Checklist for Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 backup in Windows 2008

May 1, 2019
6 min read

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Other notes and recommendations

This article refers to the 32-bit version of the DR backup agent, which is no longer supported starting from Infrascale Backup & Disaster Recovery 8.14.0.

Add clients.

Exchange 2007 requires creating two clients on the appliance: one 64-bit client to backup the Exchange database files, and one 32-bit client to backup the email at the mailbox and message level. The two clients must communicate with the Exchange server over different ports.
1. Add one client with a name like Ex07Data.
  
  Create the client selecting Windows/x64 as the client operating system. Edit this client to use TCP port 9202.
  
  If you are running Disaster Recovery 3.5, make sure the Enable/Override option is selected in the client file set. If this is not enabled, the database will not be backed up.
2. Add another client with a name like Ex07Mailboxes.
  
  Create this client selecting Windows as the client operating system.
Install the DR backup agent.
- The backup agent can be downloaded from Settings › Tools › Downloads.
- Be sure to install the 64-bit agent for the Ex07Data client and the 32-bit agent for the Ex07Mailboxclient one.
Install the MAPI client libraries.

MAPI client libraries are not included in the base installation of Exchange 2007. To enable the message level backups you will be required to download and install the Microsoft file ExchangeMapiCdo.exe.
Configure the 32-bit agent.

This is the agent that will run the mailbox level backup.
- Confirm that VSS is disabled (do not use) for this client.
  
  Edit the client file set (Clients › Edit › pencil button next to FileSet) and make sure the VSS option is not marked. To do this, select Don’t Use Service.
- If you are running Backup & Disaster Recovery 3.5 or later, make sure the Enable/Override option is selected for Exchange Mailbox in the client file set. If this is not enabled, the mailboxes will not be backed up.
- Because of Exchange overhead, the mailbox level backup will be considerably slower than the database or flat file backup.
  
  Any flat file or system writer backups should be configured on the x64 database client to maximize backup speeds. Remove the reference to C:/ from Starting Directories and Files on the 32-bit agent.
- Confirm that Deduplication is disabled for this client-mailbox level backups cannot be deduplicated.
  
  If you are running Disaster Recovery 4 or higher, mailbox backups will now deduplicate. Please upgrade your operating system.
- A simplified set of permissions for the account running the backup service on Exchange 2007 are as follows (with DOMAIN=your domain, below):
  
  This user will need to have a mailbox, the mailbox cannot be hidden, and you need to be able to send and receive mail from this mailbox to allow mailbox level backups to succeed.
  1. Create a domain user (such as RvxBackup) with a User Mailbox (easiest using Exchange Management Console).
    
    This user’s mailbox cannot have the Hide from Exchange address lists property checked.
  2. Add the user to the group on the Exchange server: BUILTIN\Administrators.
    
    My Computer › Manage › Local Users and Groups › Groups › Administrators › Add to Group › DOMAIN\RvxBackup.
  3. Add the user to the domain group: DOMAIN\Exchange Organization Administrators.
  4. On the Exchange server › Backup Agent (the 32-bit client with unqualified name, not 64-bit) › Configure Backup › Run as Administrator › Service Control › Stop.
  5. Run Service As › (x) Other Account: DOMAIN\RvxBackup › Password: *** › Confirm Password: *** › Start.
In addition to considerations for setting up Exchange 2007 for backup, when running on Server 2008, IPv6 must be disabled using the following procedure.
- This only applies if the Exchange server host is not also a domain controller.
- The goal will be to enable access to Exchange’s MAPI interface when running Exchange 2007 server on Server 2008.
  
  Exchange’s MAPI interface is used by programs such as Exchange Mailbox Backup to access and restore mailbox data.
  
  The problem is due to some Exchange services not registering to listen on ports in the IPv6 stack, but only on IPv4. To fix this:
  1. Notepad › Run as Administrator.
  2. File › Open › C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc\ › [All Files] › hosts › Open.
  3. Comment out the line ::1 localhost.
  4. Add the following two lines:
    <IPv4 address> <hostname of the computer> <IPv4 address> <FQDN of the computer>
    For example:
    127.0.0.1 localhost #::1 localhost 10.10.10.4 exchange-server 10.10.10.4 exchange-server.your-domain.com
  5. Run a backup and let us know if everything else is setup correctly, it should work.
    
    If the backup has subsequent problems, please send us the Message Logs of the backup after doing the above, or we can look for ourselves is a tunnel is established.

Other notes and recommendations

Please make sure that you do not have any other backup program running when the appliance starts a backup. They could conflict over VSS access causing one or both backups to fail.
Also, do not use another program to backup exchange databases. The VSS writer will not distinguish between the backup programs, so the incremental or differential backup from one program could depend on incremental, differential, and full backups run by the other. Because of this, neither system will have everything needed to restore anything other than full backups.
Do not install Outlook on the Exchange Server. Installing Outlook with break the MAPI we depend on for mailbox backups.
The client may be started from either the RVXConfig tool or the Services window.
Verify that your Exchange client has a green checkmark in Client › Summary. You may test the new client by running a manual backup.

After a possible system state backup, the MBXBackup is performed at the beginning, you may see this working by viewing the properties of a running job.
We strongly encourage the use of a Weekly schedule for an Exchange client. Please do not run a schedule that mixes differential and incremental backups.
Though allowed, we do not recommend truncating the logs after incremental or differential backups. By default we truncate the logs only after a full database level (ESE) backup.
To verify that Exchange has been backed up, either browse the job in Jobs › History, or browse the client in Clients › Summary. You may see the default C:/ directory and also a new EXCHANGE:/ directory. Both directories can be browsed.

The EXCHANGE:/ directory contains an ESEBackup and an MBXBackup directory. The ESEBackup directory contains the Exchange or mailbox databases. The MBXBackup directory contains the individual mailboxes with their data and email messages.

If you make any changes to the client configuration via the RVXConfig window while the client is running, you must restart the client before changes take effect.