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Some help and facts

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Some help and facts - 11.Jun.2008 4:55:58 PM

Posts: 2
Joined: 11.Jun.2008
Status: offline

Hi!

First of all, I'm no Exchange expert (as you will see from this post) and I'm in a "catch 22" right now but maybe it has an easy solution?

I have an SBS 2003 running with Exchange Server 6.5 SP1. The 16GB maximum size was reached a couple of weeks ago and the event viewer was full of warnings and errors and the store had dismounted itself. I upped the limit to 17GB in order to be able to mount the store again and it worked. Users deleted some junk and 4GB was gone in minutes. Great, everyone is happy!

Today the users complained about no email was coming in or out so I looked in System Manager but the store had not dismounted itself. Then I browsed to the MDBDATA directory and the priv1.edb was about 13.5GB so there shouldn't be problem if the priv1.stm is included in the total but then the total would be about 17.5GB so then the temporary size fix wouldn't help either, right? Anyhow I upped the size limit again, dismounted the store and mounted it and it worked fine after that. Everything is fine again!

Besides this I'm using Backup Exec 10d with an Exchange agent (the latest SP level is applied as well). When I run a backup on the mailboxes the backup doesn't complete and I get errors. Backup Exec complains about 4-5 mailboxes and some objects in them. In other words, I do not have a current and complete backup of the mailboxes which of course isn't good.

What I want to do is to upgrade the SP level of Exchange to get rid of the 16GB limitation and do a complete backup which is successful so I can get some good nights sleep :-)

My questions are therefore;

The MDBDATA folder, if I make a copy of that directory (first dismount the priv and pub stores), then I do have a complete backup in reality, right? I mean, there's no extra stuff anywhere else. Basically if my server burns up and I have this directory on a USB disk, I'm safe? This feels like "step 1" before I do anything.

Since Backup Exec logs every error it stumbles upon, can the users simply delete the faulty objects and everything is fine (and I can do a proper backup) or do I have to use some Exchange utility to repair this?

Also, is it just me or is Backup Exec 10d not a very good program? Or does it have to be set up in a special way to work properly with Exchange?

Many thanks for reading!

Post #: 1

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RE: Some help and facts - 11.Jun.2008 5:09:57 PM

uemurad

Posts: 5489
Joined: 7.Jan.2004
From: California, USA
Status: offline

Let's start with your Backups generating errors. You want to be backing up the Information Store, which requires the Exchange Option for BackupExec (purchased and licensed separately). What you describe sounds more like what you get when you backup the individual mailboxes (a.k.a. brick backups) or you are backing up the database files.

BackupExec 10d is fine if you have the Exchange Option. If you don't you can't retroactively purchase it (Symantec recently released version 12).

_____________________________

Regards,

Dean T. Uemura
Microsoft MVP - Exchange
exchangeguy.blogspot.com
uemurad@yahoo.com

(in reply to BL)

Post #: 2

RE: Some help and facts - 13.Jun.2008 1:36:46 AM

Posts: 2
Joined: 11.Jun.2008
Status: offline

Thank you for you reply. I do have the license for Exchange, it's more a question of which settings should be used. Right now I cannot see how I should set it up if I don't chose individiual mailboxes.

I still wonder about the MDBDATA directory, is that the only place I need to manually copy to get a backup (if I dismount the store first)? Well, see my original post for the questions I have.

TIA!

< Message edited by BL -- 13.Jun.2008 1:38:01 AM >

(in reply to uemurad)

Post #: 3

RE: Some help and facts - 13.Jun.2008 9:36:19 AM

uemurad

Posts: 5489
Joined: 7.Jan.2004
From: California, USA
Status: offline

Since you have the Exchange Option for BackupExec, you should be backing up the Information Store. That backs up the database then flushes the committed transactional logs (when using Full or Incremental jobs).

You don't need to dismount anything - it's why you spent the money for the option.

So, backup the Information Store, backup the System State, perform the Exchange SP2 upgrade, set the limit higher than 16GB (maximum of 75GB).

_____________________________

Regards,

Dean T. Uemura
Microsoft MVP - Exchange
exchangeguy.blogspot.com
uemurad@yahoo.com

(in reply to BL)

Post #: 4