I have two Exchange 2010 servers running a DAG. One server is onsite, the other is at a co-lo.
I'm running Backup Exec 2012 to backup the DAG. My question is:
Do i need to configure jobs to backup the information store on one of the individual stores also? or is backing up the DAG with Backup Exec enough for disaster recovery?
Do DAG backups allow for Granular Recovery of individual mailboxes and messages? or is it a database level backup?
Best Answer
Have a 2-server DAG is not considered a "backup", but rather just high availability. You still want backups with Backup Exec or similar product.
Having Backup Exec backup all your mailbox databases is most of what you want for restoring disaster recovery. Most people assume DR means you have NO servers, so you'll need a restore of your Active Directory (where most of your Exchange config lives) and optionally the Exchange server system drives. DR is way more complex then people think it will be, so I recommend trying to restore in a lab of virtual machines (on a separate VLAN or similar) the whole shebang including AD, Exchange, etc. You'll learn tons and also learn if you have all you need.
With Backup Exec, you can do granular restores of mail items if you just backup the mailbox databases in the DAG.