Exchange and Outlook UPDATE, Exchange Edition—brought to you by Exchange & Outlook Administrator, a print newsletter from Windows & .NET Magazine that contains practical advice, how-to articles, tips, and techniques to help you do your job today.
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(below COMMENTARY)
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September 20, 2002—In this issue:
1. COMMENTARY
- To Move Forward, Evaluate Your Backup
2. ANNOUNCEMENTS
- New! News, Tips, and More to Keep Your Network Humming
- Mark Minasi and Paul Thurrott Are Bringing Their Security Expertise to You!
3. HOT RELEASE (ADVERTISEMENT)
- Directory Synchronization and Free T-shirts
4. RESOURCES
- Exchange WebCast: Exchange 2000 Server: Backup and Restore
- Featured Thread: Empty Source Denied
5. NEW AND IMPROVED
- Communicate Visual Information on the Go
- Submit Top Product Ideas
6. CONTACT US
- See this section for a list of ways to contact us.
1. COMMENTARY
(contributed by Paul Robichaux, News Editor, [email protected])
I recently performed an availability assessment for a large client. The client was extremely interested in high availability, so the company had pulled out all the stops: The 1000 or so Exchange 2000 Server mailboxes (which contained a total of about 90GB of data) were stored on a high-end Storage Area Network (SAN), and mailbox access was courtesy of a clustered pair of beefy 4-way Pentium III Xeon servers. But despite all this exotic hardware, the client needed some help. Backups took all night, mostly because they involved nightly mailbox-level backups in addition to a normal full backup of the Store. Notice I said "the Store," not "the Stores"—all that data was concentrated into one mailbox Store, just as it might be in an Exchange Server 5.5 environment.
The client's objective was to reduce backup and restore time. This goal was key to the company's availability plan, considering Microsoft's rule of thumb that restoring an Exchange server takes roughly twice as long as backing it up. An 8- or 9-hour backup meant that the company had no hope of starting and finishing a restore during the same workday.
To help the company meet its goal, I asked some pointed questions about why it was performing backups the way it was. My biggest interest was in the mailbox-level backups, which are often unnecessary. Existing brick-level solutions use the Messaging API (MAPI) interface, so they must log on to each mailbox to enumerate and read the messages to be backed up. This process takes a long time. In addition, this type of backup loses single-instance storage, meaning that the backup takes up a lot more space and takes longer to write to tape or other offline media than other types of backup do. Exchange 2000 offers features that address the most common reasons for doing brick-level backups:
- Deleted-item retention for mailboxes and public folders lets end users restore deleted messages without any intervention from you. This ability protects you from the most common reason for mailbox restore: users who deleted an important message and need it back right away.
- Deleted-mailbox retention lets you recover a deleted mailbox during a specified retention period. This ability addresses the number-two cause for mailbox restores: a slip-up by an administrator who deleted a mailbox that should have been kept.
As it turns out, the client had a reasonably good reason to perform mailbox-level backups: Employees needed to be able to restore messages deleted at any point in time, not just during the retention window. The company was studying a range of archival products, such as CommVault Systems' Galaxy and KVS's Enterprise Vault, but was stuck performing mailbox backups in the meantime. However, after a careful look at usage patterns, the client decided it could reduce the number of mailboxes that it backed up individually and could change the schedule so that brick-level backups happened less frequently. This change helped backup times considerably because complete brick-level backups no longer took place each night.
The next step was to whittle down the size of the Store. My first suggestion was to run Mailbox Manager to help clean up mailboxes, but my client explained that the end users would revolt-—many of them used their Exchange mailboxes as their primary storage system (not uncommon, but not exactly what Microsoft intended when it designed the product). Instead, we created another storage group (SG) and three additional databases: one in the original SG and the other two in the new SG. This action gave the client four databases spread across two SGs. Exchange 2000 can back up more than one database at a time if those databases are in separate SGs. Because the client had two tape drives, the company could now back up two of the four databases in parallel—leading to a more than 50 percent improvement in the backup time requirement.
Even if you don't have multiple tape drives, splitting a large Store into smaller chunks can make good sense. Next week, I'll explore the dos and don'ts of making such a split. Until then, determine how long your Exchange backup takes. As your Store grows, be sure you can still afford the time necessary to back it up and restore it.
SPONSOR: PULSE FOR FAX
It's easy to enable desktop fax from your Outlook or Exchange clients, and high-volume fax from any host with Pulse for Fax from Esker. Pulse for Fax eliminates the costs and labor associated with printing and manually faxing documents. Pulse for Fax also provides a seamless upgrade path to Pulse for expanded document delivery capabilities including web, email, distributed print, and wireless — in addition to fax. Request your FREE information kit today at:
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2. ANNOUNCEMENTS
(brought to you by Windows & .NET Magazine and its partners)
Networking UPDATE brings you the how-to tips and news you need to implement and maintain a rock-solid networking infrastructure. We'll explore interoperability solutions, hardware (including servers, routers, and switches), network architecture, network management, network security, installation technology, network training, and WAN disaster recovery. Subscribe (at no cost!) at
http://www.winnetmag.com/email
Windows & .NET Magazine Network Road Show 2002 is coming this October to New York, Chicago, Denver, and San Francisco! Industry experts Mark Minasi and Paul Thurrott will show you how to shore up your system's security and what desktop security features are planned for Microsoft .NET and beyond. Sponsored by NetIQ, Microsoft, and Trend Micro. Registration is free, but space is limited so sign up now!
http://www.winnetmag.com/seminars/roadshow
3. HOT RELEASE (ADVERTISEMENT)
Stop maintaining multiple directories! Update Active Directory from H.R. and make Exchange your Meta Directory! New V1.1 creates users/contacts and supports more data sources. Download to win one of 20 FREE T-shirts.
http://www.imanami.com/specials/winnet/092002.asp?p=winnet_092002
4. RESOURCES
Each week, Microsoft posts several Exchange Server how-to articles to its Knowledge Base. This week, learn how to back up and restore an Exchange 2000 Server computer and how to deal with potential complications involving multiple storage groups (SGs) and databases.
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;q324591
Paulo receives an odd error message in the administrator's mailbox whenever someone in his organization receives an email with attachments. To offer your advice or join the discussion, go to the following URL:
http://www.winnetmag.com/forums/rd.cfm?cid=40&tid=46512
5. NEW AND IMPROVED
(contributed by Carolyn Mader, [email protected])
Parascript Pen&Internet released riteMail, a handwritten-email application and service for Palm OS, Pocket PC, and Microsoft Tablet PC devices. The product lets you communicate conceptual ideas, visual information, and personal expressions while on the go. New features provide electronic ink so that you can write in a variety of colors, styles, and widths. The company's riteShape technology lets you draw perfect shapes such as ovals, triangles, and arrows and add flair to traditional text email messages. Pricing is $29.95 for the software and 1 year of service. Contact Parascript Pen&Internet at [email protected].
http://www.ritemail.net
Have you used a product that changed your IT experience by saving you time or easing your daily burden? Do you know of a terrific product that others should know about? Tell us! We want to write about the product in a future Windows & .NET Magazine What's Hot column. Send your product suggestions to [email protected].
6. CONTACT US
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