Backing up the Exchange cluster data

Normally, clustered data is backed up by creating a backup plan on the management server (centralized backup plan). However, if you need to back up a specific data that is hosted entirely on a single cluster node, you can connect to this node directly and create a regular (local) backup plan. The drawback of this approach is that the backup task will fail if the data migrates to another cluster node or if the node becomes unavailable.

To configure backup of Exchange cluster data

1. Prerequisites:
   1. Install Agent for Exchange on each node of the Exchange cluster.
   2. Register all of the agents on the management server, either during installation or later.
2. Connect the console to the management server.
3. Click Create backup plan.
4. Under What to back up:
   1. Click Show access credentials, exclusions. In the Access credentials, specify the credentials required to access the source data.

      Details. To access the Exchange cluster data, a domain user account that has administrative privileges on each of the cluster nodes is required.

      When entering the name of an Active Directory user account, be sure to also specify the domain name (DOMAIN\Username or Username@domain).

   2. Click Items to back up.

      In Data to back up, select one of the following:

      • Microsoft Exchange information store to back up Exchange databases or storage groups
      • Microsoft Exchange mailboxes to back up individual mailboxes.

      In the catalog tree below Data to back up, select the Exchange cluster and specify data items to back up. The cluster databases or storage groups are displayed as single instances regardless of the number of copies they have within the cluster.

5. Under Where to back up, select the backup destination. The backups can be saved to any type of storage supported by Acronis Backup, except for Acronis Cloud Storage, Acronis Secure Zone and removable media.

   Naming the archive. Acronis Backup generates a common name for the new archive and displays it in the Name field. The name looks like [Application Instance Name]_Archive(N), where the [Application Instance Name] variable is a substitution for the Exchange server's or cluster's name, and N is a sequence number. If you are not satisfied with the automatically generated name, you can construct another name. Note that the use of the [Application Instance Name] variable at the beginning of the name is mandatory.

6. Under How to back up in the Backup scheme, select the required scheme and specify its settings as described in the "Backup schemes" section.
7. In the Cluster backup mode select one of the following:
   • Active

     This mode is available for selection if Agent for Exchange is installed on each node of the cluster.

     In this mode, the software will back up data from the active copy of the database or the storage group. If the active copy is not available at the moment, the backup will fail.

     Backing up data from active copies may slow down the Exchange server performance, but the backed-up data will be in the most up-to-date state.

   • Passive (replica)

     This mode is available for selection if Agent for Exchange is installed on each node of the cluster.

     In this mode, the software will back up data from one of the available passive database or storage group replicas (if several). Also, specify what to do if all the passive copies are unavailable at the moment: either Back up active copy, or Fail the task.

     Backing up passive copies does not affect the Exchange server performance and allows you to extend the backup window. However, passive copies may contain information that is not up-to-date, because such copies are often set to be updated asynchronously (lagged).

   • The selected node

     This mode is available for selection if all items selected for backup are hosted on a single node or if the console is directly connected to the agent.

     In this mode, you specify the cluster node manually. Choose this mode only if you are absolutely sure that the data will not be relocated to another cluster node. If the data changes its location before or during the backup, the task will fail.

8. Under Plan parameters, click Plan's credentials and specify the user account under which the plan will run.

   When entering the name of an Active Directory user account, be sure to also specify the domain name (DOMAIN\Username or Username@domain).

9. For information about specifying the rest of backup plan settings (replication, retention, and validation of backups), see either the product Help or the User Guide for Acronis Backup Advanced.
10. Click OK to create the backup plan.