Integrated D2D Backup for Exchange Server 2003

Our D2D backup appliance provides a network-based backup solution for Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 enabling enterprise-class data protection and backup and recovery with an appliance designed from the ground-up for small and medium businesses. Up-to-Date D2D Backup for Exchange Server 2003 Backup & Restore Microsoft Exchange Server 2003

Unitrends offers Exchange Server 2003 backup protection via our fully-compliant VSS-based Exchange backup agent. This same backup agent provides VSS-compliant backup for Exchange Server 2010 and backup for Exchange Server 2007 as well.

Beginning with release 4.2, we support a fully-integrated VSS-level Exchange agent for Exchange Server 2010, Exchange Server 2007, and Exchange Server 2003 (we continue to support a streaming agent for Exchange Server 2000.) Our release 4.2 Exchange agent supports full and differential backups of mailboxes and public folders, a priori integrity checks of the Exchange infrastructure, integrated point-in-time recover capabilities, and other features.

In addition to the brick-level recovery found in Exchange 2010 and Exchange 2007 with respect to not only soft but also hard deletes, Unitrends also offers Kroll OnTrack as an option for deeper granular search and restore capabilities.

The following list describes the Backup Exchange Server 2003 process with Volume Shadow Copy service:

1. The backup program (or agent) runs a scheduled job.
2. The Volume Shadow Copy service Requestor in the backup program sends a command to the Volume Shadow Copy service to take a shadow copy of the selected Exchange Server 2003 storage groups.
3. Volume Shadow Copy service communicates with the Exchange Server 2003 Writer to prepare for a snapshot backup.
4. Volume Shadow Copy service communicates with the appropriate storage provider to create a shadow copy of the storage volume or the storage volumes that contain the Exchange Server 2003 storage group or storage groups.
5. Volume Shadow Copy service releases Exchange Server 2003 to resume ordinary operations.
6. The Volume Shadow Copy service Requestor verifies the integrity of the backup set prior to informing Exchange that the backup was successful.

For example, when a shadow copy request is received from an Exchange Server 2003 backup program that has Volume Shadow Copy service support (a requestor), Volume Shadow Copy service communicates with the Exchange Server 2003 Writer to prepare for the snapshot, at this point Exchange Server 2003 prohibits administrative actions against the storage group, checks volume dependencies and suspends all write operations to database and transaction log files while allowing read-only access. Volume Shadow Copy service then communicates with the appropriate storage provider to initiate the shadow copy process for the disk volumes that contain the Exchange Server 2003 data. The shadow copy typically takes couple of seconds which will be practically imperceptible to the end user. When the shadow copy has been taken, Volume Shadow Copy service communicates with the Exchange Server 2003 Writer that Exchange can resume ordinary operations. Backup program verifies the health of the shadow copy prior to informing Exchange that the backup was successful. At the end of a successful backup Exchange truncates the logs and records the time of the last backup for the database or databases. 

 

For more information regarding Exchange 2003 backups, we recommend the following Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 knowledge base article: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/822896

Unitrends uses a common D2D backup and recovery engine for providing protection for over 100 different versions of operating systems and applications. This means you can support Microsoft Windows, Microsoft Exchange, Microsoft SQL, Microsoft Hyper-V, VMware, Sun Solaris, Novell OES, Novell Netware, Novell GroupWise, Novell eDirectory, Linux, FreeBSD, Apple MacOS X, IBM pSeries/AIX, HP HP-UX, SCO UnixWare, SCO OpenServer, IBM iSeries/OS400, and SGI IRIX on notebooks, PCs, workstations, and servers and on DAS, NAS, or SAN storage.