Best Practices and Recommendations

The following are some best practices or recommendations we strongly recommend you follow before you start any Exchange Server 2016 Mail Level backup and restore.

Mail Level Backup must be utilized in conjunction with Database Level Backup to fully protect an Exchange Server.
Active Directory server should be protected by regular full Window System Backup at least once every two weeks.
For CloudBacko Pro installed on Exchange Server, enable scheduled backup jobs when system activity is low to achieve the best possible performance.
The remote backup machine should be on the same LAN as the MS Exchange server for optimal backup and restore performance.
To provide maximum data protection and flexible restore options, it is recommended to configure:
- At least one offsite or cloud destination
- At least one local destination for fast recovery
Perform test restores periodically to ensure your backup is set up and performed properly. Performing recovery test can also help identify potential issues or gaps in your recovery plan. It's important that you do not try to make the test easier, as the objective of a successful test is not to demonstrate that everything is flawless. There might be flaws identified in the plan throughout the test and it is important to identify those flaws.
Distributed Backup Solution: For backup of multiple or mass backup sets, to achieve better backup performance and to minimize any unnecessary loading on the Exchange server, please consider deploying CloudBacko Pro on remote backup machines as distributed backup solution instead of on the MS Exchange server.
For backup of a large number of mailboxes, it is recommended to divide all mailboxes into multiple backup sets. By default, the MS Exchange 2016 mail level backup module can back up a maximum of 4 mailboxes concurrently (4 concurrent backup threads), while backing up a maximum of 4 mail items concurrently per mailbox (4 concurrent backup threads). Therefore, each backup set supports a maximum of 4×4=16 backup threads at a time. By splitting up all mailboxes into separate backup sets, the more backup sets, the faster the backup process can achieve.

Example-1: There are 100 mailboxes that need to be backup, you can divide 20 mailboxes into one backup set.

Backup Set Name	Mailbox Number
Backup-Set-1	No.1 – 20
Backup-Set-2	No.21 – 40
Backup-Set-3	No.41 – 60
Backup-Set-4	No.61 – 80
Backup-Set-5	No.81 – 100

If there are new mailboxes added, you can create new backup set for the new mailboxes.

Example-2: There are 100 mailboxes that needs to be backup, you can divide mailboxes into backup sets in alphabetic order.

Backup Set Name	Mailbox Name Start with
Backup-Set-1	A – E
Backup-Set-2	F – J
Backup-Set-3	K – O
Backup-Set-4	P – T
Backup-Set-5	U – Z

If there are new mailboxes added, you can add the new mailboxes into the original backup set by the corresponding alphabetic order.