Disaster Recovery Question

Disaster Recovery Question

I am in the middle of designing a DR for my Exch Org.  I have a question 
about backing up the Metabase.  Should this be an every day occurrence?  In 
other words - should I set it up to be backed up every day?  I have had an 
issue in the past where I had to install Exchange over itself because my 
Metabase corrupted.  I'm not sure of the Metabase yet and if it's an ever 
changing thing like the Stores are.

   Any responses would be greatly appreciated.

   Thank you -
      Jon

date: Wed, 24 May 2006 14:53:06 -0500 author: Jon

Re: Disaster Recovery Question

Last I checked, this hasn't changed:

A metabase database-only backup that is made through the Internet 
Information Services (IIS) Microsoft Management Console (MMC) snap-in or 
through MetaEdit.exe is not helpful if the rest of the server is lost 
because the metabase depends on certain encryption keys that are backed up 
with the system state.

The most reliable backup of the metabase that you can make is through the 
System State option found in Ntbackup.exe, which is a Windows 2000 backup 
utility. Neither the Ntbackup.exe online Help nor the graphical user 
interface (GUI) indicate that the metabase is included in the System State 
backup option.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/269586/EN-US/


"Jon"  wrote in message 
news:%23g8pBr2fGHA.3916@TK2MSFTNGP04.phx.gbl...
>   I am in the middle of designing a DR for my Exch Org.  I have a question 
> about backing up the Metabase.  Should this be an every day occurrence? 
> In other words - should I set it up to be backed up every day?  I have had 
> an issue in the past where I had to install Exchange over itself because 
> my Metabase corrupted.  I'm not sure of the Metabase yet and if it's an 
> ever changing thing like the Stores are.
>
>   Any responses would be greatly appreciated.
>
>   Thank you -
>      Jon
>

date: Wed, 24 May 2006 17:56:12 -0400 author: Al Mulnick

Re: Disaster Recovery Question

As long as your data is safe, and you're comfortable in recovering data 
using tools like ESEUTIL and ISINTEG than your basically ok.
A full server restore is not really an issue, it's pretty straight forward 
but very time consuming.
Make sure you know your configuration and you can setup a new server, use 
the original server name, setup Exchange with the /disasterrecovery switch, 
patch your server with the appropriate hotfixes and service packs and you 
should be up-and-running.
Try this in a test environment, you'll see it works.

If you have a system state backup (which includes the metabase) this makes 
it much easier, but still you have to rebuild your server.

A full backup is ofcourse the easiest way to recover. Personally I like the 
Backup Exec Intelligent Disaster Recovery option very much, safes a lot of 
time.

Test this, document this, train this. On a regular basis. One day you'll be 
happy you did, believe me :-)

Cheers,
Jaap




"Jon"  wrote in message 
news:%23g8pBr2fGHA.3916@TK2MSFTNGP04.phx.gbl...
>   I am in the middle of designing a DR for my Exch Org.  I have a question 
> about backing up the Metabase.  Should this be an every day occurrence? 
> In other words - should I set it up to be backed up every day?  I have had 
> an issue in the past where I had to install Exchange over itself because 
> my Metabase corrupted.  I'm not sure of the Metabase yet and if it's an 
> ever changing thing like the Stores are.
>
>   Any responses would be greatly appreciated.
>
>   Thank you -
>      Jon
>

date: Thu, 25 May 2006 12:31:32 +0200 author: Jaap Wesselius Jaap[remove-this]@it-support.nl

Re: Disaster Recovery Question

Thank you very much for the Replies to my question.  I already do a 
nightly System State backup along with a full backup of the Stores on my 
server.  That tells me that I "should be fine" in the event I need to do any 
kind of restore of the system.  Of course, that's easy to say.
   Again, thank you for the info and I will incorporate it into my DR Plan 
for Exchange.

       Jon


"Jon"  wrote in message 
news:%23g8pBr2fGHA.3916@TK2MSFTNGP04.phx.gbl...
>   I am in the middle of designing a DR for my Exch Org.  I have a question 
> about backing up the Metabase.  Should this be an every day occurrence? 
> In other words - should I set it up to be backed up every day?  I have had 
> an issue in the past where I had to install Exchange over itself because 
> my Metabase corrupted.  I'm not sure of the Metabase yet and if it's an 
> ever changing thing like the Stores are.
>
>   Any responses would be greatly appreciated.
>
>   Thank you -
>      Jon
>

date: Thu, 25 May 2006 08:50:13 -0500 author: Jon

Re: Disaster Recovery Question

Let me make a further suggestion then that you follow best practices and 
practice your restores to a test environment?
That's the only true way to know that your planning and preparation are 
accurate in the case that you need them - practice. :)



"Jon"  wrote in message 
news:ek4mxEAgGHA.4080@TK2MSFTNGP03.phx.gbl...
>   Thank you very much for the Replies to my question.  I already do a 
> nightly System State backup along with a full backup of the Stores on my 
> server.  That tells me that I "should be fine" in the event I need to do 
> any kind of restore of the system.  Of course, that's easy to say.
>   Again, thank you for the info and I will incorporate it into my DR Plan 
> for Exchange.
>
>       Jon
>
>
> "Jon"  wrote in message 
> news:%23g8pBr2fGHA.3916@TK2MSFTNGP04.phx.gbl...
>>   I am in the middle of designing a DR for my Exch Org.  I have a 
>> question about backing up the Metabase.  Should this be an every day 
>> occurrence? In other words - should I set it up to be backed up every 
>> day?  I have had an issue in the past where I had to install Exchange 
>> over itself because my Metabase corrupted.  I'm not sure of the Metabase 
>> yet and if it's an ever changing thing like the Stores are.
>>
>>   Any responses would be greatly appreciated.
>>
>>   Thank you -
>>      Jon
>>
>
>

date: Thu, 25 May 2006 17:03:37 -0400 author: Al Mulnick