Exchange Brick Level Backup using Exmerge

Task

Using Microsoft backup utility to backup Exchange Server is all well and good, but it backs up all of the Exchange Store to one file – and this has to be restored to the exact same Active Directory as it was backed up from, which means the backup file must be used inc onjunction with a system state backup – and if your hardware fails and you need to restore to a server with different hardware this can make things akward (Although this can be done, its not easy and not quick).

Explanation

Exmerge is a great utility that can be used in conjunction with Microsoft backup, to perform a brick-level backup of email (In other words, it will produce PST files for each mailbox in the store).

Instructions for usage

1. Download ExMerge from Microsoft.
2. Extract Exmerge files to  [systemDrive]:\program files\Exchsrvr\bin – (I usually make a shortcut to exmerge.exe on the desktop for ease of use)
3. Create a new account – for example “exadmin” and make it a member of domain admins and administrators
4. NOTE1: You cannot use the administrator account because by default is has express Deny permissions for other mailboxes
5. Allow the new account full mailbox access to all mailboxes – User properties > Exchange Advanced > Mailbox rights add in the exadmin user and tick “Full mailbox access”
6. Run exmerge as exadmin (Use the run as command)
7. By default exmerge will backup emails to a PST named with the user account name – in options you can select date ranges – but be aware these are in the american time format)

Running by Schedule

Exmerge can be run on schedule using sheduled tasks. (accessories/system tools/task scheduler) – If you plan to do this, run exmerge manually first and configure all of the appropriate settings, then choose “save settings option on the last screen before exmerge actually runs).

Create a new scheduled task and browse to: C:\Program Files\Exchsrvr\bin\ExMerge.exe

After setting the schedule, open the advanced properties.

The following path should be used in the “run” path:  exmerge -F exmerge.ini -B

When configuring the scheduled task, also remember to make sure the task is run using the account we created in step 3.

Note2: Exmerge will only backup PSTs to 2gb in size – if your PSTs are larger than 2gb they will need to be split up by date range.

Note3: Be aware that the size of the backed up PST can be larger than the original mailbox size because of the way Exchange stores duplicate messages.

Note4: If Exmerge goes beyond the 2gb limit for any mailbox it will output errors to the following locations:

c:\program files\Exchsrvr\bin\exmerge.log

c:\program files\Exchsrvr\bin\exmerge-(thread1).log

c:\program files\Exchsrvr\bin\exmerge-(thread2).log

These files can become very large in size so be sure not to put exmerge in the position where it will create a PST larger than 2gb.

Thanks

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