Using CA ARCserve Central Host-Based VM Backup › How to Back Up the Virtual Machine Environment › Perform Application Level Backups

Perform Application Level Backups

Generally, no special steps are required to protect Microsoft Exchange or SQL Server systems. However, depending on the way you perform a restore when a problem occurs enables certain options.

For example, enabling the Exchange Granular Catalog option on the Backup Settings/Advanced screen allows you to recover a specific mailbox or individual email message later. You can also restore folders or email messages directly from Windows Explorer.

To perform a full application backup, ensure that the following points are acknowledged:

• All application writers are in a stable state. Use vssadmin to see writer status.
• All databases that are backed up are in a healthy state. For example, for SQL Server, make sure that the database status is not Restoring.

You can also truncate transaction logs for SQL and Exchange Servers separately.

Note: When you upgrade to an ESX server, then upgrade the VMware tools inside the guest operating systems before performing application-level backups to avoid "out of date" errors.