Technology is like a boom for every individual or organization. With the immense upgradation in the technology, digital world is flourishing very well. However, with this huge evaluation in some or the other way disaster also come. This ultimately leads to the need of data prevention. The effective strategy of business continuity and data recovery plays a vital role in data security. From many backup and recovery system, one of the trustworthy applications, which contribute to BCDR strategy, is Data Protection Manager (DPM).
Data Protection Manager facilitates recovery as well as backup of enterprise data. In case of Microsoft Exchange, no doubt, it consists of native data protection. It has the potential to protect the data, but in some scenarios, users require a traditional backup tool. If we talk about the recent edition, then DPM 2012 is capable to perform this task. It is specifically designed to protect Exchange Server with other Microsoft workloads. Moreover, the native data protection is useful in disaster recovery, long-term data storage, accidentally removed items recovery, etc. Nevertheless, in case of malware incidents, security issues, corruptions, and application errors it is recommended to use traditional tool. DPM is the best trick to rectify all these problems. This Data Protection Manager uses numerous technologies to give nonstop data security for MS Exchange 2013, 2010, 2007. It supports:
- Active and Passive databases in DAG
- Constant replication
- Standalone mailbox backup
DPM Backup for Microsoft Exchange 2010 and 2013
In Exchange edition 2010 and 2013, Data Protection Management performs the recovery on the following:
- Within a database group, backup of MS Exchange databases
- Backup of Microsoft Exchange Server roles
- Configures Volume Protection
- Gives protection to entire Exchange data & configuration settings
Reason Behind Choosing Data Protection Manager for Exchange Database Backup
- At the time of backup with DPM, there is no dependence on DAGs
- It performs a simple as well as centralized recovery of data
- DPM ensures the continuous Microsoft workloads backup
- It provides a longer backed up preservation period
Before, going further to the steps, there are certain things that need to be considered such as:
- DPM Deployment
- Storage Setup
- DPM protection agent set up
Steps to Recover Exchange Data
Single Mailbox Recovery
- Make sure, you generate an existing recovery mailbox (if you do not have) on secured Exchange server. You can create it by using New-MailboxDatabase
- Then, use cmdlet- Set-MailboxDatabase for the configuration of recovery database
- After this, in DPM Adminitrator Console, choose the Recovery view & go to the database of that mailbox, which is about to recovered
- Now, in Recovery Time, choose Recover and then choose Recovery points. You need to click on a data and then select a recovery point
- Next, in Recovery Wizard check the recovery selection and hit on Next
- Indicates the type of recovery you want to perform and click on Next
- A screen of Specify Recovery options will pops-up. Now, indicate if you wish to mount databases, wish to enable throttling, wish to allow SAN- based recovery, or wish to send the email notification at the time of completion or not
- Under Summary screen, review the Recovery settings and hit on Recover
- Once the process is completed, click on Close
- To restore the mailbox completely, run this command New-MailboxRestoreRequest -SourceDatabase ‘RDB-CONTROL’ -SourceStoreMailbox ‘mailbox name’ -TargetMailbox 'name'@contoso.com -TargetRootFolder Recovery -SkipMerging StorageProviderForSource
- As soon as the restoring is done, run Windows PowerShell cmdlet for dismouting and deleting Recovery Mailbox database- Remove-MailboxDatabase -Identity ‘RDB-CONTROL’
Exchange Database Recovery
- First, go to DPM Administrator Console, and choose Recovery view
- In Recovery view, choose mailbox database, which you want to recover
- Then, in Recovery Points section, pick a date, and select Latest for getting up to date backup
- Now, click on Recover
- In Recovery Wizard examine the recovery selection
- After this, you need to click on Next
- Indicate the type of recovery you wish to perform and then hit on Next
- Specify Recovery Options, this screen will be displayed. In this, choose Mount the databases one the recovery is done & Network bandwidth usage throttling option. If you want to permit SAN-based recovery option, check the required boxes
- In Notification window, hit on Send an e-mail once the recovery is done by indicating recipient’s email address
- Then, open MS Exchange Admin Center once again
- Hit on Servers and choose Databases
- Choose the Exchange mailbox database, which you wish to overwrite
- Next, click on Edit and then on Maintenance
- Once you are done with this, choose This database can be overwritten by a restore and click on Save
- Click on Summary screen to see Recovery Settings
- Finally, click on Recover and then on Finish
Exchange Server Recovery
- In DPM Administrator Console, choose Recovery view
- Now, choose Server, which needs to be recover
- Then, click on Recovery Time >> Recover >> Recovery Points
- In Recovery Points, choose data & recovery point from given list
- Right click on BMR>> Recover
- Next, go to Recovery Wizard & observe the Recovery Selection and hit on Next
- In, Selective Recovery Type, select any option as per your requirement i.e. Copy to the network folder/Copy to tape option
- In, Specify Destination, select the location to save the database files
- After this, go to Specify Recovery Options and execute this action — Mount the databases after they are recovered, Network bandwidth usage throttling, Enable SAN-based recovery using hardware snapshots, Notifications as per the ease.
- Once it is done, go to Monitoring Tab and view the process progress
- Once the recovery is done, a message will be generated
- In this step, open destination folder of the recovery files to rename it
- If you want to perform Bare Metal Recovery, insert operating system ISO & choose Repair. Now, in Advanced options select System Image Recovery
- In the screen of Select a system image backup, pick Select a system image.
- Now, to move to the Advanced option & from network share, pick recovery files
- Then, hit on Search for a system picture on network & go for Yes
- In the final step, specify the network folder, select the backup, & then indicate the date and the time of image, which you want to restore. You may state the additional driver and the disk settings too
- Click on Finish to recover.
Alternate Solution
There is no doubt that Data Protection Manager (DPM) is the best choice for backup and recovery but it has some limitations too. One of which is, it uses VSS snapshot that only supports up to 64 snapshots. It has limited flexibility i.e. no differential, incremental, or full backup can be done. In addition, the retention policies are same for the data, which resides on the same volume. As it is a manual process, it has a risk of data loss associated to it. On the contrary, the third-party utilities are fast, easy to understand, efficient and most importantly, they are reliable and risk-free solutions.
For Exchange 2013 recovery, there are plenty of third-party applications available in the market. Out of which, some have attained a strong position in the market, whereas some could not make a mark. Based on market demand, Exchange Recovery tool can be considered to be as the best solution to recover Exchange database and export Exchange 2003, 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016 EDB to PST. This product is tested, verified as well as suggested by the skilled professionals and MVPs who have years of experience in Exchange Server.
The Bottom Line
Proper management data is one of the crucial parts to maintain the business efficiency. Therefore, keeping it safe is very important. Due to the increasing demand of Exchange Server, we have learned two ways to backup and recovery of Exchange database. It is suggested to opt for a third party tool for safe, secure, and quick process.