PowerProtect Data Manager 19.9 Microsoft Application Agent Exchange Server User Guide

Add a protection policy for Exchange database protection

Use the PowerProtect Data Manager UI to add a protection policy for Exchange database protection.

1. In the left navigation pane, select Protection > Protection Policies.
   The Protection Policies window appears.
2. Click Add.
   The Add Policy wizard appears.
3. On the Type page, specify the new protection policy group fields, and then click Next:

   • Name—Type a descriptive name for the protection policy, for example, Exchange Prod Databases.

     NOTE The name that you specify becomes part of the DD MTree entry.
   • Description—Type a short description for the protection policy, for example, Exchange Prod Daily Backups.
   • Type—Select Microsoft Exchange.
4. On the Purpose page, select one of the following options to indicate the purpose of the new protection policy group, and then click Next:
   • Centralized Protection—The backup is triggered according to the schedule. PowerProtect Data Manager manages the complete protection life cycle.
   • Self-Service Protection—The backup is triggered manually from the Exchange Server. PowerProtect Data Manager manages the complete protection life cycle.
   • Exclusion—Any assets that are added to this type of protection policies group are excluded from the data protection operation.
5. On the Assets page, select the unprotected assets that you want to add to the backup of this protection policy group. The window enables you to filter by asset name to locate the required assets.
   NOTE An Exchange database asset can be protected by only one protection policy at a time.
6. Click Next.
   If you selected Exclusion on the Purpose page, the Summary page appears. Skip to the final two steps.
   If you selected Centralized Protection or Self-Service Protection, the Objectives page appears for creating the protection policy backup configuration.
7. On the Objectives page, complete the steps for the specified type of protection policy group:

   • For Centralized Protection:

     1. Click Add under Primary Backup.

        The Add Primary Backup dialog appears.

     2. On the Target pane of the Add Primary Backup dialog, specify the following fields:

        • Storage Name—Select a backup destination from the list of existing DD systems, or select Add to add a system and complete the details in the Storage Target dialog.

        • Storage Unit—Select whether this protection policy should use a New storage unit on the selected DD system, or select an existing storage unit from the list. Hover over a storage unit to view the full name and statistics for available capacity and total capacity, for example, testvmplc-ppdm-daily-123ab (300 GB/1 TB).

          When you select New, a new storage unit in the format policy name hostname unique identifier is created in the storage system upon policy completion, for example, testvmplc-ppdm-daily-123cd.

          NOTE The Space field indicates the total amount of space, and the percentage of available space, on the storage system.
        • Network Interface—Select a network interface from the list, if applicable.

        • Retention Lock—Move the Retention Lock slider to the right to enable retention locking for these backups on the selected system. PowerProtect Data Manager uses Governance mode for retention locking, which means that the lock can be reverted at any time if necessary. Toggling the Retention Lock slider on or off applies to the current backup copy only, and does not impact the retention lock setting for existing backup copies.

          NOTE Primary backups are assigned a default retention lock period of 14 days. Replicated backups, however, are not assigned a default retention lock period. If you enable Retention Lock for a replicated backup, ensure that you set the Retain for field in the Add Replication dialog to a minimum number of 14 days so that the replicated backup does not expire before the primary backup.

     3. On the Schedules pane of the Add Primary Backup dialog:

        1. Specify the following fields to schedule a synthetic full backup of this protection policy:

           • Create a Synthetic Full backup every—Specify how often to create a synthetic full backup. A synthetic full backs up only the data that has changed since the last backup, to create a new, full backup.

           • Retain for—Specify the retention period for the synthetic full backup.

             You can extend the retention period for the latest primary backup copy by using the Extend Retention schedule. For example, your regular schedule for daily backups can use a retention period of 30 days, but you can apply extended retention to keep the backups taken on Mondays for 10 weeks. Step 8 provides instructions.

             NOTE For database backups, PowerProtect Data Manager chains the dependent backups together. For example, the synthetic full backups are chained to their base full backup. The backups do not expire until the last backup in the chain expires. This ensures that all synthetic full backups are recoverable until they have all expired.

           • Start and End—The activity window. Specify a time of day to start the synthetic full backup, and a time of day after which backups cannot be started.

             NOTE Any backups started before the End time occurs continue until completion.

        2. Click Add backup if you want to periodically force a full (level 0) backup, and then specify the following fields to schedule the full backup of this protection policy:

           NOTE When you select this option, the backup chain is reset.
           • Create a Full backup every—Specify whether you want to create a weekly or monthly full backup.
           • Repeat on—Depending on the frequency of the full backup schedule, specify the day of the week or the date of the month that the full backup will occur.
           • Retain for—Specify the retention period for this full backup.

           • Start and End—The activity window. Specify a time of day to start the full backup, and a time of day after which backups cannot be started.

             NOTE Any backups started before the End time occurs continue until completion.

     4. Click Save to save the changes and return to the Objectives page.

        The Objectives page updates to display the name and location of the target storage system under Primary Backup.

        NOTE

        After completing the backup schedule, you can change any schedule details by clicking Edit under Primary Backup.

        When a new asset is added to a protection policy during a scheduled backup window, the backup starts right away. However, if an asset is added to a protection policy outside of the scheduled backup window, the backup does not start until the next time that backups are configured to run.

        If a new asset is added to a protection policy that has a weekly or monthly backup schedule and the current time is within the scheduled Start and End times, the backup runs right away, regardless of the date. If the current time is not within the scheduled Start and End times, the backup does not start until the next time that backups are configured to run.

   • For Self-Service Protection:

     1. Click Add under Primary Retention.

        The Add Primary Retention dialog appears.

     2. On the Target pane of the Add Primary Retention dialog, specify the following fields:

        • Storage Name—Select a backup destination from the list of existing DD systems, or select Add to add a system and complete the details in the Storage Target dialog.

        • Storage Unit—Select whether this protection policy should use a New storage unit on the selected DD system, or select an existing storage unit from the list. Hover over a storage unit to view the full name and statistics for available capacity and total capacity, for example, testvmplc-ppdm-daily-123ab (300 GB/1 TB).

          When you select New, a new storage unit in the format policy name hostname unique identifier is created in the storage system upon policy completion, for example, testvmplc-ppdm-daily-123cd.

          NOTE The Space field indicates the total amount of space, and the percentage of available space, on the storage system.
        • Network Interface—Select a network interface from the list, if applicable.

        • Retention Lock—Move the Retention Lock slider to the right to enable retention locking for these backups on the selected system. PowerProtect Data Manager uses Governance mode for retention locking, which means that the lock can be reverted at any time if necessary. Toggling the Retention Lock slider on or off applies to the current backup copy only, and does not impact the retention lock setting for existing backup copies.

          NOTE Primary backups are assigned a default retention lock period of 14 days. Replicated backups, however, are not assigned a default retention lock period. If you enable Retention Lock for a replicated backup, ensure that you set the Retain for field in the Add Replication dialog to a minimum number of 14 days so that the replicated backup does not expire before the primary backup.

     3. On the Retention (Self Service) pane of the Add Primary Retention dialog, change any required retention times.

        By default, all backup types have the same retention time. To change the retention times for specific backup types, clear Set the same retention time for all backup types and change the Retain <backup_type> For field values as required.

     4. Click Save to save the changes and return to the Objectives page.

        The Objectives page updates to display the name and location of the target storage system under Primary Retention.

        NOTE After completing the backup retention setting, you can change the setting by clicking Edit under Primary Retention.
8. Optionally, extend the retention period for the latest primary backup copy:
   Extended retention provides more information.
   1. Click Extend Retention next to Primary Backup or Primary Retention. An entry for Extend Retention is created below Primary Backup or Primary Retention.
   2. Under Extend Retention, click Add. The Add Extended Retention dialog appears.
   3. Extend the retention of a full primary backup copy every—Specify the preferred recurrence for the extended retention backup schedule.
   4. Repeat on—Depending on the frequency of the backup schedule, specify the day of the week, the date of the month, or the date of the year that the extended retention backup will occur.
   5. Retain for—Specify the retention period for the backup. You can retain an extended retention backup for a maximum of 70 years.
   6. Click Save to save your changes and return to the Objectives page.
9. Optionally, replicate the backups to a remote storage system:
   1. Click Replicate next to Primary Backup, Primary Retention, or Extend Retention. An entry for Replicate is created to the right of the primary or extended retention backup schedule.
      NOTE PowerProtect Data Manager supports replicating an extended retention backup only if the primary backup already has one or more replication stages. Also, for replication of an extended retention backup, you can only select the DDs that are used by the replication stages based on the primary stage.

      For example, if there are 6 DDs available (DD001-DD006), and the primary backup is on DD0001:

      • Replicate1 based on the primary backup is replicated to DD002
      • Replicate2 based on the primary backup is replicated to DD003
      • Extended retention backup is backed up to DD001
      • Replicate3 based on the extended retention backup must be replicated to DD002 or DD003.
   2. Under Replicate, click Add. The Add Replication dialog appears.
      NOTE To enable replication, ensure that you add a remote DD system as the replication location. Add protection storage provides detailed instructions about adding a remote DD system.
   3. Complete the schedule details in the Add Replication dialog, and then click Save to save the changes and return to the Objectives page.
      NOTE The schedule frequency can be every day, week, month, or x hours for replication of the primary backup, and every day, week, month, year, or x hours for replication of the extended retention backup. For daily, weekly, and monthly schedules, the numeric value cannot be modified. For hourly, however, you can edit the numeric value. For example, if you set Create a Full backup every 4 hours, you can set a value of anywhere 1 to 12 hours.

      All replication copies of the primary backup schedule will use the same retention period, and by default, this retention period is inherited from the Retain For value of the synthetic full backup schedule. To specify a different retention period for all of the replication copies of this primary backup schedule, click Edit, change the value in the Retain For field, and then click Save. This retention period will be applied to all of the replicated copies (synthetic full and full) of this primary backup schedule.

10. Optionally, add a cloud stage for a primary, replication, or extended retention backup schedule for the purpose of moving backups from DD storage to cloud tier:
    1. Click Cloud Tier next to Primary Backup or Extend Retention or, if adding a cloud stage for a replication schedule that you have added, click Cloud Tier under Replicate. An entry for Cloud Tier is created to the right of the primary or extended retention backup schedule, or below the replication schedule.
    2. Under the entry for Cloud Tier, click Add.
       The Add Cloud Tier Backup dialog appears, with summary schedule information for the parent node to indicate whether you are adding this cloud tier stage for the primary backup schedule, the extended retention backup schedule, or the replication schedule.
    3. Complete the schedule details in the Add Cloud Tier Backup dialog, and then click Save to save your changes and return to the Objectives page.
       Add a cloud tier schedule to a protection policy provides detailed instructions for adding a cloud stage for a primary, replication, or extended retention backup schedule.
    NOTE In order to move a backup or replica to the cloud tier, schedules must have a retention time of 14 days or more. Also, discovery of a DD system configured with a cloud unit is required.
11. Click Next.
    The Options page appears.
12. On the Options page, select the additional options that are required for the policy:

    • Data Consistency Check—Select one of the following options to enable the consistency checking of the Exchange database and logs:

      • None—No consistency check is performed.
      • All—Both the database and logs are checked for consistency.

      • Database—Only the database is checked for consistency.

        NOTE A consistency check of only the database does not ensure the complete consistency of the backup, but the check takes less time to perform.
      • Logs—Only the logs are checked for consistency.

      The Exchange consistency check occurs at backup time and verifies that the database and its transaction logs do not contain errors, such as on-disk data corruption. The consistency check improves the Exchange backup quality and performance, validating that the backup is viable and will not cause issues when restored.

      NOTE Consistency checking can affect the backup performance and increase the backup window.
    • Troubleshooting—Select this option to enable the debug logs for troubleshooting purposes.
13. Click Next.
    The Summary page appears.
14. Review the protection policy group configuration details. You can click Edit next to any completed window's details to change any information. When completed, click Finish.
    An informational message appears to confirm that PowerProtect Data Manager has saved the protection policy. When a new protection policy is created, PowerProtect Data Manager performs the first full backup and subsequent backups according to the specified schedule.
15. Click OK to exit the window, or click Go to Jobs to open the Jobs window to monitor the backup of the new protection policy group.