When configuring Acronis Backup Advanced for Exchange for backup or recovery operations, you may encounter issues with detection of the Exchange Server cluster components or data.

Follow these steps to troubleshoot detection issues:

1. Get familiar with technology of Agent for Exchange in the About part.
2. Check for known issues in the Known issues part.
3. Follow to Troubleshooting part to troubleshoot and resolve the issue.

About

Acronis software enables you to back up the Mailbox server role of Microsoft Exchange Server. Mailbox servers host mailboxes and public folders. This data is most critical for any Exchange organization.

Exchange server backup sources

While creating a backup plan, you can select either the Microsoft Exchange Information Store or the Microsoft Exchange Mailboxes data type. See this help topic.

Microsoft Exchange Information store data type provides you with following items to backup:

• The entire information store.
• Individual databases (for Exchange 2010/2013).
• Individual storage groups (for Exchange 2003/2007).

Microsoft Exchange mailboxes data type provides you with following items to backup:

• Mailboxes or mailbox folders
• Public folders

Backing up and recovering data of Exchange clusters

This feature is used only in advanced editions of Acronis Backup.

The main idea of Exchange clusters is to provide high database availability with fast failover and no data loss. Usually, it is achieved by having one or more copies of databases or storage groups on the members of the cluster (cluster nodes). If the cluster node hosting the active database copy or the active database copy itself fails, the other node hosting the passive copy automatically takes over the operations of the failed node and provides access to Exchange services with minimal downtime. Thus, the clusters are already serving as a disaster recovery solution themselves.

However, there might be cases when failover cluster solutions cannot provide data protection: for example, in case of a database logical corruption, or when a particular database in a cluster has no copy (replica), or when the entire cluster is down. Also cluster solutions do not protect from harmful content changes, as they usually immediately replicate to all cluster nodes. By backing up the cluster data with Acronis software, you can safely protect the clustered data: storage groups, databases, mailboxes, and public folders.

Acronis software provides protection for the clustered data regardless of its placement within the cluster. This means that even if the data being backed up changes its location within the cluster (for example, if mailbox role is moved to another server due to a switchover or a failover), the software will track all relocations of this data and safely back it up.

Cluster-wide protection is useful in the event some of the cluster nodes go offline, unless the backed-up data becomes completely unavailable, or backup plan configuration explicitly prohibits the protection to run on the remaining nodes (if you select to back up only the selected node, for example).

Recovering Exchange data

The following items can be recovered from database backups:

• Storage groups (for Exchange 2003/2007)
• Databases (for Exchange 2010 or later)
• Mailboxes
• Public folders
• Public folder items
• E-mails
• E-mail folders
• Calendar events
• Tasks
• Contacts
• Notes
• Journal entries.

The following items can be recovered from mailbox backups:

• Mailboxes
• Public folders
• Public folder items
• E-mails
• E-mail folders
• Calendar events
• Tasks
• Contacts
• Notes
• Journal entries.

See more about Acronis Backup Advanced for Exchange in following articles:

Title	Related to
Acronis Backup Advanced 11.7/11.5 for Exchange: Managing Throttling Policies When Working with Exchange 2010	Exchange server settings
Acronis Backup & Recovery 11.5 Agent for MS Exchange Server: MS Exchange Server 2013 Support	Supported environment

Known Issues

Title	Error Message/Code	Related to
Acronis Backup Advanced 11.5: Backup of Databases or Mailboxes or Browsing of Mailboxes Fails with "MAPI IMsgStore has not been retrieved from IMAPISession. HRESULT: -2147221219"	MAPI IMsgStore has not been retrieved from IMAPISession. HRESULT: -2147221219	Exchange server issue

Title	Related to
Acronis Backup Advanced 11.5: Cannot Browse the Mailbox Contents in a Database Backup or Recover Mailbox Items from This Backup to PST Because the Exchange Libraries for ESE are Not Found or Have Another Version	Missing components
Acronis Backup Advanced 11.7/11.5 for Exchange: Microsoft Outlook, Which Prevents the Product from Backing Up, Recovering, and Browsing Individual Mailboxes, Is Detected on Exchange Server	MS Outlook compatibility

Troubleshooting

Follow step-by-step instructions below to troubleshoot the issue. Complete prerequisites step before proceeding to error troubleshooting step.

 

1. Prerequisites

Following conditions should be met in order to correctly work with Microsoft Exchange data during backup and recovery. Complete all steps before proceeding to error troubleshooting step.

1.1 Operating system should be supported

Agent for Exchange can be installed in the following operating systems:

• Windows Server 2003/2003 R2 – Standard and Enterprise editions (x86, x64)
• Windows Small Business Server 2003/2003 R2
• Windows Server 2008 – Standard, Enterprise, and Datacenter editions (x86, x64)
• Windows Small Business Server 2008
• Windows Server 2008 R2 – Standard, Enterprise, Datacenter, and Foundation editions
• Windows Small Business Server 2011 – all editions
• Windows Server 2012/2012 R2 – Standard and Datacenter editions

See help topic: Supported operating systems.

1.2 Microsoft Exchange Server version should be supported

Agent for Exchange supports the following versions of Microsoft Exchange Server:

• Microsoft Exchange Server 2013 – all editions, Cumulative Update 1 (CU1) and later. Limitation: Mailbox-level backup is not supported. Mailboxes and their contents can be recovered from database backups to .pst files.

• Microsoft Exchange Server 2007/2010 – all editions, all service packs. The Messaging API Client and Collaboration Data Objects (version 1.2.1) package must be installed. To download and install this package, visit http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=36771.

• Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 – all editions, SP2 or later. Hotfix http://support.microsoft.com/kb/908072 must be installed.

Note: It is important to keep your Exchange servers up-to-date. This ensures the best performance, integrity and security for all Exchange services and data.

See help topic: Supported Microsoft Exchange Server versions.

1.3 Backup location should support the requested operation

Make sure the archive is located in a backup location that supports the operation you intend to perform.

See help topic: Supported backup locations. 

1.4 Set necessary permissions

Make sure the user specified in the Access credentials has necessary permissions on the Exchange Server for the operation.

Additionally make sure that following requirements are fulfilled:

• To be able to back up, recover, and browse mailboxes, make sure that the account you use is associated with the mailbox.
• The mailbox has to be initialized and available in a global address list.
• The mailbox database containing the associated mailbox must be mounted.
• The user account that is associated with the mailbox must reside in the same forest as the Exchange server.

See help topic: Permissions for Exchange backup and recovery. 

1.5 Check for legacy archives and backups restrictions

Acronis Backup supports archives and backups created with Acronis Recovery for Microsoft Exchange.

Check the following help topic for the full list of supported operations: Supported operations with legacy archives and backups

1.6 Exchange cluster configuration should be supported

Acronis Backup supports the following Exchange cluster configurations.

• Exchange 2003 Cluster and Single Copy Cluster (SCC) for Exchange 2007
• Cluster Continuous Replication (CCR) for Exchange Server 2007
• Database Availability Group (DAG) for Exchange Server 2010 or later

See help topic: Supported Exchange cluster configurations.

1.7 Agent should be installed on all cluster nodes

For successful data backup and recovery of a cluster Agent for Exchange has to be installed on each node of the Exchange cluster.

If the Agent for Exchange is not installed on all cluster nodes (for example, the agent was manually uninstalled from one of the cluster nodes):

• The backup task completes with a warning, if the data selected for backup is hosted on the node with the Agent for Exchange installed.
• The backup task fails with error, if the data selected for backup is hosted on the node without the Agent for Exchange installed.

See help topic: How many agents are required for cluster data backup and recovery?. 

If all steps above have been executed and issue still persists, go to error troubleshooting step.

2. Error troubleshooting

Select the troubleshooting step according to the issue you are facing. Complete all steps before proceeding to collect information step.

2.1 Databases/mailboxes/folders/emails detection issue

Check following possible issue causes:

2.1.1 Check MAPI and CDO

Acronis Backup works with Exchange mailboxes by using Microsoft Exchange MAPI and CDO. In case there was an installation of Microsoft Outlook on the Exchange server, then Microsoft Exchange MAPI and CDO gets corrupted and has to be re-installed to guarantee correct software functioning.

See KB article: Acronis Backup Advanced 11.7/11.5for Exchange: Microsoft Outlook, Which Prevents the Product from Backing Up, Recovering, and Browsing Individual Mailboxes, Is Detected on Exchange Server

2.1.2 Check user permissions

Double-check that the user specified in the Access credentials has necessary permissions on the Exchange server and is associated with the mailbox.

See step 1.4.

2.1.3 Make sure there is enough free space for metadata collection

You are recovering mailboxes/folders/emails from database backup and during backup the metadata collection was set to a higher level of data.

When browsing the database for elements, the metadata is collected for the whole database and is placed into a temporary folder (\ProgramData\Acronis\Temp for ABR11.5 U0). This process may be time-consuming and metadata may occupy considerable space on the disk. Make sure there is enough free space and wait for the metadata collection to be completed.

2.1.4 Check for known issues

Go to Known Issues part and check for known solutions.

2.2 Cluster detection issue

After installation, the Microsoft Exchange Servers view does not contain information about the Microsoft Exchange Server cluster in the Cluster tab.

2.2.1 Make sure the Agent for Exchange is installed on the nodes

Connect the management console directly to the machine and check that the Agent for Exchange is installed. Go to Help -> About to see the installed components.

Create a local backup plan and in data type select Information store or Mailboxes. If the Exchange data is not distplayed in the data source, go to Step 2.1.

2.2.2 Make sure you have added the machines (cluster nodes) to the management server

To detect the Exchange cluster, the machines with installed Acronis software have to be registered on the management server. See help topic: Adding a machine to the management server.

To safely back up data of an Exchange cluster, all cluster nodes have to be registered on the management server.

If all steps above have been executed and issue still persists, go to collect information step.

3. Collect information

Collect following information and contact Acronis Support.

3.1 Issue description

Make sure to specify following information in the issue description:

• Exchange Server (cluster) configuration description with machine names and installed Agents for Exchange.
• Provide screenshots of Microsoft Exchange Servers view of the management server in Management Console.
• Describe the expected result of the operation you perform.

3.2 System information

Collect system information from all Exchange Server nodes and from Management Server:

See: Acronis Backup & Recovery 11.7/11.5: Generating System Report

3.3 Cluster log

Collect the cluster log from all Exchange cluster nodes.

See: Acronis Backup & Recovery 11.7/11.5: Collecting Cluster Logs