In order to perform mailbox backups with our software it’s necessary to install our software directly on an Exchange server with Microsoft’s MAPI protocol installed and to run our BackupAgent service as a user that meets the following criteria:

• The user is a domain administrator.
• The user is a local administrator (Member of the Built-in Administrators group, or Builtin\Adminstrators).
• It has a mailbox that is visible in the Exchange Global Address List (GAL).
• The user has both Send-As and Receive-As permissions on the server being backed up.

It is best if you use the Backup Agent software to create an account with the above permissions instead of granting the access manually as issues might arise later. The software will provide you with a series of validation steps to inform you if the user or the environment does not meet any of the necessary criteria. In which case you will create an account dedicated to running the backups so it has proper access to the mailboxes.

Within the backup agent, create a new backup set

• Select "Backup Individual Mailboxes and Messages
• Select "Validate" in the bottom right.
• If you have waited to use the software to create the backup admin account, it will be done here.
• Once the Backup Admin account is created due the following to run the service as this new user:
  • Open "Services.msc"
  • Right-click on the BackupAgent service, and click “Stop.”
  • Right-click on the BackupAgent service, and click “Properties.”
  • Browse to the “Log On” tab.
  • Select the radio button next to “This account” then click the browse button.
  • In the text box at the bottom, type in the name of the user we created during this process.
  • Click Check Names, and once found, click the OK button.
  • Input and confirm the user’s password, and then click OK once more to apply the changes. 
  • Start the Backup Agent by clicking the start item in the upper left of the window.
• Once created run through the validation process again, verified that everything is meet this time.
• Follow Wizard for preferences, of what to backup, when, and exclusions.

Although Intronis can take quite some time to complete Mailbox level backups there are a couple setting that can minimize the time.

• If customer is utilizing the "Local Vault" option, make sure the "Backup directly to the Local Vault first" setting is unchecked.
  • This is configured under Preferences>Options>Local Vault Folder
• Another setting is the "Worker Count"
  • This is located Preferences>File System Settings> Workers
  • The Worker count references the amount of files the software will package, encrypt, and send to Intronis at one time.
  • This option will tax more the resources of the server when set to more than the default of "3"
  • The worker count plays a big role in the limitations of bandwidth some might experience, since it will only send the size of the packaged data.
• Lastly one thing to remember when doing an initial backup, there are usually a lot of smaller files associated with exchange mailbox level backups, on top of the fact that it is trying to backup an active database so patience is crucial.