20 tips in 20 minutes: Protecting and recovering Exchange data

"20 tips on protecting and recovering Exchange data in 20 minutes" is excerpted from a chapter in Jerry Cochran's book, Mission Critical Microsoft Exchange 2003 © 2004, published by Digital Press, a division of Elsevier.

You can download a .pdf version of a Chapter in Jerry Cochran's new book. To download "Protecting and Recovering Exchange data," click here.

Table of contents

Exchange backup/restore fundamentals
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• Exchange backup types
• Normal (full) and copy backups
• Incremental and differential backups
• A word to the wise about off-line backup and restore

In depth: Exchange 2003 backup operation
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• Starting with the basics
• Initializing the backup operation
• Copying the databases
• Backing up, truncating and cleaning up the transaction logs
• Implications for backup planning and procedures
• The poor, misunderstood patch file
• ESE's Page Zeroing feature

In depth: Exchange 2003 restore operation
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In this section, the author take a close look at how Exchange restore operations work at the database engine and API-level. Also, note that while this discussion is centered around Exchange 2000/2003, previ¬ous versions work similarly, even though several minor variances exist between different version and service pack levels of Exchange Server.

• Beginning the restore and copying the databases
• Restore the log and patch files
• The restore environment
• Completing the restore and running hard recovery
• Snap/clone technology overview
• Building the foundation: Volume Shadow Copy Service
• Exchange Server 2003 support for VSS

Supercharged disaster recovery for Exchange Server 2003
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• Exchange recovery servers
• Leveraging Exchange Server 2003's Recovery Storage Group feature

Additional resources and information
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Microsoft Exchange 2000 Disaster Recovery White Paper
Microsoft Exchange Server 2000 Support Center
Microsoft Active Directory Forest Recovery
Backup and Restoring Connectors on Microsoft Exchange 2000 Server
Exchange 2000 Database Recovery
Mailbox Recovery for Microsoft Exchange 2000 Server

You can download a .pdf version of a Chapter in Jerry Cochran's new book. To download "Protecting and Recovering Exchange data," click here.

About the author: Jerry Cochran is a contributing editor for Windows IT Pro and Exchange & Outlook Administrator and a group program manager for Microsoft. He is the author of Mission-Critical Microsoft Exchange 2000 (Digital Press).

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