With IBM® Tivoli® Storage Manager for Mail:
Data Protection for Microsoft Exchange
Server, you
can use the common interface in the Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS) framework to create database
backups.
To back up
Exchange Server data, you can use
the following backup types and backup expiration policies on the
Tivoli Storage
Manager server.
Backup types |
- Full (for more information, see Table 1)
- Copy (for more information, see Table 2)
- Incremental (for more information, see Table 3)
- Differential (for more information, see Table 4)
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Expiration policies |
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Policy settings on the Tivoli Storage
Manager server
The following tables summarize the policy settings for each VSS backup type.
Tip: When
you enable circular logging, you cannot use differential or incremental backups.
Table 1. Type: Full backupFull backup |
Description |
- Data Protection for Exchange Server backs up the specified
database and associated transaction logs.
- Each version of a full backup has the same name because the server recognizes each backup as a
new version of the same backup object.
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Expiration policies available for selection
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Both retention-based and version-based policies
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Recommended usage
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If you use only a full backup type, you can use either a retention-based or version-based
expiration policy to retain the version of the backup in the Tivoli Storage
Manager server.
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Table 2. Type: Copy backupCopy backup |
Description |
- Data Protection for Exchange Server backs up the transaction logs
and does not delete the log files after the backup. Otherwise, this backup type is similar to a full
backup.
- You can create a full backup of the Exchange Server database without
disrupting any backup processes that use an incremental or differential backup.
- Each version of a copy backup has the same name because the server recognizes each backup as a
new version of the same backup object.
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Expiration policies available for selection
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Only retention-based policies
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Recommended usage
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You can keep copy backups of the Exchange Server database for
retention periods that are different from the periods that you set for the full backup
operations
For example, legal regulations might require that you keep a monthly backup for several years. To
meet this requirement, you can set those monthly backup processes as copy backups. You must define a
management class and set the retention parameters to use for copy backups. These definitions must be
different than the parameters set for full backups.
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Table 3. Type: Incremental backupIncremental backup |
Description |
- Transaction log files are not deleted if the backup fails.
- Only one version of an incremental backup object exists at a time because each incremental
backup is named with a unique time stamp.Data Protection for Exchange Server software deactivates all incremental
backups (and the active differential backup, if one exists) that are associated with a full backup
operation, whenever a new full backup operation is done.
- When you restore an Exchange Server database from an incremental backup, you must complete the following tasks:
- Restore the last full backup.
- Restore any other incremental backups that occur between the full backup and the incremental
backup.
- Restore the incremental backup.
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Expiration policies available for selection
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Only retention-based policies
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Recommended usage
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Because each incremental backup has a unique name, you cannot use a version-based expiration
policy. For incremental backups, you must use retention-based policies.
To ensure that incremental backups do not expire before the full backup on which they depend, you
must specify the following parameters: - In the management class that you use for incremental backups, set a value for the RETOnly
parameter.
- In the management class you use for full backups, set the value of the RETExtra copy group
parameter to be equal to the value you set for the RETOnly parameter.
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Table 4. Type: Differential backupDifferential backup |
Description |
- Data Protection for Exchange Server backs up transaction logs but
does not delete the log files after the backup.
- For a full backup with only differential backups, the last full backup and the last differential
backup contain all the data that is required to restore the database to its most recent state.
- Subsequent backups create a new version of the differential backup object on the Exchange Server.
- When you restore an Exchange Server database from a differential backup, you must complete the following tasks:
- Restore the last full backup.
- Restore this differential backup, but no other differential backups.
Tip: You can use both version-based and retention-based policies to control the expiration of
differential backups.
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Expiration policies available for selection
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Retention-based and version-based policies
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Recommended usage
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To ensure that differential backups expire at the same time as the full backup on which they
depend, it is recommended (for differential backups) that you use a retention-based policy similar
to the one used for incremental backups.
To use a retention-based expiration policy, in the management class that you use for differential
backups, you must specify the following parameters: - Set the VERDeleted and VERExists copy group parameters to nolimit.
- Set the RETExtra and RETOnly parameter values to match the parameter values in the management
class that you use for full backups.
To limit the number of differential backups for an Exchange Server database, you
can use a version-based policy. If you choose to use a version-based expiration policy, do so in
combination with retention-based policies to ensure that old, inactive backups expire, even if you
no longer use differential backups.
If you want to use both a version-based and a retention-based policy, you must specify the
following parameters and version control settings:
- Set the RETExtra and RETOnly parameter values to match the parameter values in the management
class that you use for full backups.
- Set the VERExist parameter to the value you want.
- Set the VERDeleted parameter to be equal to VERExist.
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