Using Veeam Exchange backup as rollback plan ?

[albertwt]

Hi People,

I'm going to perform Exchange Server 2010 patching this weekend and wondering if Veeam Backup can be used as a restoration point in case the patching went failed ?

as for the Hub Transport & Client Access Server role I guess it won't really matter, but what about the mailbox server ?

any kind of comments and suggestion or sharing about restoring Exchange Server from Veeam Backup would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

[albertwt]

Hi,

I'd like to know if it is possible or recommended to do Exchange Server VM restore in the event of patching failure ?
I've never done any Exchange Server 2007/2010 restoration using Veeam in the event of failed patching so I wonder if anyone here can give me some clarification.

Thanks.

[Vitaliy S.]

Hi Albert,

If you want to verify all the patches for your Exchange server, why not to use on-demand sandbox (virtual lab)? You can apply all patches there, confirm that your environment is stable and then do the same procedure with production server?

Thanks!

[Vitaliy S.]

I don't see why you can't do this... What clarification would you like to receive?

[albertwt]

Hi Albert,

If you want to verify all the patches for your Exchange server, why not to use on-demand sandbox (virtual lab)? You can apply all patches there, confirm that your environment is stable and then do the same procedure with production server?

Thanks!

Vitaly,

Thanks for the quick reply, there are 4 exchange servers and 3 domain controllers involved in this patching project.
so how can I start them all in VBR 7 would that be possible ?

[albertwt]

I don't see why you can't do this... What clarification would you like to receive?

Do I have to restore all sets of the Exchange Servers or just the one server that was failed to patch ?

[Vitaliy S.]

so how can I start them all in VBR 7 would that be possible ?

Please check out this topic for more information on how to set this up > On-Demand Sandbox. In order to verify your Exchange server, you don't really need to spin-up all DCs, you can use just one.

Do I have to restore all sets of the Exchange Servers or just the one server that was failed to patch ?

You can verify each server in the lab, then do that backup job of production servers, apply that patch and if anything goes wrong, I believe you can restore only one "failed" server. What kind of patches are you going to apply?

[albertwt]

Thanks Vitaly,

It will be Service Pack 3 followed by Roll Up Update 7, next round will be the Windows Update but that will be for the next weekend after.

[Vitaliy S.]

Got it, so prior upgrading definitely do the backup of your environment, check these steps (very detailed post on how to do the upgrade) in Virtual Lab and then do the same in production. Hope this helps! Let us know how it goes.