As Office Communications Server 2007 becomes a critical service for real-time communications within organizations, it is important to devise a backup and restore plan to ensure that communication remains available to the end users in case of a failure.
This chapter presents step-by-step guidance for planning your backup and restore deployments of Office Communications Server 2007. You can use the recommendations in this chapter for creating a backup and restoration plan tailored for your organization. Multiple tools and programs are available for backing up and restoring data, settings, and systems. This chapter focuses on the use of tools and programs provided with Office Communications Server 2007, as well as components available in Microsoft SQL Server 2005.
An essential component of effective backup and restore operations is establishment of a comprehensive and concise strategy. Typically, an organization's business priorities affect this strategy. Following is a list of some of these priorities:
Business continuity requirements These requirements are driven by the number of business-critical applications that rely on Office Communications Server 2007. If instant messaging (IM), Web conferencing, or Voice over IP (VoIP) is indispensable to continue your organization's business, you must account for it in your backup and restore plan. For instance, if instant messaging is critical to your organization, but Web conferencing is less critical at times of disaster, you can devise your backup and restore strategy accordingly by investing in restoring the components required for instant messaging before any other components.
Data completeness Office Communications Server 2007 stores three main types of data:
Depending on the need for completeness of this data, you can decide the frequency of backups. For instance, if you back up the user data every 24 hours, a user's contact list or buddy list will be accurate up to the last backup (which could be a day before the data loss).
Data criticality This typically applies to compliance-specific data. If your organization functions in a regulated industry and is mandated by regulations to maintain an up-to-date record of all communications, the data stored by Office Communications Server 2007 is very critical for your organization.
Cost constraints Besides the cost of physical hardware and any backup software costs, you might need to consider implicit costs. These costs typically include, but are not limited to, the cost of lost business (if applicable), cost of re-creating the deployment, administrative cost of backing up data, and so on.
The organization's business priorities should drive the backup and restore requirements. These requirements can be classified as follows:
Hardware and software requirements Specific hardware and software requirements should be determined based on the organization's needs. This includes not only the hardware to be used for backup storage and restoration of specific services, but also any software and network connectivity required to support backup and restoration.
Backup and restore tools The following tools can be used for backing up and restoring Office Communications Server environments:
LCSCmd.exe—The Office Communications Server command-line tool to export and import server settings
SQL Server Management Studio in SQL Server 2005—Used to back up the Enterprise pool and the Archiving and CDR Server databases
SQL Server Management Studio Express in SQL Server 2005 Express Edition—Used to back up databases on Standard Edition Servers
NTBackup—File system backup solution available in Microsoft Windows for backing up meeting content and meeting compliance logs
Administrative computer This is the computer that will perform the regular backups. This operation can be performed on an Office Communications Server or a separate administrative computer joined to Active Directory.
Recovery time Depending on the criticality of the system to the organization, the system must be restored within a maximum time period.
Backup location The backup location can be local or remote depending on security and availability requirements. The backup should be stored securely to prevent tampering and privacy risks. If storing the backup in a remote server, network bandwidth constraints and the impact on business use should be taken into consideration.
Disaster Recovery Site (if applicable) In the most extreme cases, loss of a complete site—because of either a total loss of power, a natural disaster, or other issues—can delay or prevent restoration of service at the original site. So use of a separate, secondary site might be a priority to meet the availability requirements of an organization.
Backup of an Office Communications Server 2007 deployment entails backing up settings and data. This section covers the requirements and options for backing up settings and data required for operation.
Office Communications Server 2007 has three levels of settings:
Global-level settings, which apply to all computers in the forest
Pool-level settings, which apply to a pool on a Standard Edition server or to all servers in an Enterprise pool
Computer-level settings (also referred to as machine-level settings), which are specific to each computer running Office Communications Server 2007
Table 14-1 describes which of the three levels of settings must be backed up for each server role.
Table 14-1. Settings Requirements
If an Office Communications Server has multiple server roles installed, each server role setting must be backed up. The administrator should not assume that because the backup has been completed for a front-end server's settings the settings for the Conferencing Server have also been backed up.
The LCSCmd.exe command-line tool can be used to back up global-level settings, pool-level settings, and computer-level settings. The LCSCmd.exe tool is automatically installed when Office Communications Server 2007 is installed. This tool is also available on any computer where Office Communications Server 2007 Admins tools are installed.
Backing up the settings needed to restore Office Communications Server 2007 requires backing up the following:
Global-level and pool-level settings. This requires the following:
For a Standard Edition server environment, back up these settings on only one Standard Edition server.
For an Enterprise pool, back up these settings on only one front-end server.
Computer-level (machine-level) settings. Back up these settings on each Office Communications Server 2007 server in your deployment.
Tables Table 14-2 and Table 14-3 describe the server roles in each configuration that requires backing up of computer-level settings. Table 14-2 also indicates which internal servers require backing up of computer-level settings.
Table 14-2. Internal Servers Requiring Backup of Computer-Level Settings
Servers | Standard Edition Server Environment | Enterprise Pool, Consolidated Configuration | Enterprise Pool, Expanded Configuration |
|---|---|---|---|
Standard Edition Servers | √ | ||
Front-end Servers | √ | √ | |
Directors (optional) | √ | √ | |
Web Components Servers | √ | ||
Web Conferencing Servers | √ | ||
A/V Conferencing Servers | √ | ||
Archiving and CDR Servers | √ | √ | √ |
Mediation Servers | √ | √ | √ |
Forwarding proxy Servers | √ | √ | √ |
Note
Office Communications Server 2007 is not installed on back-end servers, so you do not need to back up settings for back-end servers.
Table 14-3 indicates which servers in the perimeter network require backing up of computer-level settings, if your deployment includes edge servers.
Table 14-3. Perimeter Network Servers Requiring Backup of Computer-Level Settings
Servers | Consolidated Edge Topology | Single-Site Edge Topology | Scaled Single-Site Edge Topology | Remote Site Edge Topology in a Multiple Site Topology |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Access Edge Servers | √ | √ | √ | √ |
Web Conferencing Edge Servers | √ | √ | √ | √ |
A/V Edge Servers | √ | √ | √ | √ |
Note
Office Communications Server 2007 is not installed on reverse proxy servers, so you do not need to back up settings for reverse proxy servers.
To export settings, use the LCSCmd.exe command-line tool and the following procedure. Complete this procedure for each server in your deployment, if you are exporting machine-level settings.
To export global and pool-level settings, do the following:
Log on to a Standard Edition server or a front-end server in an Enterprise pool, or to a separate computer on which Office Communications Server 2007 administrative tools have been installed (such as a management console), with an account that has RTCUniversalReadOnlyAdmins or equivalent user rights, as well as write permissions for the folder to which settings are to be backed up.
Open a command prompt. Click Start, click Run, type cmd, and then click OK.
At the command prompt, change to the directory containing the LCSCmd.exe tool (by default, <drive>:Program FilesCommon FilesMicrosoft Office Communications Server 2007).
To export both levels of settings (global and pool), do one of the following:
To export global-level and pool-level settings in an Enterprise pool to a single configuration file (.xml file), type the following command:
lcscmd /config /action:export /level:global,pool /configfile: <drive>:<path><filename>.xml /poolname:[name of pool for which settings are to be exported]
To export global-level and pool-level settings for a Standard Edition server to a single configuration file (.xml file), type the following command:
lcscmd /config /action:export /level:global,pool / configfile:<drive>:<path><filename>.xml /poolname [name of Standard Edition server, which is used for the pool name]
For the drive, specify a separate, removable media or mapped drive to a separate location in a secure location. For example, for an Enterprise pool, type the following:
lcscmd /config /action:export /level:global,pool / configfile:C:BackupOCS1Serversettings.xml /poolname:ocspool1
If you prefer to back up each of the two levels of settings to a separate configuration file (xml file), run the command two times, with the following modifications:
For the /level attribute, specify only one of the two setting levels (global or pool) each time you run the command.
For the /configfile attribute, specify a different, unique file name for each level.
To export the computer-level settings for a server, type the following command:
lcscmd /config /action:export /level:machine /configfile: <drive>:<path><filename>.xml /fqdn:[FQDN of server from which settings are to be exported]
For the drive, specify a separate, removable media or mapped drive to a separate location in a secure location—for example:
lcscmd /config /action:export /level:machine / configfile:C:BackupOCS1Serversettings.xml /fqdn:ocspool1server1.contoso.com
If running this command from the server being backed up (instead of a separate computer serving as a management console), you can omit the /fqdn attribute (for the fully qualified domain name [FQDN] of the server).
After the command completes, open the configuration file you created and verify that it has both levels of settings (global and pool). If you backed up the two levels of settings to separate files, verify that each of the two files contains the level of settings that it should.
To store a configuration file on a separate computer or in a secure location other than the location to which you backed it up (a computer or other location that can be accessed if you need to restore the settings), copy it from the backup location to the other computer or location.
Verify that the backed-up configuration file is accessible for restoration purposes, including by standby servers if your organization is deploying separate, secondary sites for recovery in the event of site failure.
To export the computer-level settings for a server, type the following command:
lcscmd /config /action:export /level:machine /configfile: <drive>:<path><filename>.xml / fqdn:[FQDN of server from which settings are to be exported]
For the drive, specify a separate, removable media or mapped drive to a separate location in a secure location—for example:
lcscmd /config /action:export /level:machine /configfile:C:BackupOCS1Serversettings.xml / fqdn:ocspool1server1.contoso.com
If running this command from the server being backed up (instead of a separate computer serving as a management console), you can omit the /fqdn attribute (for the FQDN of the server).
Office Communications Server 2007 stores data in databases and file shares. These databases and file shares reside on the following servers:
Standard Edition servers
Front-end servers in an Enterprise pool
Back-end servers in an Enterprise pool
Archiving and CDR Server
Additionally, domain information is stored in the Active Directory Domain Services. Restoration of service can require recovery and restoration of specific data or entire servers.
Table 14-4 describes the specific databases and file shares used by Office Communications Server 2007.
Table 14-4. Data Stored in Databases
Tables Table 14-5 and Table 14-6 describe the file shares used by Office Communications Server 2007 and where they are located.
Table 14-5. Data Stored in File Shares for Enterprise Edition
Table 14-6. Data Stored in File Shares for Standard Edition
This section describes the tools and mechanisms that can be used to back up databases in Office Communications Server 2007. Table 14-7 describes database backup utilities.
Table 14-7. Database Backup Utilities
For the Office Communications Servers that use SQL Server 2005 and SQL Server 2005 Express Edition, only full backups are supported. A full backup is optimal because the data stored by Office Communications Server is typically smaller than the transaction log files and is significantly smaller than those created by line of business (LOB) database applications. Follow the best practices recommended by SQL Server to back up the databases used by Office Communications Servers.
Backing up file shares requires backing up the following content:
Meeting data
Meeting metadata
Meeting compliance logs
Table 14-8 describes file system backup utilities.
Table 14-8. File System Backup Utilities
Server or Component Requiring Backup | Backup Utility | |
|---|---|---|
Meeting content, metadata, and meeting compliance log file shares | Meeting content and compliance logs | File share tools and other backup tools, such as NTBackup. |
Address book files | None | Not applicable; automatically generated by the User Replicator. |
For the location of these files, see Table 14-5 (for Enterprise Edition) and Table 14-6 (for Standard Edition), which show the default locations. Verify that the backed-up file shares are accessible for restoration purposes, including by standby servers if your organization is deploying separate, secondary sites for recovery in the event of a site failure.