Exchange Recovery Tools: Go Back in Time to Recover Your Priceless Data

Exchange and Outlook UPDATE Exchange Product Showcase Don't miss out! Make sure your copy of Exchange and Outlook UPDATE isn't mistakenly blocked by antispam software. Add Exchange_and_Outlook_UPDATE@list.windowsitpro.com to your list of allowed senders and contacts. This email newsletter comes to you free and is supported by advertising. March 31, 2006 1. Exchange Recovery Tools - Go Back in Time to Recover Your Priceless Data 2. Featured Product - NearPoint for Microsoft Exchange Server 1. Exchange Recovery Tools: Go Back in Time to Recover Your Priceless Data You can't travel backward in time but if you're a Microsoft Exchange Server administrator, you want something that's almost equivalent: to be able to quickly restore your Exchange environment after a failure or data loss. You can use several methods to recover this data, depending on the tools you use and what your recovery objectives are. This Buyer's Guide focuses on the abilities to recover damaged or lost databases from earlier copies and to recover selected items from within damaged databases. The mechanics of doing so vary widely between products, but most products generally can be grouped into four broad categories according to how they let you recover lost or damaged data. Conventional Recovery Solutions Conventional Exchange recovery solutions target backup and restore functions. These products can perform either offline or online backups of Exchange databases, letting you recover a backup and produce a database file that you can mount to the original server (or, in the case of Exchange Server 2003, to a recovery storage group). These products also allow backup and restore of individual messages (known as brick-level backup), although such backups take much more time and space to create than database backups do. When evaluating these products, consider whether your combination of hardware and software provides the adequate throughput to back up or restore your data in the amount of time you've allotted and how easily the tool restores selected items. Offline Recovery Solutions Offline recovery solutions can selectively retrieve items from a backup software-produced database file without mounting the database, which lets you access any backup in your archive and retrieve only the items you need. These products are best used in conjunction with conventional backup solutions because they work only on existing backups of your databases. They let you quickly grab selected items without restoring and mounting an entire database; accordingly, their search, selection, and filtering capabilities are important. Replication Recovery Solutions Replication recovery solutions are designed to speed recovery by creating a complete copy of your Exchange data on a remote server. Products in this category copy data from a source server to one or more target servers across a LAN or WAN. If the original server fails, you can either move the data back to the original server or restore operations by forcing clients to move to the target server. These products can speed recovery significantly, but they tend to be complex to install and manage and Microsoft typically doesn't support their use with Exchange. If you're considering a product in this class, talk to other users of the product and find out whether they've had good experiences with both day-to-day operation and emergency recoveries. Corruption Recovery Tools Corruption recovery tools attempt to analyze data in an Exchange database file and fix the problems they find or recover data from the database file. These tools might be helpful as a last-ditch method of recovering data from a database that wasn't backed up. They probably shouldn't be your first line of defense, however. Choosing the Appropriate Tool How do you choose the best tool for your environment? If your business operations dictate a particular recovery time window, you obviously need to look for products that let you restore your data and resume typical operations in that amount of time. If your primary concern is to recover items from past backups or if you're worried about being able to pull data from a corrupt backup, your selection will be different than if your primary concern is safeguarding your data by replicating it to a remote site. In general, you'd probably benefit from having access to one of the offline recovery tools because they're often the fastest way to go back in time and retrieve data from an old backup. And that's probably the closest you'll ever get to time travel. 2. Featured Products NearPoint for Microsoft Exchange Server Product pricing: Starts at $9,995 for 100 Mailboxes Manufacturer: Mimosa Systems Phone: 408-970-9070 Product URL: www.mimosasystems.com/html/prod_NP_Demos.htm Next-Generation Email Management Looking for magical recovery, archiving & storage management for Exchange? Experience Mimosa NearPoint and register for a free trial version to learn how NearPoint solves the most critical Exchange data management issues. Offering 100 percent data capture (without journaling or MAPI), reduced Exchange storage while eliminating .PST files, and self service access to archived data, NearPoint is the next-generation of email data management. Announcements (from Windows IT Pro and its partners) How To Run Exchange Server 2003 on HP StorageWorks 8000 Enterprise Virtual Arrays Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 is an I/O intensive application that often requires dedicated storage to provide high performance. To successfully deploy Exchange Server 2003 it is critical to properly size and configure the storage subsystem to meet requirements for performance, fault tolerance, and reliability. Learn the best practices considerations when deploying Exchange Server 2003 on the HP StorageWorks 8000 Enterprise Virtual Array (EVA8000) with this free whitepaper! Spotlight on Symantec Mail Security 8000 Family Appliances There are many products on the market that have been designed to provide a range of protection from email threats such as spam, viruses, and content control. Symantec Mail Security 8000 Family Appliances eliminates the need for users to spend increasing amounts of time dealing with spam, which organizations have to install additional mail servers and other infrastructure to handle. Learn more with this free whitepaper! Contact Us About the newsletter—letters@windowsitpro.com About technical questions— list.windowsitpro.com About product news—products@windowsitpro.com About your subscription—exchangeandoutlookupdate@windowsitpro.com About sponsoring UPDATE—salesopps@windowsitpro.com Subscription Info This email newsletter is brought to you by Exchange & Outlook Administrator, the leading publication for IT professionals managing, securing, optimizing, and migrating Exchange and Outlook. Subscribe today! Manage Your Account You are subscribed as news-and-stuff@arconati.us You are receiving this email message because you subscribed to Exchange & Outlook Update newsletter on our Web site. To unsubscribe, click the unsubscribe link: Unsubscribe. View the Windows IT Pro privacy policy. Windows IT Pro, a division of Penton Media, Inc. 221 East 29th Street, Loveland, CO 80538 Attention: Customer Service Department Copyright 2006, Penton Media, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Copyright © 2006 Penton Media, Inc., All rights reserved.