Installation guide

 The number of I/O requests to the production server is significantly reduced.

5.4.1.1 How the express full backup method works

The express full backup method is based on monitoring Exchange database files performed by

Acronis Express Backup Driver.

Beginning from the first regular full backup, the driver monitors all modifications performed on the

database file. The driver determines the offsets and regions of the database file which have been

modified by Exchange and stores information about these modifications in the list of changed file

regions.

At the next backup, the driver provides the list to the agent and the agent starts to back up only the

data corresponding to this list. The agent transfers only the changes and the data that cannot be

deduplicated (transaction log files and database page headers). Since the unchanged data is already

stored in the deduplicating vault, the agent only adds links to this data. After that, deduplication at

target is performed in the same way as for disk-level and file-level backups.

To learn more about how deduplication works, see the "How deduplication works" section in either

the product Help or the User Guide for Acronis Backup Advanced.

What happens in case of an unexpected system shutdown?

An unexpected system shutdown between the express full backups invalidates information

maintained by the Express Backup Driver. At the next backup, Acronis Backup runs the data re-sync

backup operation by comparing the current database files with the most recent backup rather than

performing a regular full database backup. Although the re-sync increases the number of I/O

requests to the production server, it still saves storage space and network traffic. The next backups

after the "re-synced" backup will proceed as regular express full backups.

What if one of the scheduled backups fails?

If one or more of the scheduled express full backups fail, the next successful backup will be a regular

express full backup based on differences since the previous successful backup.

What happens when maintenance operations involve rebooting of the Exchange

server?

If Exchange server reboot is part of maintenance operations, the next successful backup will be a

regular express full backup.

5.4.1.2 Usage examples

This section provides examples of how you can use the express full backup method.

Example 1. Backing up within a narrow backup window

Case: The company's working schedule allows a backup window of only 5 hours per night. The

network bandwidth is 60 GB per hour. This effectively limits the amount of data that can be backed

up nightly to 300 GB. The Exchange server in the company hosts 500 GB of data making it impossible

to finish a full backup within the required time frame. Daily changes, however, almost never exceed 5

GB.