To enable self-service protection, when you create the Exchange protection policy, select Self-Service Protection. When performing a self-service stand-alone backup of a DAG asset, the backups appear under the DAG asset.
The Microsoft application agent supports full and incremental block-based backups.
Note: For self-service backups, do not select assets from multiple protection policies in the same backup request. This is a limitation of the Microsoft application agent.
The following steps and Figure 7 describe the workflow of a self-service backup:
- To import the backup parameters to the object, the Exchange administrator or backup admins use Microsoft Exchange PowerShell to run the Import-ExchangeBackupConfigFile cmdlet with the -Backup parameter.
- The credentials required for connecting to the PowerProtect DD series appliance are extracted from the lockbox.
- A backup command is initiated from Exchange PowerShell, which launches the Microsoft application agent. The agent requests Exchange VSS to create a snapshot for each database.
- MsAgentsv.exe transfers the Exchange backup data blocks in VHDX format. The data blocks are transferred from the snapshot to the PowerProtect DD series appliances.
- Once the backup is completed, it is updated in the SQLite database with the backup metadata.
- When the ADM service runs a discovery process, it checks with the PowerProtect Data Manager Agent service if any backups have occurred since the last discovery.
- The service checks the metadata database, updates the PowerProtect ADM service with the backup details, and updates the Exchange server. The backup copies are now visible in the Data Manager UI.
Figure 7. Self-service backup workflow