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Exchange 2013 prerequisites

 

Updated: May 18, 2016

Before you deploy DPM to protection Microsoft Exchange Server 2013 verify the deployment prerequisites:

  • Review the release notes and The Supported and unsupported scenarios in DPM for any Exchange issues.

  • Make sure the same versions of Eseutil.exe and Ese.dll are installed on both the Exchange Server and the DPM server. For example, if you’re using the 64-bit version of DPM, you must have the 64-bit version of eseutil.exe and ese.dll. If you update these files on the Exchange server you’ll need to update them on the DPM server too. The .ese and .eseutil files are usually in C:\Program Files\Microsoft\Exchange Server\V15\Bin folder.

    To maintain up-to-date copies do the following:

    1. At the command prompt, navigate to the <DPM installation folder>\Bin directory.

    2. Type the fsutil command as follows to create a hard link for eseutil.exe: fsutil hardlink create <link> <target>

      For example in a typical installation type: fsutil hardlink create “c:\program files\microsoft\dpm\bin\eseutil.exe” “c:\program files\microsoft\Exchange\bin\eseutil.exe”.

  • Install the Visual C++ Redistributable for Visual Studio 2012 Update 1.

  • To protect an Exchange Server 2013 Database Availability Group (DAG) node, install the DPM protection agent on the node. Note that you can protect different DAG nodes from different DPM servers, only one node can be protected by one DPM server only.

  • DPM 2012 (and later versions) have a storage pool size limit of 120 terabytes (TB). There is an 80 TB limit for DPM replica volumes and a 40 TB limit for recovery point volumes. When protecting a large Exchange deployment, it’s important to know the user mailbox size limit and the number of users or mailboxes. This information determines the maximum size or number of Exchange databases that can be protected by a single DPM server and keeps you within the supported limits.

    Use the number of users assigned to a database and their mailbox limits to calculate the maximum size possible for each Exchange database. For example, if the maximum size of a user’s mailbox is 8 GB, a single DPM server can protect up to 10,000 mailboxes. If the maximum size of a user’s mailbox is > 8 GB, or if you need to protect more than 10,000 users’ mailboxes, the Exchange server must be configured using DAG and requires additional DPM servers to provide full protection. Be aware that an Exchange node can only be protected by a single DPM server; therefore, the number of Exchange nodes should be equal to or greater than the number of DPM servers required to protect all Exchange databases.

  • DPM functions with any database role. You can configure DPM to protect a server that hosts a collection of active or passive mailbox databases.

  • You should configure at least one full backup per day and a synchronization frequency to suit your requirements for Exchange log truncations When you protect more than one copy of an Exchange mailbox database (for example, when you are protecting multiple members of a DAG), you should configure one node for full backups and the rest for copy backups. Copy backups do not truncate log files.

  • Protect at least two copies of each mailbox database whether Exchange Server is implemented with inexpensive Serial ATA (Serial Advanced Technology Attachment or SATA) or several disks/drives (JBOD) disks.

  • Set the minimum frequency to greater than 15 minutes for mailbox synchronization. Start by setting up your current backup policy, and then gradually increase the number of recovery points. Performing one or two express full backups per day, in addition to a synchronization frequency of two hours, is a sound approach. For an optimal synchronization frequency consider the volume of your data, the performance impact, and the volume required to store the replicas.

  • Exchange 2013 can support up to eight parallel backups. To accommodate parallel Exchange database backups for an Exchange server, create multiple protection groups (up to eight), and add Exchange databases to each protection group.

  • As you maintain your Exchange data note the following:

    • Add mailbox databases to the server. If you create or add new mailbox databases to a protected storage group on an Exchange server, these databases are automatically added to the DPM replication and protection. You can add mailbox databases in incremental backups only after a full backup has finished.

    • Change mailbox database file paths. If you move a protected database or log files to a volume that contains data that is protected by DPM, protection continues. If you move a protected database or log files to a volume that is not protected by DPM, an alert appears, and the protection jobs fail. To resolve the alert, in the alert details, click the Modify protection job link, and then run a consistency check.

    • Dismount mailbox databases. If you dismount a protected mailbox database, the protection job for that particular database fails. The replica is marked inconsistent when DPM runs the next express full backup.

    • Rename mailbox databases. If you need to change the name of the mailbox database, stop protection, and protect the database again. Until you protect the database again, the backups continue to work but mailbox enumeration fails.