Backing up Exchange databases in a Database Availability Group

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You can back up the mailbox databases in an Exchange Database Availability Group (DAG) and specify whether to use the active copy or a passive copy of the database for the backup. The Exchange servers in a DAG environment synchronize the data between active and passive copies for high availability. You can also use the incremental forever backup strategy to back up the mailbox databases in a DAG. For more information, see Incremental forever backup strategy.

Before you begin

  • Ensure that the system requirements are met. For more information about the requirements, see Microsoft Exchange Server database backup and restore requirements.
  • If you have a DAG cluster with Resilient® File System (ReFS) and want to run an incremental backup, ensure that you created a dedicated DAG node with New Technology File System (NTFS). This node is responsible for maintaining passive copies of the mail databases. For information, see Prerequisites of incremental backup.
    Note:

    If you use the incremental backup strategy, you can restore an Exchange Server DAG backup by using the following methods:

    • Test Restore: You can restore the database to the original instance or to an alternative instance.
    • Production Restore: You can restore a replicated database copy to an active database copy.
    • Granular Restore: You can restore the database to the original instance or to an alternative instance.
      Restriction: The granular restore method is not supported on Windows™ Server 2019 Core. For more information, see Restrictions in Microsoft Exchange Server database backup and restore requirements.

About this task

By using the information from an inventory job, IBM Storage Protect Plus provides a DAG view that displays all of the databases in an Exchange DAG environment. Each database has an active copy on one server in the DAG, and one or more passive copies on the other servers. By default, scheduled backups are taken from the server that the database is active on, but you can select a different server to back up a passive copy of the database.

Procedure

  1. In the navigation panel, expand Manage Protection > Databases > Exchange.
  2. In the Exchange Backup pane, click the View menu and select Database Availability Groups.
  3. Click the Exchange DAG that you want to view, and then select the databases to back up.
  4. Click Select Options. In the Backup preferred node list, select the instance to run the backups on.
    With the Backup preferred node option, you can select a passive copy of the database for the backup.
    Important: To run an incremental forever backup, you must set the DAG node with NTFS that you created as a preferred node.
  5. Click Select an SLA Policy and then select an SLA policy from the list.
  6. To create the job definition by using default options, click Save.
    The DAG databases are scheduled for backup jobs in accordance with the selected SLA policies and the preferred node choices.
  7. To run the selected policy outside of the schedule, in the SLA Policy Status pane, click Actions > Start.