Exchange Database Backup / Recovery

[t.maintz]

Since i couldn't reach anyone at Veeam by phone to answer my questions, i'm now asking here.
We have a Exchange 2016 DAG with 2 Servers. The Servers are running in active-active mode, both Server have 10 active Databases and 10 passives.

Now to my Question: Which databases are backed up in the default and what happens to that databases, are they unmounted for a consistent state?
Is there any Option to tell Veeam to backup only the passive databases?

My second Question is: Is it possible to mount an edb-File from a snapshot that is not taken by veeam?


Thank you for your help!

[HannesK]

Hello,
and welcome to the forums.

Just to be sure... you are talking about physical servers with the Veeam Agent for Windows? Or is it about virtual machines on VMware / Hyper-V (because that's the majority of our customers)

All databases are backed up (that means data is stored twice, if that is the background of the question). The "how it works" is described in the user guide

Second question: yes, the Explorer for Exchange can open edb files (e.g. from storage snapshots or wherever they are from)

Best regards,
Hannes

[t.maintz]

Hello Hannes, thanks for your fast help!
Yes we have 2 physical Exchange Servers and i would like to avoid downtime. Until now I knew that the databases have to be unmounted to create a consistent copy.
Is that the case? Do I have to plan a downtime for the backup in an active-active Scenario or would it be better to have one Server that only has passives copies?

Best regards,
Thomas

[HannesK]

Hello,

and i would like to avoid downtime

Veeam backups work without downtime. We use the Exchange VSS writer (Microsoft technology) for backup... please see the link I posted above for details.

https://www.veeam.com/kb2463 also covers Exchange DAGs.

Best regards,
Hannes