Installation guide

5 Backup

This section describes only the steps and settings that are specific for backing up Microsoft Exchange

Server data. The whole procedure of backup plan creation and common backup plan settings, such as

selecting backup locations, setting up backup replication, retention and validation are described in

the "Backup" section of the product Help or the User Guide for Acronis Backup Advanced.

Back up now

Use the Back up now to do a one-time backup of the Exchange server's data in a few simple steps.

The backup process will start immediately after you perform the required steps and click OK.

Create backup plan

Create a backup plan, if you need a long-term backup strategy including backup schemes, schedules,

timely deleting of backups, or moving them to different locations.

Create a backup plan on a managed machine to back up data of an individual Exchange server.

Create a backup plan on the management server to back up data of the supported Exchange clusters.

For more information, see "Backing up and recovering data of Exchange clusters" (p. 47). By backing

up individual Exchange servers with backup plans on the management server, you obtain a single

point to manage and monitor activities related to data protection.

5.1 How Exchange data is organized

Information store

Microsoft Exchange Server stores its data in a single repository called information store (in Exchange

2003/2007), Exchange store (in Exchange 2010), or Managed store (in Exchange 2013). The primary

components of the information store are storage groups (for Exchange 2003/2007 only) and

Exchange databases.

Exchange database

There are two types of Exchange databases.

 A mailbox database stores contents of mailboxes. Mailbox content is private to the mailbox user.

 A public folder database stores public folders data. Public folder content is shared among

multiple users. Public folder databases exist in Exchange versions earlier than Exchange 2013.

Either type database stores the data in the following files:

 Database file (.edb)

Contains message headers, message text, and standard attachments.

An Exchange 2003/2007 database uses two files: .edb for text data and .stm for MIME data.

 Transaction log files (.log)

Contains the history of changes made to the database. Only after a change has been securely

logged, it is then written to the database file. This approach guarantees a reliable recovery of the

database in a consistent state in case of a sudden database interruption.

Each log file is 1024 KB in size. When an active log file is full, Exchange closes it and creates a new

log file.