What is an Exchange brick-level backup?

Digg This!     StumbleUpon     Del.icio.us

RELATED CONTENT Microsoft Exchange Server Backup and Disaster Recovery Backing up public folders on multiple Exchange servers Exchange Server 2010 bows with improved recovery Restore Exchange storage groups with DPM 2007 How a hosted Exchange service can help you Developing an Exchange 2007 server role DR plan DPM 2007 replica inconsistencies in Exchange databases Fixing DPM 2007 inconsistent replica errors in Exchange Server New high availability features in Exchange Server 2010 Restore contacts from an Exchange public folder Exchange Server 2007 SP2 reinstates built-in backup capabilities Microsoft Exchange Server Backup and Disaster Recovery Research David Sengupta: Server Administration Changing email address formats in Exchange Server 2003 Should you remove .STM files from Exchange Server 2003? Exchange users receiving email addressed to legacy users Pushing a public calendar out from a private Exchange account Import and export .PST files in Exchange Server 2007 Editing Exchange Server public folder permissions Search and index Microsoft Outlook 2007 public folders Troubleshooting Microsoft Exchange Server Event ID error 6009 Can't delete old Microsoft Outlook public folders Can't create mailboxes after virtualizing Microsoft Exchange Server

RELATED RESOURCES 2020software.com, trial software downloads for accounting software, ERP software, CRM software and business software systems Search Bitpipe.com for the latest white papers and business webcasts Whatis.com, the online computer dictionary

"Brick-level" refers to a class of backup software.

Traditional Exchange backups focus on backing up the Exchange database in such a way that does not permit granular recovery of individual email items. Most companies use this class of backup software. If individual items need to be recovered (i.e., as part of a compliance or Human Resources driven investigation, or because messages have been lost and no longer exist in the 'dumpster'), then recovery options are limited to:

Exchange 5.5 and Exchange 2000

• Building a recovery Exchange environment.
• Creating a MAPI profile to enable an Microsoft Outlook client to log into the respective mailbox(es) or using ExMerge to log on.
• Exporting relevant content to .PSTs.
• Importing relevant content back into the production environment or passing it on to Legal or HR for action as appropriate.

Exchange 2003

• Using a Recovery Storage Group (RSG) to recover the relevant database.
• Using ExMerge to recover the desired mailbox contents and merge them into the relevant production mailbox.

Brick-level backups use a different backup process in which they perform a MAPI logon to each mailbox as part of the backup process; this gives them the ability to recover individual mail items directly from backup media. It also facilitates recovery of single mail messages or mailboxes without having to build a recovery environment and without having to resort to RSGs.

One caution: Brick-level solutions are substantially slower at backing up your servers than traditional backup solutions. They also cost more and require significantly more backup media than traditional backup media.

If item-level recoverability is a requirement for your company, you may want to consider a hybrid solution instead of brick-level, namely either Quest Recovery Manager for Exchange (disclaimer: I work for Quest), Ontrack PowerControls or Mimosa NearPoint. All permit item-level recoverability using traditional backup methods without the long backup windows, licensing costs and backup media costs associated with brick-level solutions. I have seen many companies move away from brick-level recovery in favor of these solutions because their brick-level software was exceeding their nightly backup windows.

Do you have comments on this Ask the Expert Q&A? Let us know.

Related information from SearchExchange.com: