Module 7

Planning and Implementing

Disaster Recovery
Module Overview

Planning for Disaster Mitigation

Planning and Implementing Exchange Server 2013
Backup
• Planning and Implementing Exchange Server 2013
Recovery
Lesson 1: Planning for Disaster Mitigation

Identifying Data-Loss Scenarios

Data-Loss Mitigation Features
Planning a Disaster Mitigation Strategy
Discussion: What Is the Relationship Between
Disaster Recovery and High Availability?
Exchange Server Native Data Protection
Discussion: When Is Exchange Server Native Data
Protection Appropriate?
What Are the Timelines for Disaster Recovery?
• Scenarios Requiring Backup and Restore
Identifying Data-Loss Scenarios

Data loss scenarios

• Lost item
• Lost mailbox
• Lost database
• Lost server
Data-Loss Mitigation Features

• Mitigating data loss avoids the need to recover

from backup

• Data-loss mitigation features include:

• Deleted item recovery
• Single item recovery
• In-place hold
• Deleted mailbox retention
• DAGs
• Shadow redundancy
Planning a Disaster Mitigation Strategy

Considerations include:
• Increase Deleted Item Retention increases database
size
• Increase Deleted Mailbox Retention increases database
size
• DAGs may prevent service outages due to lost
databases and lost servers
• Replay lag time may prevent data corruption on a
passive copy in a DAG
Discussion: What Is the Relationship Between
Disaster Recovery and High Availability?

• What high-availability features can be used as a

first line against a disaster?

• What do you achieve if you are using fault-

tolerant hardware?
 Exchange Server Native Data Protection

Exchange Native Data Protection includes the following

Exchange Server 2013 features:
• High availability that minimizes downtime and data loss
• Single-item recovery and In-Place hold policies for recovering
deleted messages
• Point-in-time database recovery with lagged copies of mailbox
databases
• Archive mailboxes, retention and archive policies, In-place
eDiscovery for managing large mailboxes

Exchange Native Data Protection reduces costs by:

• Simplifying management
• Requiring no backup software or hardware
• Requiring no RAID
Discussion: When Is Exchange Server Native Data
Protection Appropriate?
• Does your organization work with Exchange Server 2010 or
2013 and that uses only Exchange Server Native Data
Protection? Why?

• Does your organization use traditional backups? Why?

• Does your organization use combination of Exchange

Server Native Data Protection and traditional backups?
Why?

• Which features of Exchange Server Native Data Protection

do you use in your organization?

• In which situation is it appropriate to use only Exchange

Server Native Data Protection?
What Are the Timelines for Disaster Recovery?

The RTO determines:

• How quickly the service is restored

The RPO determines:

• From what point in time is the disaster recovery
performed

Based on the RTO and RPO, you might choose to:

• Keep databases small to shorten restore times
• Keep transaction logs on separate drives to ensure they
can be replayed after a restore
• Backup up every few hours to ensure minimal data is
lost
Scenarios Requiring Backup and Restore

Scenarios:
• Recover a message when single-item recovery is not
enabled
• Recover a mailbox after the mailbox retention period
has passed
• Recover a public folder item after the item retention
has passed
• Recover from a failed database when a DAG is not in
use
• Recover from a failed server when a DAG is not in use

Backups may be used to meet compliance

requirements
Lesson 2: Planning and Implementing Exchange
Server 2013 Backup

Backup Requirements for Exchange 2013

Choosing Exchange Server Backup Software
Choosing Exchange Server Backup Media
How Does a VSS Backup Work?
• Demonstration: How to Back Up Exchange Server
2013
Backup Requirements for Exchange 2013

Exchange Server Role Backed-Up Data

All roles • System State of server and Active
Directory database on domain
controllers
Mailbox server • Databases and transaction logs
• Message tracking logs
• Unified Messaging custom audio
prompts
Client Access server • Server certificates used for SSL
• Specific Internet IIS configuration
 Choosing Exchange Server Backup Software

Windows Server Backup:

• Runs locally on the computer running Exchange Server
• Cannot back up to tape
• Restore only full databases
• Cannot backup passive DAG copies

DPM:
• Uses agents on the computer running Exchange Server
• Typically backs up to disk and then archives to tape
• Can restore databases or mailboxes
• Can back up passive DAG copies

Non-Microsoft backup software may be able to:

• The backup software must support VSS
• Restore individual items
• Perform brick-level backups
Choosing Exchange Server Backup Media

Media Description
Tape Is physically easy to transport and very
durable
Disk Increases backup performance
SAN-based Backs up the traffic of the main network
and keeps it on the SAN
How Does a VSS Backup Work?

Exchange 2013 and VSS backup

• The VSS writer inside Microsoft Exchange
Information Store is moved to the Microsoft
Exchange Replication service
• Referred now as the Microsoft Exchange Writer
• Used by Exchange-aware VSS-based applications
to backup and restore active and passive
database copies
• For backup and restore, the Microsoft Exchange
Information Store and the Microsoft Exchange
Replication service are required and need to be
running.
Demonstration: How to Back Up Exchange
Server 2013

In this demonstration, you will see how to:

• Install the Windows Server Backup program
• Use Windows Server Backup to back up Exchange 2013
Lesson 3: Planning and Implementing Exchange
Server 2013 Recovery
Options for Recovering Exchange Server Functionality
Options for Recovering Mailbox Data and Databases
Planning the Recovery of Mailbox Data and Databases
Planning the Recovery of Client Access Servers
Repairing Exchange Server Database Corruption
Process for Recovering Data Using the Recovery Database
Demonstration: How to Recover Data by Using the Recovery
Database
What Is Dial-Tone Recovery?
• Process for Implementing Dial-Tone Recovery
Options for Recovering Exchange Server
Functionality

To replace lost server roles:

• Build a new server with equivalent functionality
• Add roles to an existing Exchange server

To restore a lost server:

• Build a new server
• Restore system state (optional)
• Install Exchange Server with Recovery mode
• Restore any necessary data
Options for Recovering Mailbox Data and
Databases

• When a database or server fails, you have several

options for recovery, including:
Options Description
Database restore Replaces an existing database
Recovery database Restores database to an alternate location for
data recovery
Database portability Restores database without having to recover
a specific server
Dial-tone recovery Restores server functionality rapidly before
historical mailbox contents are restored
DAG recovery Mounts a database copy on a different
Exchange server with the mailbox role
installed
Planning the Recovery of Mailbox Data and
Databases

Considerations:
• Use DAGs to avoid the need to recover
• Separate transaction logs and databases
• Use a dial-tone database to speed up recovery
• Allocate disk space for a recovery database
• Use mailbox databases with a smaller size
Planning the Recovery of Client Access Servers

• The basic functions of Client Access servers can

be recovered without backup up existing servers

• Replace a failed Client Access server by:

• Adding the server role to an existing Exchange server
• Deploying a new server with the same server role

• Replacing and deploying a new server can result

in some applications requiring reconfiguration
Repairing Exchange Server Database Corruption

• The following cmdlet to repair database

corruption is available:
• New-MailboxRepairRequest

• The cmdlet provides the following benefit over

isinteg.exe:
• No need to take the database offline
• Runs on Windows PowerShell, enabling you to
automate the process
Process for Recovering Data Using the Recovery
Database

A recovery database allows you to:

• Restore the database from backup
• Mount the database and extract data

Recovery database scenarios include:

• Dial-tone recovery
• Individual mailbox recovery
• Specific item recovery
Demonstration: How to Recover Data by Using
the Recovery Database

In this demonstration, you will see how to:

• Create the recovery database
• Restore data to the recovery database
• Create a new MailboxRestoreRequest
What Is Dial-Tone Recovery?

• Dial-tone recovery is the process of

implementing access to email services without
restoring data to user mailbox

• Dial-tone recovery benefits:

• Enables users to send and receive email as soon as
possible after the loss of a database or server
• Dial-tone database can be merged with the recovered
database into a single up-to-date mailbox database
Process for Implementing Dial-Tone Recovery

Process for implementing dial-tone recovery:

1. Create the dial-tone database
2. If necessary, configure the mailboxes that were on
the database to use the new dial-tone database
3. Restore the database and log files that you want to
recover into the Recovery Database
4. Swap the dial-tone database with the database that
you have recovered in the step before
5. Export and import the content from the dial-tone
database into the recovered original database
Lab: Implementing Disaster Recovery for
Exchange Server 2013

Exercise 1: Backing Up Exchange 2013

Exercise 2: Restoring Exchange Server 2013 Data
• Exercise 3: Exchange Server 2013 Disaster
Recovery (Optional)

Logon Information
Virtual Machines: 20341B-LON-DC1
20341B-LON-CAS1
20341B-LON-MBX1
User name: Adatum\Administrator
Password: Pa$$w0rd

Estimated Time: 75 minutes

Lab Scenario

You are a messaging administrator for A. Datum

Corporation. Your organization has deployed
Exchange Server 2013. You now want to ensure
that all Exchange server-related data is backed up
and that you can restore not only the full server or
database, but also a mailbox or mailbox folder.
Lab Review

Which feature do you need before you can run a

local backup on an Exchange Server 2013 with the
Mailbox role installed?
• Which tool do you need to create a Recovery
Database in Exchange Server 2013?
Module Review and Takeaways

Review Question(s)
Tools
Real-world Issues and Scenarios
• Best Practice