1. Overview

This user guide aims at providing detailed information for backing up and restoring individual mail items and public folder items stored in Microsoft Exchange Server 2013 / 2016 / 2019 with AhsayOBM, also known as the Mail Level backup.

Mail Level Backup must be utilized in conjunction with full Information Store Backup as Mail Level backup for Microsoft Exchange Server is not designed to fully protect an Exchange Server, but to facilitate easy backup and fast restoration of individual emails, contacts, calendars or public folder, etc.

AhsayOBM supports standalone backup option and Database Availability Group (DAG) backup option for Exchange server Mail Level backup. Exchange Server 2013 / 2016 / 2019 Mail Level backup and restore can be performed by installing AhsayOBM either on the Exchange server 2013 / 2016 / 2019 hosting the database or on a remote backup machine.

Ahsay brings you specialized client backup software, namely AhsayOBM, to provide a set of tools to protect your mailboxes and public folders on Microsoft Exchange Server 2013 / 2016 / 2019. This includes backup and recovery of individual emails, contacts, calendars and other mail items in your mailboxes and public folders, with snapshots / versioning, and retention policy to protect even email that you may have accidentally deleted from your Exchange 2013 / 2016 / 2019 mailboxes or public folders.

Below is the system architecture diagram illustrating the major elements involved in the backup and restore process among the Microsoft Exchange Server 2013/ 2016 / 2019, AhsayOBM and AhsayCBS.

We are committed to bringing you a comprehensive Exchange 2013 / 2016 / 2019 Mail Level backup solution with AhsayOBM. Below are some key areas that we can help to make your backup experience a better one.

We understand that restore could be a time and resources consuming process, which is why AhsayOBM is designed with advanced technologies to make restore a fast and efficient process by restoring individual mail items without the need to restore the whole Exchange server database.

AhsayOBM supports recovery directly to a live production MS Exchange server, so there is no service interruption or downtime incurred, and also the user mailboxes do not have to be disabled and can function normally during the recovery procedure.

The backup resources can be mailbox level, folder level and even item level.

• Flexible backup options:
  • Only select the required mailboxes, specific folders or items for backup.

• Flexible restore options:
  • Restore the whole mailbox contents or just one email.
  • Restore mail items to the original mailbox or an alternate mailbox
  • Restore mail items to an alternate mailbox on another email domain

AhsayOBM provides backup and restore option for different version of exchange server to fulfill your requirement.

You may wish to run backup at a specified time interval of your choice, that’s why we also allow you to set your own backup schedules so that you can take full control of the time when to perform backup.

• Block Level Incremental Backup – this technology breaks down the backup files into multiple blocks and only the changed blocks will be backed up each time

We understand your Exchange mail objects may contain sensitive information that requires to be protected, that is why your backup data will be encrypted with the highest level of security measure.

• Un-hackable Encryption Key – to provide the best protection to your backup data, you can turn on the encryption feature which will default encrypt the backup data locally with AES 256-bit truly randomized encryption key.

• Encryption Key Recovery – Furthermore, we have a backup plan for you to recover your encryption key in case you have lost it. Your backup service provider can make it mandatory for you to upload the encryption key to the centralized management console, the encryption key will be uploaded in hashed format and will only be used when you request for a recovery.

To offer you with the highest flexibility of backup destination, you can now back up mail objects to a wide range of cloud storage destinations. Utilizing cloud destination backup gives you an extra layer of protection in the event of a local drive corruption, where you will still be able to retrieve data from the cloud destination.

Here is a list of supported cloud destinations: https://www.ahsay.com/jsp/en/destinations/ahsay-destinations_overview.jsp

Our enriched features on the centralized web console offers you a one-stop location for monitoring and managing your backup and restore. Below is an overview of what you can do with it. For more details regarding the setup and operations of the centralized management console, refer to the AhsayCBS User’s Guide for details.

• Create / update / delete backup set
• Configure user settings
• Configure backup settings
• View and download backup and restore reports
• Monitor backup and restore live activities
• Monitor storage statistic

License is based on per user mailbox, so you only need to pay for the mailboxes that you wish to backup.

AhsayOBM supports Mail Level backup and restore of Exchange Server 2013 / 2016 / 2019 by installing the client agent either on the Exchange server hosting the database, or on a remote backup machine.

Below is a comparison table on the differences on backup and restore with AhsayOBM installation on an Exchange server and on a remote backup machine.