This chapter discusses the information you need to plan and implement a usable and reliable backup and restoration system. The key components of your Microsoft® Business Solutions Customer Relationship Management (Microsoft CRM) deployment for which you should have backup and recovery process and procedures in place include:
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Microsoft Windows® 2000 Server and Active Directory® directory service
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Microsoft SQL Server™ 2000
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Microsoft Exchange 2000 Server
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Microsoft CRM server
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Crystal Enterprise
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Microsoft Small Business Server 2000 (if applicable)
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Choosing a Backup Scheme
Windows 2000 Server
Microsoft SQL Server
Exchange 2000
Microsoft CRM Server
Crystal Enterprise
Microsoft Small Business Server
Choosing a Backup Scheme
It is recommended that you select a tape backup rotation scheme that ensures data protection in case a tape malfunctions or is lost. A popular tape rotation scheme is grandparent-parent-child:
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The tape used for backup on the last Friday of each month is called the grandparent tape. This tape is stored off-site.
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The tape used for backup every Friday (except the last Friday of the month) is called the parent tape. This tape is also stored off-site.
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The tapes used for backup on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday are called child tapes. Often all child tapes are stored on-site except for the tape from the preceding day.
The following backup options are available:
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Normal . Backs up all selected files and marks the files as backed up.
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Copy. Backs up all selected files but does not mark the files as backed up.
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Differential. Backs up selected files only if they have not been previously backed up or have been changed since the last backup, but does not mark the files as backed up.
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Incremental. Backs up selected files only if they have not been previously backed up or have been changed since the last backup, and marks the files as backed up.
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Daily. Backs up only files that have been changed on that particular day and marks them as backed up.
Because many small businesses typically do not have system administrators on staff, a Normal backup, which is performed daily and according to the suggested grandparent-parent-child backup scheme, is recommended for small organizations. Larger organizations likely have an existing backup methodology that Microsoft CRM will fit into.
Windows 2000 Server
Microsoft Windows 2000 Server has a comprehensive backup utility that permits you to back up critical company data to tape media. The scheduling capability found in the Windows 2000 Backup utility provides data backup on the server itself and for workstations in the small business network. This includes security information, file and share permissions, and registry data. For data security, only a user from the administrator or backup operator group should back up data to tape. Individual files and directories or the entire server can be restored by using the Windows 2000 Backup utility.
The Windows 2000 Backup utility requires that the tape backup device be connected to a compatible small computer system interface (SCSI) or non-SCSI controller card. The controller card must be properly installed and functional. Windows 2000 Server automates the installation of a controller card because Device Manager detects new hardware at system startup and automatically installs the appropriate drivers. For more information, see:
Active Directory
The Windows 2000 Backup utility can back up System State data. System State data includes Active Directory, boot files, the Component Services Class Registration database, the registry, and SysVol. Possible backup locations for System State data include floppy disks, a hard disk, removable media, recordable compact discs, and tapes.
While it is recommended that you back up Active Directory, the only way to avoid data loss is to have multiple Active Directory domain controllers. This way, if a domain controller fails, the other domain controller(s) will have a complete copy of the directory. With a tape backup you only have data as recent as your last backup.
Active Directory is a transacted database system that uses log files to support rollback semantics to ensure that transactions are committed to the database. The files associated with Active Directory are:
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Ntds.dit. The database.
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Edbxxxxx.log. Transaction logs.
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Edb.chk. Checkpoint file.
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Res1.log & Res2.log. Reserved log files.
Ntds.dit grows as the database fills up. However, the logs are of fixed size (10 MB). Any change made to the database is also appended to the current log file, and its disk image is always kept up to date.
Edb.log is the current log file. When a change is made to the database, it is written to the Edb.log file. When the Edb.log file is full of transactions, it is renamed to Edbxxxxx.log. (It starts at 00001 and continues to increment using hexadecimal notation.) Because Active Directory uses circular logging, old log files are constantly deleted once they have been written to the database. At any point in time, you will find the edb.log file and maybe one or more Edbxxxxx.log files.
Res1.log and Res2.log are "placeholders"—designed to reserve (in this case) the last 20 MB of disk space on the drive. This is designed to give the log files sufficient room for a graceful shutdown if all other disk space is consumed.
The Edb.chk file stores the database checkpoint, which identifies the point where the database engine needs to replay the logs, generally at the time of recovery or initialization.
For more information, see:
Microsoft SQL Server
The Windows 2000 Backup utility cannot back up online Microsoft SQL Server databases. Use SQL Server 2000 Enterprise Manager to create a backup of the SQL Server databases. Thereafter, you can run a backup job from the Windows 2000 Backup utility to include database backups that Enterprise Manager created. You would schedule the backup routing in Enterprise Manager to run first, followed by a backup job run in the Windows 2000 Backup utility. For more information about SQL Server backups, refer to Chapter 26, "Disaster Recovery," in SQL Server 2000 Books Online.
Microsoft CRM creates three Microsoft CRM–specific databases on SQL Server and also depends on the default SQL Server databases for database services. The databases that make up a Microsoft CRM database on SQL Server are:
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Organization_name _MSCRM
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Organization_name_METABASE
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Organization_name_CRMCRYSTAL
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Organization_name_MSCRMDistribution
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master
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msdb
Your SQL Server backup plan should address each of these databases to ensure that Microsoft CRM could recover if one or all fail. If your organization already has SQL Server or another database application, your database administrator may already have a database backup strategy in place. However, if this is the first database application in your organization, you can create and maintain scheduled backup jobs to perform the necessary backups using the Database Maintenance Plan Wizard in SQL Server Enterprise Manager.
Your backup plan for the Microsoft CRM databases provides you a backup set that includes a full database backup and some number of transaction log backups, depending on your Microsoft CRM installation and the frequency with which you determine that you require backups. For more general information about backup and restore strategies, see SQL Server Books Online.
For databases that are updated infrequently, such as msdb and Organization_name_ METABASE, you might choose to perform only full database backups. The Organization_name _MSCRM and Organization_name _MSCRMDistribution databases should definitely have both full database backups and transaction log backups....
Databases on which transaction log backups will be performed must have the Full Recovery model database property set. You can set this database property through Enterprise Manager. For more information about setting database properties, see "How to Change the Configuration Settings for a Database (Enterprise Manager)" in SQL Server Books Online.
Schedule full database backups often enough to minimize the number of restores after a failure. For example, if one day’s data loss is acceptable, you can back up the transaction log once a day and back up the database once a week. If only one hour’s maximum data loss is acceptable, you can back up the transaction log once per hour. To minimize the number of restores, back up the database once per day.
To create a database maintenance plan for scheduled backups, run the Database Maintenance Plan Wizard from Enterprise Manager. Choose the option to back up the database as part of the maintenance plan for a full database backup. Choose the option to back up the transaction log as part of the maintenance plan for a transaction log backup.
Your SQL Server hardware should also be designed with a level of fault-tolerance that is appropriate for a database server. This includes a RAID-5 disk array for your databases and a RAID-0 (mirror) for your transaction logs. With the proper level of hardware fault-tolerance, restoring from backup should be a very uncommon occurrence.
For information about the other options available in these maintenance plans, such as where to store the backups, see Database Maintenance Plan Wizard Help in SQL Server Books Online.
For more information about backing up and restoring SQL Server databases, see:
Exchange 2000
The Windows 2000 Backup utility can back up the Microsoft Exchange 2000 Server Information Store and directory services. Because Exchange 2000 Server is backed up at the post office–level, it is not possible to restore an individual mailbox or individual piece of e-mail by using the Windows 2000 Backup utility. Some third-party tape backup applications have the ability to restore at the individual mailbox level.
Backing up the Exchange 2000 Information Store is an important part of creating a fault-tolerant messaging system. The backup and restore features in Microsoft Exchange 2000 Server help you recover from various types of data loss with minimal downtime for your mail system.
Exchange uses the Microsoft Windows 2000 Backup utility to back up and restore the Exchange Information Store. The Windows 2000 Backup utility enables you to protect data from accidental loss or hardware and media failure by using a storage device to back up and restore data on any server in your organization locally or over the network.
Enhancements in Exchange 2000 Server ensure that backing up and restoring data is efficient and reliable; for example, you can restore one or more mailbox stores or public folder stores without shutting down the Information Store.
You can make sure that your organization is prepared to recover from data loss by performing proper planning and implementation. This chapter describes how to develop a backup and restoration strategy. Developing a backup and restoration strategy consists of the following steps. Each step is described in detail later in this chapter:
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Understand Exchange 2000 Server database and storage group technology.
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Design a backup plan.
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Develop disaster recovery strategies.
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Restore data.
The Microsoft CRM-Exchange E-mail Router (the Router) is a component that is installed on all Exchange 2000 servers that can receive incoming Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) messages. If an Exchange 2000 server that has the Router fail and is recovered, the Router component must be reinstalled so that it will continue identifying Microsoft CRM messages as they enter the organization.
For more information about Exchange 2000 Server disaster planning, see:
Microsoft CRM Server
Backing up (and restoring) your Microsoft CRM server basically involves the:
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Microsoft CRM server program files
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Microsoft CRM server database files
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Crystal Enterprise file store
Following the SQL Server and Windows backup recommendations and procedures will ensure proper backup of your Microsoft CRM server. For more information, see Chapter 16, "Operating and Maintaining your Microsoft CRM System," later in this guide.
Also, during the installation of the Microsoft CRM-Exchange E-mail Router, Windows 2000 registry changes are made to the Microsoft CRM servers that identify the Exchange 2000 servers as a Microsoft CRM-Exchange E-mail Router. If the Microsoft CRM server fails and has to be reinstalled, the Router must be reinstalled on all of the Exchange 2000 servers so that the proper registry settings are applied to the reinstalled Microsoft CRM server.
Crystal Enterprise
Crystal Enterprise has two storage locations:
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The Crystal Reports templates are stored in a SQL Server database along with the other Microsoft CRM database files. The name of this database Organization_name_ CRMCRYSTAL.
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The second location is the Crystal file store, located at:
<systemdrive>:\Program Files\Microsoft CRM\Crystal Decisions\Enterprise\Filestore
The Crystal Enterprise SQL Server database should be backed up along with the other Microsoft CRM database files. Use your standard backup method to back up the Crystal Reports folder.
The Crystal Enterprise file store is located on one Microsoft CRM server per deployment. If your deployment has multiple Microsoft CRM servers, there is still only one Crystal Enterprise file store located on the first server (unless you have moved it).
Microsoft Small Business Server
Protecting company data on Microsoft Small Business Server 2000 is critical, especially given the fact that you will most likely be dependent on a single server. If your business can tolerate the potential of a small amount of downtime, you can mitigate a large part of this vulnerability. Even with the potential for loss of data due to fire or other natural disasters, the establishment of a good backup and disaster recovery plan will enable you to protect your data. With regular backups, even after the total loss of a server, you would be able to restore your system to its pre-backup state in a matter of only a few hours, at a relatively low cost.
The Windows 2000 Server component of Small Business Server includes a comprehensive backup utility that allows you to back up critical company data to tape. Scheduled backups can save data from any computer on the network and can include security information, file and share permissions, and registry data. For security reasons, only a user from the administrator or backup operator group should back up data to tape. You can restore individual files and directories—or even the entire server—by using the Windows 2000 Backup utility.
For more information about Small Business Server disaster recovery, see Chapter 26, "Disaster Recovery," in the Small Business Server 2000 Resource Kit, located at http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/sbs/2000/reskit/sbrk0026.mspx.