Exchange Protection

The Exchange Granular Restore (EGR) console allows you to restore mail items using Direct Exchange Injection. The backups used can be created by System Protection, File Protection or File Archiving. This means the backup you use to protect your Exchange Server can also be used to restore mail items.

EGR is the recommended BackupAssist tool for restoring mailboxes and mail items for Exchange 2013, 2010 and 2007. It is enabled in BackupAssist when you purchase the Exchange Granular Restore Add-on and supersedes the backup-based Exchange Mailbox Protection solution. This earlier technology was purchased as the Exchange Mailbox Add-on, and is now bundled with the Exchange Granular Restore Add-on license. Both solutions are supported.

Exchange add-on comparison

Feature	Exchange Mailbox Add-on	Exchange Granular Restore Add-on
Exchange version	2007, 2010	2007, 2010, 2013
Special backup	Required	Not required
Exchange Server authentication	Required	Not required

Exchange Granular Restore Add-on Support for backup types - by server version

	Windows 2008/R2	Windows 2012/R2
System Protection
File Protection & File Archiving

The Exchange Granular Restore Add-on can restore:

• Mailboxes, mail folders and emails (cannot be encrypted)
• Folders
• File attachments
• Contacts
• Notes
• Tasks
• Appointments
• Journal items

Journals, emails attached in other emails and embedded email objects are currently not supported.

Requirements

• BackupAssist 7.2 or later must be installed on the Exchange Server.
• Operating systems: Windows Server 2012/R2, 2008/R2.
• RAM: 256-1024 MB, depends on mail store size and OS version
• May require free space on disk 1.5x the size of mail data being processed.

Exchange Granular Restore is tested for optimal performance up to the following dataset sizes.

• Database size: 500 Gb / Mailbox size: 100 Gb
• Number of messages in one mailbox - 100,000, in the database - 2,000,000.
• Number of mailboxes in the database: 2,000

Before creating a backup job, it is important to understand what backup and restore options are available. This section provides guidance on some key considerations.

Exchange VM Detection

If your backup job contains a Hyper-V guest with an Exchange Server, the authentication information for that guest should be entered into the Exchange VM Detection tab on the Selection screen when you create the backup job. With these credentials, BackupAssist can detect what guests have an Exchange Server, and list the EDB files available for each guest when you perform a restore using the Exchange Granular Restore console.

The Exchange VM Detection tab will appear when the Hyper-V role is installed and running on the server. If you are backing up multiple Exchange guests, each one should have the same username and password.

The Hyper-V process is automated but the restore requires both the Exchange Granular Restore Add-on and the Hyper-V Granular Restore Add-on licenses.

Restore vs. Recovery

A restore is the process of accessing a backup and restoring it to the original (or a new) location, if your data is lost, corrupted or if you want an earlier version of that data. However, if your computer cannot start itself, you may need to perform a recovery.

A recovery is the process by which a computer is recovered after hardware has been replaced or an operating system failure has occurred, and your computer can no longer start itself. To perform a recovery you need a bootable media to start your computer, and an image backup that the bootable media can use to recover your operating system, data and applications.

BackupAssist File Protection and File Archiving can be used to back up and restore your Exchange Server, but if you want to be able to recover your Windows Server, the following should be considered when planning your backup strategy:

• BackupAssist's Recover tab can be used to create a customized, bootable recovery media. This media will start your computer and load a recovery environment that can access an image backup to recover your computer. RecoverAssist can be used by Windows 7, 8, Server 2008/12 and SBS 2008/11.
• System Protection can create the image backup used in the recovery process. It can also create a backup of Exchange so your Information Store database can be restored. These two capabilities make System Protection a powerful and versatile Exchange backup solution. System Protection creates an image backup for Windows 7, 8, Windows Server 2008/12 and SBS 2008/11 computers.

For more information on data recovery, see the Recover tab & RecoverAssist Whitepaper.

Windows SystemState

Overview

In previous versions of BackupAssist, Windows SystemState was called System State and it was available during the creation of a backup job. The Windows SystemState option is now selected by editing a backup job after it has been created. There are exceptions, as shown in the table below.

A Windows SystemState backup contains some of the important files, registry values and settings that are used by the Windows operating system. It does NOT back up the operating system itself. This means a Windows SystemState backup can be used to restore the settings your computer had at an earlier point in time, but it will not allow you to recover your computer. A Windows SystemState backup can be helpful if your computer is encountering errors and you want to restore your settings to an earlier point in time, before the errors occurred.

Because Windows SystemState requires a functioning computer, and can only restore Windows settings, we recommended that a bare-metal backup is used. A bare-metal backup can restore Windows SystemState data, and it can ALSO be used to perform a recovery of your computer, when used with a Windows recovery environment, like RecoverAssist.

Selecting Windows SystemState

Windows SystemState can be selected after a backup job has been created, if you have enabled the Windows settings. The exceptions, considerations and steps required are explained below:

This table shows what backup jobs can include Windows SystemState.

	File Archiving, File Protection and System Protection backup jobs	File Archiving zip-to-tape backup jobs	File Protection Rsync backup jobs
During the creation of a new backup job	NO	NO	NO
By editing an existing backup job	YES, if enabled	YES	NO

To enable Windows SystemState :

1. Select the BackupAssist Settings tab.

2. Select Windows settings.

3. Tick Enable v6 compatible Windows SystemState selection.

Backup jobs created in earlier versions of BackupAssist (that included System State) will have the setting enabled by default in BackupAssist v7.

Zip-to-tape backup jobs will not need to enable this setting, to select Windows SystemState.

To select Windows SystemState :

1. Select the BackupAssist Backup tab, and then select the Manage menu.

2. Select the backup job that you want to modify, and then select Edit from the menu.

3. Select Files and applications from the left pane.

4. Select Windows SystemState at the top of the data selection pane.

When creating a backup job, there are some global settings that should be configured in BackupAssist. If they are not configured, you will be prompted tocomplete them during the creation of your first backup. It is recommended that this is done in advance.

BackupAssist's settings can be entered and modified using the selections available in the Settings tab. Clicking on the Settings tab will display the selections as icons. Four of these are used when creating new a backup job and each one is described below:

Backup user identity

Backup jobs require an administrator account with read access to the data source, and full read-write access to the backup's destination. It is recommended that a dedicated backup account is created for this purpose. The account's details are entered using this menu item, and your backup jobs will be launched using these credentials. The account's permissions will be validated both when the backup user identity is entered and when the job is executed. If no account is specified or the account has insufficient permissions, the backup job will fail and note the error in the backup report.

A video explaining the creation of a backup user identity can be found on our, Videos Webpage.

Email server settings

This menu item is used to enter the details of the SMTP server used by BackupAssist to send email notifications. The SMTP server must be configured if you want to have an email Notifications step included when you create a backup job.

Email address list

This menu item is used to define and store the email addresses of potential notification recipients. The list will be used to populate the recipient selection screen when configuring an email notification for a backup job. Any email addresses entered during the creation of a new notification are automatically added to the Email address list.

Network paths

This option allows you to enter access credentials for networks, domains and drives that the default account (specified in the Backup user identity) does not have access to. Enter or browse to the location and add it to the Path list. The Edit option will allow you to enter an authentication account, specifically for that path. When you create a backup job to a remote location, that location will be automatically added here.

Having multiple connections to a resource using the same logon credentials can generate a Windows error, such as the BA260 NAS error. It is therefore recommended that you avoid having mapped shares on the computer running BackupAssist that are the same as the paths configured in BackupAssist.

The following instructions describe how to create an Exchange Server backup job, using BackupAssist. These backups can be used to restore your Exchange Server and to restore individual mail items.

This section explains how to back up your Exchange Server using VSS on Windows Server 2008, and SBS 2008 and later operating systems.

To enable the Exchange 2007 VSS writer, please refer to this blog article.

To back up Exchange on a Hyper-V guest for EGR, review the Exchange Server Backup Management > Files and applications section.

Launch BackupAssist and follow the steps outlined below:

1. Select the Backup tab, and click Create a new backup Job

2. Select System Protection, File Protection or File Archiving.

If this is the first time you have created a backup job, you will be asked to provide a Backup user identity if one has not been defined. See the section above, BackupAssist settings , for guidance.

The following instructions use System Protection to explain the Exchange VSS back up process.

Back up instructions specific to each backup type, can be found in these whitepapers:

• The BackupAssist System Protection whitepaper
• TheBackupAssist File Protection whitepaper
• The BackupAssist File Archiving whitepaper

3. Selections: The selections screen is used to select the data and applications that you would like to back up. Any local Exchange Servers detected will be displayed here as application containers.

An Exchange VM Detection tab will be available if you are backing up an Exchange VM guest. To learn more about this feature, see the Backup Considerations section.

You can select an entire VSS application or choose individual components. To back up your Exchange Server, select the Microsoft Exchange container.

If your local Exchange Server is not listed in the Selections screen, try restarting Exchange and the VSS service and click the Refresh button in BackupAssist.

• For System Protection backups, VSS applications will be backed up as part of a Backup up the Entire System selection. In the example above, Back up selected items only, was chosen and the Exchange Server application container was selected.
• To learn how to create a bare-metal backup using System Protection (for use in a recovery), see the BackupAssist System Protection whitepaper.
• For File Protection, File Archiving and System Protection backups, the top level Microsoft Exchange and Exchange Server application containers should be selected.

4. Destination media: The destination screen is used to select the type of media that you want to back your data up to. This step's name will change to the media type selected, when you click next.

Select a device for your backup destination, and click Next.

5. Schedule: This screen is used to select when and how you would like the backup job to run, and how long you would like the backup to be retained for. A selection of pre-configured schedules, called schemes, will be displayed.

• The schemes available will depend on the type of destination media selected in step 4.
• Clicking on a scheme will display information about the schedule used.
• The schedule can be customized after the backup job has been created.

Select an appropriate scheme, and click Next.

For more information about creating custom schedules, refer to the Backup tab whitepaper.

6. Set up destination: This screen is used to configure the location of the media selected in step 4.

The options presented will change with the type of media selected.

Configure your backup destination, and click Next.

Mail Server: If you have not configured an SMTP mail server for BackupAssist, you will be prompted to provide those details after the backup destination step has been completed. See the BackupAssist settings section for guidance.

7. Notifications: Once a backup job has completed, BackupAssist can send an email to inform selected recipients of the result. This email notification can be enabled during the creation of a backup job, if the mail server has been configured.

To enable email notifications:

a. Select, Add an email report notification.

b. Enter recipients into the Send reports to this email address field.

c. Enter recipients into the Also send reports to this email address field. You can then select the condition under which the email should be sent, using the drop-down box.

After the backup job has been created, you can modify the notifications by adding and removing recipients, setting additional notification conditions and including print and file notification types.

To learn more about notification options, see the BackupAssist Backup tab whitepaper.

8. Prepare media: If you selected a portable media device as your backup destination (such as an external HDD or a RDX drive) you will be given the option to prepare the media for BackupAssist. BackupAssist will write a label onto the media so that it can recognise what media has been attached, and determine if it is the correct media for your backup schedule.

To enable media detection:

a. Select, Let BackupAssist keep track of your media.

b. Select what you would like BackupAssist to do, if the wrong media is inserted.

c. Select what you would like BackupAssist to do, if new or unrecognized media is inserted.

BackupAssist will display all removable media that are currently attached, along with a text field and drive designation drop-down box, which can be used to provide a label for the media.

To prepare your media:

d. Enter the name and drive designation to be used for each media device listed.

e. Select Prepare for each media device listed.

BackupAssist will now write the label to the media so that it is able to recognize the media and ensure that the correct media is being used on the correct day. For example, if you put an RDX drive in on Tuesday but it was labeled Wednesday, BackupAssist will warn you that the incorrect media has been detected.

9. Name your backup: Provide a name for your backup job, and click Finish.

Your Exchange Server (VSS) backup job has now been created.

Important: Once a backup job has been created, it should be reviewed and run using the Manage menu. This menu provides additional options to configure your backup. See the section, Exchange Server backup management , on page 17 for more information.

Important: Once the backup has been created, it should be checked. You can check the backup by performing a manual test restore, or using the Backup Verification feature.

This section describes the process of restoring an Exchange Server that was backed up using System Protection, File Protection or File Archiving. A full Exchange Server or individual storage groups can be restored using this process.

In this section a File Protection backup is used as the restore example.

To restore an Exchange Server Information Store database, start BackupAssist and follow these steps:

1. Start BackupAssist

2. Select the Restore tab

The Restore tab has a Home page and a Tools menu. The Home page is the default screen and the recommended starting point for performing a restore. The Tools menu should only be used by experienced administrators or users being assisted by technical support.

3. From the Home page, select the type of restore you want to perform.

For an Exchange Server restore, you should select Exchange.

This will open the Restore > Exchange screen and display all catalogued backups that match your selection. The backups displayed will be for active backup jobs.

4. From the Restore > Exchange screen, select Exchange Server Restore .

The next screen, will display a list of all Exchange VSS backups

5. Select the Backup to restore from

The backups can be filtered using the following time period tabs:

• Last 7 days tab, displays backups created in the last 7 days.
• Last 30 days tab, displays backups created in the last 30 days.
• All tab, displays all Exchange Server backups catalogued by BackupAssist.
• Custom tab, displays backups made between the dates specified in show backups between.

Click on the backup you want to restore from. The Restore Console will open and load that backup.

6. Restore Console - backup selection

The Restore Console provides two tools to help you locate the data that you want to restore:

The Browse tab. This tab is used to browse the contents of the backup. You can also select a different backup using the Select a backup to browse drop down box. The backups available will be the ones displayed on the Exchange Server Restore screen.

The Browse tab is ideal if you know the backup and date that you want to restore from, or if you want to restore an entire backup set.

a. Use the drop-down menu to choose the backup that you want to restore from.

b. Use the calendar to select the date you want to restore from.

c. Use the middle panes to expand the backup set.

d. Select the data to restore.

e. Click Restore to at the bottom right of the window.

• The Search tab. Select this tab to search all of the loaded backups for the data you want to restore. You can display data filtered by name, date, size and type, for all backups. The results can be compared (e.g. the dates of two files) to identify the correct data selection.

a. Enter your search term (The search accepts wild card searches, such as *.log or *.doc).

b. Select a filter/s if required.

c. Click the Search button.

d. Select the data to restore.

e. Click Restore to at the bottom right of the window.

If you wish to load backups for deleted backup jobs and for other backup groupings on the Home page, select Load backups and then Load all known backups.

For more information about data selection, refer to the Restore tab whitepaper.

5. Restore Console - restore destination selection

When you select Restore to, a window will open showing the Backup location, the Restore to destination and the Restore options.

a. Review Backup location: Change the selection if the backup was moved after it was created.

b. Review Restore to: Leave the Original location selected.

c. Restore options: Select Overwrite existing files.

d. Select, Create a log file listing all processed files, if you want to create a file that lists the success or failure of every file. The log can be opened by selecting the file’s link in the backup report.

e. Queue all backup jobs when a restore is running, is selected by default.

f. Click the Restore button to restore your data.

• If BackupAssist cannot access the backup location you will be prompted to either connect the appropriate media or specify an alternate location where the backup can be found.
• The restore will run from the destination window and a Report link will appear once the restore has finished.

g. Select Done.

Your Exchange Server restore has now been completed.

Exchange Granular Restore (EGR) is enabled in BackupAssist with the purchase of the Exchange Granular Restore Add-on. This restore-based solution allows you to use System Protection, File Protection and File Archiving backups to restore individual mailboxes and mail items.

Important considerations:

• When you restore individual emails or a mailbox, the word RESTORED will appear in the Subject line of every email. This is enabled by default and can be turned off using the EGR Options menu, by selecting Options > Add RESTORED to exported item > No.
• BackupAssist's restore Home page can display backups of Exchange databases inside Hyper-V guests so that mail items can be restored using the Exchange Granular Restore console. The Hyper-V process is automated but the restore requires both the Exchange Granular Restore Add-on and the Hyper-V Granular Restore Add-on licenses.
• If you launch the EGR console from the Tools menu, you will need to manually mount the Data container to locate an EDB file inside it. To mount a data container, please refer to our blog article.

To restore individual mail items, follow the steps below:

Step 1 - Locate the Exchange backup

1. Start BackupAssist and select the Restore tab

The Restore tab has a Home page and a Tools menu. The Home page is the default screen and the recommended starting point for performing a restore. The Tools menu should only be used by experienced administrators or users being assisted by technical support.

3. From the Restore Home page, select Exchange

This will open the Restore > Exchange screen and display the restore options available.

4. From the Restore > Exchange screen, select Exchange Granular Restore (.edb)

Backups made with BackupAssist 7.1 and later (that contain Exchange databases) will be displayed.

5. Select the database file to restore from

• The backups displayed can be filtered using the time period tabs.
• Selecting a backup will expand its contents and display each .edb database inside the backup.

When you select the required database file, the Exchange Granular Restore console will start and open the .edb file. A progress window will appear while the database is opening.

Once the .edb file has been opened, you will be able to view the mail items inside it.

Note: If you open Exchange Granular Restore from the Restore > Tools menu, you can use EGR to browse to, an open, a PST or OST file. You can then search the PST or OST file, and restore the selected mail items.

Step 2 - Locate the mail items to be restored

The Exchange Granular Restore (EGR) console has a Browse mail tree and a Search field to help locate, preview and select the mail items that you want to restore.

The Browse and Search options

Display filter: Press CTL+F and a Filter field will appear under the list of currently displayed mail items. Select the Subject, From, To, Attachments, Created or All filter, and enter the text to filter by.

Restore Deleted items: Display hidden deleted items, is available in the Options menu, and selecting it will give access to previously deleted mail items. This is not mail from the delete items folder but mail items that are no longer present. The database will reload when a selection is made and the deleted items will and have a flag to indicate that they are a deleted item.

• Deleted items from Exchange Server 2007 are stored in their original folders.
• Deleted items from Exchange 2010 and 2013 are stored in the folder Deletions. These items cannot be restored to live Exchange Server database. It is recommended that these items are exported to a PST file and then imported into the live Exchange Server.

Display time: Select Display time, from the Options menu and select Local or GMT. This applies to the date in the properties tab of a mail item. The database will reload when the format is changed.

Using Browse

The Browse mail tree is displayed in the console’s left pane. Browsing for the items you want to restore is ideal when you know their location.

• Selecting a folder will display the individual mail items inside it, on the pane to the right.
• Selecting a mail item will preview its contents in the pane below it.

Using Search

The Search field is ideal when the location of a mail item or the number of items to restore is unknown. When a keyword search is performed, a new tab with a browse tree will open containing only the mailboxes, folders and mail items that match your search criteria. The search word must be a whole word

To perform a simple Search, enter the search word into the field, click the search icon and the Search tab will open in the console. This Search tab will contain all items in the database that contains the word you entered.

To perform an advanced Search, select the arrow by the Search field to display the advanced search options. The Search in field will default to the entire database. To search inside specific mailboxes or folders, select the Search in field and use the dialogue window to select the required containers.

The following search options are available:

• Has words, searches for mail items that have words or phrases entered into the field.
• Doesn't have, searches for items that do not have words or phrases entered into the field.
• Has attachments, will search for items with attachments.
• From, will search for keywords in the From: field.
• To, will search for keywords in the To: field.
• Subject, will search for keywords in the Subject: field.
• Date range, can be used to set a specific date range. A beginning and end dates must be set.

The fastest way to get search results is by entering keywords into the Has Words field and clicking the Search button.

If a search does not match any items, review your search parameters and run another search.

Once you have located the mail items that you want to restore, select them using the tick box. Once you have selected an item to restore, the restore type icons in the menu will become active.

Indexing Modes

Database indexing can be disabled or cancelled via the Options menu. If indexing is disabled, a database search will not be possible. Two indexing modes are supported: Light and Full.

• Light indexing (default): Limits the searchable information to the following fields: From, To, Subject, Date range. A To field with a long recipients list and message bodies will not be indexed.


• Full indexing:Full indexing: This mode will take longer to index as it allows a search across the entire database.

Step 3 - Perform the restore

Once you have located the required mail items, there are three ways they can be restored using the Exchange Granular Restore console: Export to PST, Restore to original location and Restore to alternate location. Each of these options is explained below.

Option 1: Restore to original location

This option will restore the selected mail items back into their respective mailboxes on the original Exchange Server

To perform the restore, follow the steps below:

1. Select the Restore to original location button.

An Exchange Server connection window will open. The domain name of the server running Exchange will be automatically detected if you are on the same domain.

2. If no Exchange Server was detected, manually fill in the Server name field and click Reconnect.

It is possible to restore data to someone else’s mailbox using Exchange Impersonation. To do this, the current user credentials must have Exchange Impersonation access to the destination mailboxe.

3. Select Restore, to begin the restore process.

A progress window will be displayed during the restore. The window shows the number of folders, messages and errors. You can enable and disable the progress window in the Options menu.

• The restore can be cancelled by clicking the Cancel restore button.
• The progress window can be reopened by clicking Progress bar on the status panel.

Option 2: Restore to alternate location

This option will restore the emails and mail items from the offline backup to a live Exchange database that is different to the one they were backed up from.

To perform the restore, follow the steps below:

1. Select Connect to Exchange Mailbox .

The Connect to Exchange Mailbox button will open the connection dialog box, which is used to provide the Exchange Server name and the authentication details (User logon) for a specific mailbox on that server. This authentication process can be repeated for additional mailboxes.

The Restore to alternate location button will become active when a connection has been made.

Enter the following details into the connection dialog box:

• Server name - Domain name Exchange Server or IP address.
• Mailbox user name - This will identify, authenticate and open the applicable mailbox.
• Password- The password for the applicable mailbox.

If Use current Windows credentials is selected, the existing user’s Windows password will be used.

If Exchange Impersonation is selected, enter the SMTP address of the mailbox that you want to connect to. Exchange impersonation must also be configured on the Exchange Server.

Once the connection has been made, the mailbox you have authenticated to will appear as a mailbox tree in a new pane called Connected Mailboxes. You can open a preview pane for the destination mailbox tree by selecting the Show item list and preview icon (CTL+R), to the right of the Connected Mailboxes pane.

2. Restore the mail items

There are two ways to restore mail items to the alternate location: drag and drop and the Restore to alternate location button.

Drag and drop: Drag and drop mail items from the EDB database backup, into the live Exchange mailbox that you have connected to.

• The hierarchy of the data being dragged will be recreated inside the destination folder.
• You can create a new folder in the live mailbox by right clicking the mailbox or a folder.

Restore to alternate location button: Click the check-box next to items that you want to restore and select the Restore to alternate location button. A dialog box will open and allow you to select a destination folder on one of the connected mailboxes. Make your destination selection and select OK to begin the restore.

• The data hierarchy will be restored automatically.
• The root of hierarchy is the closest common parent item.

Source mail items and destination folder compatibility

Not all types of mail items can be restore to all types of destinations folders. The following table shows the compatibility matrix of source mail item types and destination directories.

Item type	*Mail folder	Journals	Notes	Contacts	Calendar	Tasks
Message	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y
Journal	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y
Sticky Note	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y
Contact	N	N	N	Y	N	N
Calendar	N	N	N	N	Y	N
Task	N	N	N	N	N	Y

* The Mail folder includes Deleted Items, Drafts, Inbox, Junk, Outbox and Sent.

If some or all of the selected items cannot be restored (using drag and drop or clicking the Restore to alternate location button) to the destination folder, then an error message will be displayed.

Option 3: Export to PST

Export to PST will save your selected data in a PST file, which can be opened by outlook to access the mail items

1. Confirm the Personal Storage Table (PST) format

You can choose Unicode or ANSI encoding for the PST output file using the Options menu.

The Exchange Granular Restore console exports each mailbox into a separate .pst file named: Restore NNN [ VVV].pst where NNN is the current recovery session identifier and VVV is the volume number, in case the PST file has to be written in more than one volume.

With large exports, there can be more than one PST file. Additional files are created automatically when the file size limit is hit. The size limit depends on the output file encoding.

For ANSI PST files, the size limit is 1 GB. For Unicode PST files, the size limit is 10 GB. A maximum of 15,000 messages can be restored into the PST file. When this limit is reached, an additional PST file is created.

2. Export the selected mail items

Once the mail items have been selected, they need to be exported from the database file. To export the selected mail items, click the Export button on the toolbar.

3. Select the destination

You will be asked to select a folder or create a new folder. After selecting the new or existing folder, the export will begin.

You will be shown a progress window during the export. The window shows the number of saved mailboxes, folders and messages. The export can be cancelled by clicking the Stop Export button. If you close the progress window, it can be opened again by clicking the status panel‘s progress bar.

The items selected (even if you only selected one item) will be exported as a PST file.

4. Open the exported mail items in Outlook

a. Click File > Open and choose Open Outlook Data File.

b. Browse to the PST file that was exported, then select it and click OK. The PST file will appear in Outlook as a container.

5. Restore the exported items to the Exchange Server.

Items extracted from an offline Exchange mail store can be restored to a live server. Make sure you have Microsoft Outlook and access to the mailbox that you want to restore the mail items into.

a. Open the PST file that contains the exported mail items.

b. Open the mailbox that you need to import the data into.

c. Drag-and-drop the item them back into their original folders. They will be automatically synchronized with the live Exchange Server database.

Once you have created a backup job, you can modify the settings and access advanced configuration options using the management screen.

To access the backup management screen:

1. Select the BackupAssist, Backup tab.

2. Select Manage from the top menu. A list of all backup jobs will be displayed.

3. Select the backup job you want to modify, and select Edit.

4. Select the required configuration item on the left. Key configurations are described below.

To learn more about the backup management options, see the Backup tab whitepaper.

Manually running a backup job

All new and modified backup jobs should be manually run to ensure they work as intended.

1. Select the backup job, and select Run.

2. You will be prompted to Rerun a past backup or to Run a future backup now.

3. When the backup job starts, the screen will change to the Monitor view.

4. Once the backup has been completed, select the Report button and review the results.

When a System Protection, File Protection or File Archiving job runs, BackupAssist will automatically perform a consistency check on your Exchange Server and truncate log files to correctly back up the Exchange Information Store. If, however, the VSS backup mode is set to 'Copy' in the open files tab, the Exchange logs will not be truncated.

Files and applications

If your backup job contains a Hyper-V guest with an Exchange Server, the authentication information for the guest should be entered into the Exchange VM Detection tab.

Select the File and applications > Exchange VM Detection tab.

With these credentials, BackupAssist can detect what guests have an Exchange Server, and list the EDB file available for each guest when you perform a restore using the Exchange Granular Restore console.

The Hyper-V process is automated but the restore requires both the Exchange Granular Restore Add-on and the Hyper-V Granular Restore Add-on licenses.

Examining backup logs

Once the backup completes, you should examine the backup report to make sure your Exchange Server was backed up successfully.

1. Select Reports from the Backup tab menu and double-click the applicable report in the list.

OR

Select the Report button displayed on the Monitor screen once the backup has completed.

2. Once the report has been opened, scroll down to the Exchange Server backup report section.

For VSS application backup jobs, the report will include a VSS application backup report. When backing up Exchange databases using the VSS writers option, a section within the backup report will outline whether BackupAssist was able to backup the databases consistently. Any errors that relate to the Exchange database integrity check will be listed in this section of the report.

The Exchange System Manager will also indicate when the last full backup occurred on Exchange. This can be viewed in the general tab of the mailbox data properties.

Scheduling

Selecting Scheduling will display the Scheduling options. You can use this screen to change the default time and days of your scheme's daily backups. If you selected a scheme with archive backups (e.g. weekly, monthly), you can specify when each archive backup will run. Some backup types will have additional configuration options. The current scheme is shown, along with two pop-up menus: Select a new schedule and Customize schedule.

Select a new Schedule: This will display the pre-configured backup schemes that you chose from during the creation of your backup job. You can select a different scheme using this option.

Customize schedule: This selection can be used to modify each backup within your current schedule. The customizations available will depend on the type of backup and the type of backup media used.

For additional information on Scheduling, please refer to the whitepaper for the type of backup you are using (e.g. System Protection), and the Backup tab whitepaper.