MS Exchange Server Requirements

All primary database and target database pairs should be running the same version of MS Exchange Server and at the same service pack level, or the target is of a higher version that is compatible with the primary server. For example, you cannot replicate between a MS Exchange Server 2003 server and a MS Exchange Server 2000 server, because of the differences in their structures.

2.	The target storage group and logical database names to which you restore to must match the primary storage group and logical database names. While the path to the database files can be configured differently, we recommend using the same database paths as the primary.

3.	The target Exchange server must use the same Active Directory organizational name and administrative group as the primary server and the legacyExchangeDN values for the administrative group must match.

In order to restore or replay log files into a target, MS Exchange Server must be installed on the target server and the Exchange Information Store service must be running, all storage groups and databases must be configured and dismounted and each database 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. You should also enable the "Do not mount this store at start-up" database property.

Peer DRS must be run under a domain account and this account must belong to the domain's Backup Operators group and must have Full Exchange Administrator rights. When running Peer DRS as a service you will need to customize the service's properties by specifying the log on credentials of this domain account under the "Log On" tab of the service's properties.

The domain account that the Peer DRS application is running under must have read-write permission to any network shares being utilized. In general, any network shares utilized must be specified as a UNC e.g. \\server\directory and not as a mapped network drive e.g. X:\directory since most Peer DRS installations will run as a service and will not have access to mapped network drives.

When running Peer DRS from a machine different than the target Exchange server, the domain account that the Peer DRS application is running under must have access to the target's Exchange database files via the default configured administrative share(s). For example, if the target's Exchange database files are configured to be stored in the C:\Program Files\Exchsrvr\mdbdata directory then there must be an administrative share setup to \\targetExchangeServer\C$\Program Files\Exchsrvr\mdbdata and the domain account that the Peer DRS is running under must have access to this share. If this is not possible, then you should run Peer DRS on the target Exchange server and grant local access to the domain account.

The account that the target Exchange information store process is running under (default is local system account) must have access to the configured log replay folder. If this folder is not specified then the target's file copy directory will be used. If this directory is a network share, then the Exchange information store process will need to be run under a domain account with read-write access to the log replay directory.

10.

If you plan on using continuous replication for your incremental backups, which perform incremental backups whenever an a transaction log file is committed to disk on the primary exchange server, and Peer DRS is running on a server other then the primary Exchange server, then the domain user account that Peer DRS is running under must have access to the corresponding administrative share on the primary Exchange server.

11.	An existing Exchange Recovery Group cannot be configured on the target server when restoring and replaying logs into the target database. If one is configured, then the restore will automatically be directed to the recovery group.

12.	Peer DRS is meant to replace an existing backup plan. If you are currently backing up databases using the built-in MS Exchange Server Backup API via third-party tools, then the existing backup process will need to be disabled and replaced by this application.

13.	Peer DRS for Exchange must be run on a supported Windows platform and if you want to run Peer DRS on a server running a 64 bit version of MS Exchange Server, then you will need to install and run the 64-bit version of Peer DRS.

14.	If you rename a storage group or database name using Exchange System Manager, then you will need to delete and reconfigure the affected replication jobs.