MS Exchange Server Prerequisites

1.	Identify the replication / log shipping pairs (i.e., the primary Exchange Storage Group & Target Storage Group Storage Group combinations that you want to replicate) and what type of replication you plan on employing for each target:

2.	Make sure you have proper network access between the machine Peer DRS is running on and all Primary and Target Exchange servers.

4.	Exchange 2007 SP1 and above has remote streaming backups disabled by default. In order to use Peer DRS you will need to enable streaming backups by making the following Windows registry change:

Location: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\MSExchangeIS\ParametersSystem

Create all required storage groups and MS Exchange Server databases on the target Exchange server and make sure the names match the names and file paths on the primary Exchange server. It is best to start with a blank Exchange database, so make sure that the target database files are not created or delete any existing ones. All target Exchange databases must be dismounted and must have the "This database can be overwritten by a restore " property set. This checkbox is located on the Database properties page for the logical database object.

The domain user account that the Peer DRS application is running under must have read-write permission to any drives or network shares being utilized, and the user account must belong to the domain Backup Operator group and have Full Exchange Administration privileges via Exchange System Manager / Organizational Unit (Delegate Control). See the MS Exchange Server Requirements and Sample Configurations sections for a more detailed explanation.

a)	Create a primary share for the Backup Folder in which the primary storage group's backup and transaction logs will be stored. This directory needs to be accessible on the machine where Peer DRS is installed.

Create a share or appropriate directory based on the Target File Copy method you plan to use (e.g. network share, ftp, etc) for all target server(s) to which you plan to copy and restore the backup and transaction log files to. If using a network share then you must grant permissions on these folder shares to the domain user account that the Peer DRS application will be running under, or else grant permission to the account that you configured under the file copy settings.

Create the Log Replay folder on the target Exchange server and if Peer DRS is running on a different machine then the target Exchange server, you will need to make sure that there is an administrative share setup to this folder and that the domain user account Peer DRS is running under has permission to access the share.

Note: You should also take a look at any other MS Exchange Server specific requirements in the MS Exchange Server Requirements section.