second backup job to restore the second mailbox store, with the "Last backup set" selected. After this restore job is finished, the second mailbox store fails to mount because the restored transaction logs residing in the Temp directory are out of sequence with the new E00.log, E0000001.log and E0000002.log that were generated in the transaction log directory after the restore of the first mailbox store with the "Last Backup Set". So I tried a different approach. I thought I could run each restore job without selecting the "Last Backup Set". My thinking was that this would not create E00.log, E0000001.log, etc in the transaction logs directory, plus it would accumulate all the restored transaction logs in the Temp restore directory. The only problem is that each restore creates its own Restore.env file and overwrites the previous Restore.env file. As a result, at the end of the 5th restore job, I have all the restored transaction logs for the whole storage group, but the 5th Restore.env only has instruction to replay the restored transaction logs to the 5th mailbox store. I can run eseutil /cc but after that I will only be able to mount the 5th store. I kind of found a solution, although it is not the prettiest and requires all the users of the storage group to wait until the last mailbox store is restored. Is there a better way? Here is my solution: Restore Store1 with Last backup set ON, do not mount the store. When done, delete the transaction logs E0x.log, Res1.log, Res2.log, E0x.chk from the actual transaction log directory. Do not mount the store. Restore Store2 with Last backup set ON, do not mount the store. When done, delete the transaction logs E0x.log, Res1.log, Res2.log, E0x.chk from the actual transaction log directory. Do not mount the store. Restore Store3 with Last backup set ON, do not mount the store. When done, delete the transaction logs E0x.log, Res1.log, Res2.log, E0x.chk from the actual transaction log directory. Do not mount the store. Restore Store4 with Last backup set ON, do not mount the store. When done, delete the transaction logs E0x.log, Res1.log, Res2.log, E0x.chk from the actual transaction log directory. Do not mount the store. Restore Store5 with Last backup set ON, do not mount the store. Mount all the stores. _________________________________________________________________ List posting FAQ: http://www.swinc.com/resource/exch_faq.htm Web Interface: http://intm-dl.sparklist.com/read/?forum=exchange To subscribe: http://e-newsletters.internet.com/discussionlists.html/ To unsubscribe send a blank email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] Exchange List admin: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To unsubscribe via postal mail, please contact us at: Jupitermedia Corp. 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Attn: Discussion List Management 475 Park Avenue South New York, NY 10016 Please include the email address which you have been contacted with. _________________________________________________________________ List posting FAQ: http://www.swinc.com/resource/exch_faq.htm Web Interface: http://intm-dl.sparklist.com/read/?forum=exchange To subscribe: http://e-newsletters.internet.com/discussionlists.html/ To unsubscribe send a blank email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] Exchange List admin: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To unsubscribe via postal mail, please contact us at: Jupitermedia Corp. Attn: Discussion List Management 475 Park Avenue South New York, NY 10016 Please include the email address which you have been contacted with.
