Simple scenario - a single Exchange server

The following steps will guide you through the installation and basic use of Acronis Backup & Recovery 11.5 in simple Exchange organizations.

Let's assume you have a single Exchange server that hosts all Exchange services and stores all Exchange data. Considering the typical size of the server data, the frequency and the amount of the typical data changes, a reasonable backup strategy for such a server is a nightly full backup and an hourly transaction log backup.

Prerequisites

Make sure that:

• You have a machine running one of the supported Microsoft Exchange Server versions.
• You have an Acronis Backup & Recovery 11.5 for Microsoft Exchange Server license.
• You downloaded the setup program for stand-alone editions of Acronis Backup & Recovery 11.5.
• The Exchange writer for VSS is turned on. In Windows Small Business Server 2003, the writer is turned off by default. For instructions on how to turn it on, see the following Microsoft Knowledge Base article http://support.microsoft.com/kb/838183/.

Installation

In this step, you will install Agent for Exchange and the management console on the machine running the Exchange server.

1. Log on to the machine as a domain administrator and start the setup program.
2. Click Install Acronis Backup & Recovery 11.5. Accept the terms of the license agreement.
3. Click Add licenses and type in your license key or import it from a file.
4. Specify the folder where the product will be installed.
5. Specify credentials for the account under which the Agent for Exchange service will run. By default, the setup program will create a dedicated user account for the service.
6. Choose whether the machine will participate in the Acronis Customer Experience Program (CEP).
7. Proceed with the installation.

Running Acronis Backup & Recovery 11.5

To start the management console, either double-click the Acronis Backup & Recovery 11.5 icon on the desktop, or select from the Start menu: Acronis > Acronis Backup & Recovery 11.5 Management Console > Acronis Backup & Recovery 11.5.

Backup

In this step, you will set nightly full backups and hourly transaction log backups of the entire information store.

1. Make sure that circular logging is disabled for all databases or storage groups of the Exchange server. Otherwise, the transaction log backup will fail.
2. In the management console, click Create backup plan.
3. Under What to back up section, click Items to back up. In Data to back up, select Microsoft Exchange Information Store. In the data tree, expand the machine and select the Microsoft Exchange Information Store check box under the machine's name. Then, click OK.
4. Under Where to back up section, click Location, and specify the location where the backups will be stored.
5. Under How to back up section:
   1. In Backup scheme, select Custom.
   2. In Full backup, click Add schedule. Select Daily and set up the schedule as follows: Every: 1 day(s), Once at: 09:00:00 PM.
   3. In Transaction log, click Add schedule. Select Daily and set up the schedule as follows: Every: 1 day(s), Every: 1 Hour(s).
6. Click OK to save the backup plan.

   Details. You will see the Backup plans and tasks view with the backup plan you have just created. In this view, you can check the backup plan's status, monitor its execution state, run or stop the plan, and more.

Recovery

In this step, you will recover a mailbox to the original mailbox database. To recover an entire database or storage group, use the procedure described in the advanced scenario (see under "Recovery", starting from step 2).

1. In the Navigation tree, expand Vaults > Personal and then select the folder where you saved the archives. If prompted, provide access credentials for the vault.
2. On the Data view tab, select Microsoft Exchange Mailboxes in the Show list.
3. In the catalog tree, select the mailbox that you need to recover. Under Versions, select the date and time of backup creation. The mailbox will be recovered to this point.
4. Click Recover.
5. Under Where to recover, in Data paths, select Microsoft Exchange Server.
6. Choose what to do if the software finds in the original path the mailbox items with the same IDs as in the backup:
   • Overwrite existing items - this is the default setting that fits most situations.
   • Do not overwrite existing items - this setting will let you retain the changes made to the items after the backup had been created.
7. Click OK to start the recovery.

   Details. You will see the window with the recovery activity progress and details.