Policy recommendations for Exchange Server

Note the following when you create policies for an Exchange Database Availability Group (DAG):

Create a policy that backs up an entire DAG or backs up one or more databases in a DAG. This policy supports full, incremental, and user-directed backups.
To perform a backup with Granular Recovery Technology (GRT) select the Enable granular recovery option.
This option lets you restore databases and individual mailbox and public folder items. You cannot restore individual mailbox and public folder items from any incremental backups.
An MS-Exchange-Server policy by default backs up the passive copy of a database. This behavior provides an advantage over a VMware policy, which backs up only the active copy by default.
The example policies include the basic policy settings for an Exchange backup. For information on how to create snapshot backup policies, see the following:
See About configuring snapshot backups of Exchange Server.

Table: Example policy that backs up all databases in an Exchange DAG

Policy item	Configuration
Policy type	MS-Exchange-Server
Backup selections	Microsoft Exchange Database Availability Groups:\
Auto backup frequency	Weekly Full Daily Incremental
Enable granular recovery	Optional. Enable this option if you want to restore individual mailbox and public folder objects from the database backup.
Other configuration	Perform snapshot backups must be enabled. You can include multiple clients on the Clients tab. The client names are the DAG names.

Table: Example policy that backs up a database for an Exchange DAG

Policy item	Configuration
Policy type	MS-Exchange-Server
Backup selections	Microsoft Exchange Database Availability Groups:\Mailbox Database Microsoft Exchange Database Availability Groups:\forest or domain name\Microsoft Information Store\Mailbox Database
Auto backup frequency	Weekly Full Daily Incremental
Enable granular recovery	Optional. Enable this option if you want to restore individual mailbox and public folder objects from the database backup.
Other configuration	Perform snapshot backups must be enabled. You can only include one client on the Clients tab. A DAG is the client for the policy.

Refer to the following recommendations when you create policies for an Exchange standalone server:

Create a policy that backs up the Information Store or individual databases. This policy supports full, incremental, and user-directed backups.
To perform a backup with Granular Recovery Technology (GRT), select the Enable granular recovery option.
You can restore databases and individual mailbox and public folder items. You cannot restore individual mailbox or public folder items from any incremental backups that use GRT.
The example policies include the basic policy settings for an Exchange backup. For information on how to create snapshot backup policies, see the following:
See About configuring snapshot backups of Exchange Server.

Table: Example policy that backs up all database in an Exchange standalone server

Policy item	Configuration
Policy type	MS-Exchange-Server
Backup selections	Microsoft Information Store:\
Auto backup frequency	Weekly Full Daily Incremental
Enable granular recovery	Optional. Enable this option if you want to restore individual mailbox and public folder objects from the database backup.
Other configuration	Perform snapshot backups must be enabled.

Table: Example policy that backs up a database in an Exchange standalone server

Policy item	Configuration
Policy type	MS-Exchange-Server
Backup selections	Microsoft Information Store:\Mailbox Database
Auto backup frequency	Weekly Full Daily Incremental
Enable granular recovery	Recommended. Enable this option if you want to restore individual mailbox and public folder objects from the database backup.
Other configuration	Perform snapshot backups must be enabled.