You can use Acronis Backup to back up MS Exchange Server on two levels:

• Database-level: The whole databases\storage groups can be backed up
• Mailbox-level: Separate mailboxes\folders\emails can be backed up

Database-level backup can be used for:

• Disaster recovery of MS Exchange Server database
• Recovery of individual mailboxes from the backup

Mailbox-level backup cannot be used to restore MS Exchange database, so it is not applicable for disaster recovery of MS Exchange Server. It can be used only to recover backed up mailboxes to a properly working MS Exchange Server.

A backup level is selected on the backup plan sheet:

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(!) Mailbox-level backup of many mailboxes is a time consuming operation*, so it is recommended to use it when it is necessary to back up several important mailboxes/folders.

If you would like to back up many mailboxes, then it may be faster to back up the whole database.

Depending on the environment the actual backup time can be different, but one can expect that a mailbox-level backup will take several times longer than the database-level backup of the same database.

For example, mailbox-level backup of 100 GB can take a few days.

* Mailbox-level backup uses MAPI protocol to read data from the database - such approach makes it possible to backup individual items, such as mailboxes, folders and emails, but also significantly decreases backup speed due to MAPI protocol limitations. Database level backup does not utilize MAPI, so backup’s runs much faster. Depending on the environment actual backup time can be different, but one can expect that mailbox-level backup will take several times longer that database-level backup of the same database. For example, mailbox-level backup of 100GB can take a few days.

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Also, during database-level backup Acronis Backup collects metadata which can be later used to browse contents of the backup. If there is not enough metadata in the backup, Acronis Backup will have to connect to the MS Exchange Server database to browse folders and emails (Live Browsing) and this operation can be very time consuming. See screenshot below for an example of live browsing request when checking contents of the archive:

So it is recommended to consider possible restore scenarios when creating backup plan and setting the Metadata collection option. Metadata can be collected on the following levels:

• Include list of mailboxes: The metadata will be the least detailed and the backup will be the fastest*. Only mailboxes and public folders can be accessed without opening a database.
• Include mailboxes and folders: Individual folders within mailboxes and public folders can be accessed without opening the database.
• Include e-mails (this option is set by default): The metadata will be the most detailed and the backup will take the longest time to complete*. Individual e-mails and other items within mailboxes and public folders can be accessed without opening the database.

*Collecting database metadata on email level may make the backup 2.5 - 3 times longer when compared to the backup with metadata collection on mailbox-level.

Based on your backup and restore requirements the following backup plan settings may suit you best:

Scenario 1:

Your want to protect MS Exchange Server's database(s), Storage Group(s) or entire Information Store. In his environment recovery of a single folder\email scenario occurs once a week or less, and you do not have a tight Service Level Agreement (SLA). A tight SLA here means that you must restore folder\email in a predefined amount of hours.

In this case, you should run backups with the following settings:

• Back up MS Exchange Server on database-level
• Set the Collect metadata backup option to Include list of mailboxes

With these settings you will have your backups created as fast as possible.

Recovery of the databases will be done as usual. If you decide to restore some specific folder/email for some user, you will have to use "Live Browsing" of the backup to select the item you want to restore - this, depending on the size of the database, may be a time consuming operation.

Scenario 2:

You want to protect MS Exchange Server's database(s), Storage Group(s) or entire Information Store. In this environment recovery of a single folder\email is not a common scenario. And even if this happens, the amount of time it will take to restore a folder/email is not a big factor, since the situation is rare.

However, there are some important mailboxes (for example, CEO's mail) that you should back up often and be able to restore quickly.

In this case, you should set up two backup plans for best performance:

• The first backup plan should be set as described in Scenario 1
• The second backup plan should be set as a mailbox-level backup for just the important mailboxes

This way you will be able to run fast backups of MS Exchange Server databases. You will be also able to run frequent backups of important mailboxes and restore their data quickly if necessary.

Scenario 3:

You want to protect MS Exchange Server's database(s), Storage Group(s) or entire Information Store. In this environment recovery of a single folder\email is a common scenario. So when you need to restore a folder/email you should be able to recover mailbox items quickly.

In this case, you should run backups with the following settings:

Back up MS Exchange Server on database-level
Set the "Collect metadata" backup option to "Include mailboxes and folders" or "Include e-mails" (depending on what level of granularity you expect to need to restore)

The backup operation set up this way will run considerably longer, because Acronis Backup will have to collect the metadata. On the other hand you will be able to restore separate folders/emails faster.

For example, collecting database metadata on email-level may make the backup 2.5 - 3 times longer comparing to backup with metadata collection on mailbox-level.

Scenario 4:

You want to protect a number of MS Exchange Server mailboxes.

In this case, a mailbox-level backup should be set.

However, if there are many mailboxes that you want to include in the backup plan, it may be better to switch to the database-level backup. So that the backups will run faster.

If you want to protect all mailboxes in the database\storage group, it is always better to switch to the database-level backup. In this case the backups will run faster and it will still be possible to recover individual mailboxes. Check Scenarios 1-3 to select the optimal one.

Scenario 5:

Admin wants to run full backups as often as possible.

In this case Express full backup should be used. (Acronis Backup Advanced 11.7/11.5 for Exchange: Express Full Backup Method)

Metadata collection settings should be set according to admins need. Unless he has to recover individual emails often then metadata collection option should be set to mailbox level.

Scenario 6:

Admin wants to protect his Exchange environment and to be able to roll back to any point in time without minimum data loss.

In this case CDP backup should be used. (Acronis Backup Advanced 11.7/11.5 for Exchange: Continuous Data Protection)

Metadata collection settings should be set according to admins need. Unless he has to recover individual emails often then metadata collection option should be set to mailbox level.