Data Protection Manager 2007 – Important information for using ESEUTIL when configuring Exchange Server Protection.

In Data Protection Manager 2007, when configuring a protection group for protection of Exchange data for the versions that DPM supports (Exchange Server 2003 w/SP2 or higher and 2007), you are given an option to enable execution of ESEUTIL.EXE against those Exchange data sources you wish to protect. When enabled, DPM performs ESEUTIL consistency checks on the data written to disk or tape to ensure that the backup is not corrupt and that it will be readable when or if it’s required. Enabling this also minimizes backup-related performance impact by offloading the typical ESEUTIL operations that most backup applications force on the production server and instead the DPM server handles this on the redundant data, lightening the load on the production Exchange Server so that it can serve more users with the goal to have less of an impact on production.

When the ESEUTIL option is enabled it’s important to take careful consideration concerning the architecture (x86, x64) of both the DPM and Exchange Server. For example, if the DPM 2007 server is 32-bit and you’re protecting a 64-bit 2007 Exchange Server, you MUST use the 32-bit ESE.DLL and ESEUTIL.EXE file versions.

Another important item to note concerning 64-bit Exchange 2007 Servers revolves around those upgraded to Exchange SP1. In a situation as mentioned above where the DPM Server is 32-bit, in order for you to retain the ESEUTIL option and leave it enabled, you must update the two ESE files on your DPM server to the SP1 versions. This can be accomplished using one of the options below:

1. Copy the files from a 32-bit Exchange 2007 Server that is on Service Pack 1 for Exchange.

2. Install the 32-bit Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 Management Tools on a machine of your choice then upgrade the tools by installing the 32-bit Exchange Server 2007 SP1. You can then simply copy the eseutil.exe and ese.dll files from the “%programfiles%\Exchsrvr\bin” folder on the machine to be placed on the DPM server.

Once you’ve obtained a copy of the correct versions, you’ll need to manually copy these into the following folder on the DPM server:

“%programfiles%\Microsoft DPM\DPM\bin”

Well, you ask,  'What if I’m protecting both 2003 and 2007 versions of Exchange Server?"   The good news here is that you only need to gather the files from the protected Exchange Server running on the latest build as the files will retroactively work with the older versions of Exchange running in the environment. In other words, copy the files from the 2007 Exchange Server onto the DPM server.

Lastly, if you’ve installed DPM 2007 on a Windows Server 2008 operating system, and you are protecting Exchange Server 2003 on a Windows Server 2003 computer, you must install the Exchange Server 2007 version of the eseutil.exe and ese.dll files. You can download this version from the Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 Management Tools (https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=112325).

Below is an example of the prompt Data Protection Manager will display if you try to enable the ESEUTIL option without having manually copied the files from Exchange server onto the DPM Server:

image

Examples of DPM 2007 failed job alerts that you are likely to encounter if you’ve copied the wrong and incompatible versions onto your DPM server:

Type: Recovery point
Status: Failed
Description: Data consistency verification check failed for LOGS of Storage group
First Storage group on servername.contoso.com. (ID 30146 Details: The image file %1 is
valid, but is for a machine type other than the current machine (0x800700D8))
End time: 2/27/2008 7:04:54 AM
Start time: 2/27/2008 7:03:55 AM
Time elapsed: 00:00:58
Data transferred: 7.13 MB
Cluster node -
Recovery Point Type Express Full
Source details: First Storage group
Protection group: Exchange Server Protection

Affected area: First Storage Group
Occurred since: 2/27/2008 7:16:25 PM
Description: The replica of Storage group First Storage Group on servername.contoso.com is
inconsistent with the protected data source. All protection activities for data
source will fail until the replica is synchronized with consistency check. You can
recover data from existing recovery points, but new recovery points cannot be
created until the replica is consistent (ID 3106)
Data consistency verification check failed for LOGS of Storage group First Storage
Group on servername.contoso.com. (ID 30146 Details: Unknown error (0xfffffdfe)
(0xFFFFFDFE))
Recommended action: Either the database files are corrupt or the proper versions of
the following files are missing.
If you have recently upgraded your Exchange server, please copy them from that
server to DPM server.
eseutil.exe
ese.dll
Please contact the administrator for Exchange server, and verify the issue. You can
recover the last known good backup to address the corrupted state.
Synchronize with consistency check.
Run a synchronization job with consistency check...
Resolution: To dismiss the alert, click below
Inactivate alert0xfffffdfe

Author:Tyler Franke
Support Engineer
Microsoft Enterprise Platforms Support