Microsoft Exchange brick-level backup
In this guide, we'll be taking a look at what Microsoft brick-level backups are and how you can conduct them using brick-level restores granular tools.
What is an Exchange brick-level backup?
Most brick-level (or granular) backups in Microsoft Exchange are the backup of individual messages on the Microsoft Exchange Server store. This allows the user(s) to back up the contents of an individual or multiple mailboxes to the Personal Folder (.pst) file. Brick-level backups use a different backup process in which they perform a MAPI logon to each mailbox as part of the backup process; this gives them the ability to recover individual mail items directly from backup media. It also facilitates recovery of single mail messages or mailboxes without having to build a recovery environment and without having to resort to RSGs. Every backup vendor implements brick-level backups in a different way.
Standard Microsoft Exchange backup
Normally, an Exchange backup does not allow for granular restoration of individual items. Therefore it can be a lengthy process if you are looking to only restore specific files from your mailbox. However, brick-level backups are not recommended by Microsoft but some organisations choose to implement them because this allows for a quicker restore time of individual items as the whole database does not need to be recovered when only one item is needed. This is an important feature to have in the event of a data loss situation as this type of backup allows you to restore individual mailboxes from the Microsoft Exchange Server Store to your Microsoft Exchange Server Mailbox without requiring a full restore.
Microsoft Exchange Extraction Tool
Here at Ontrack, we provide a really useful product that can recover individual mailboxes, messages and attachments without needing to restore the entire backup. This can be especially useful when specific items are needed in a short time frame. The Ontrack PowerControls for Extract Wizard is available to try out or buy with a one year subscription.
If you have any comments or feedback, please feel free to share it with me in the comment box below. In the next post, we will be looking at mailbox quotas and why they should be monitored to prevent data loss.
