Exchange page zeroing and deleted item retention

Because SnapManager relies on the Snapshot technology to create a backup, SnapManager does not read every page of data. Hence, the page zeroing and deleted item retention features are not triggered when you use only SnapManager to perform backups.

The page zeroing feature of Exchange increases your database security by enabling you to find deleted database pages and is used by high-security installations. The deleted item retention settings feature enables you to mark items and mailboxes to delete after they are backed up.

Attention: SnapManager archives items before you select them for deletion. To ensure that deleted items are archived into at least one backup set, select the Do not permanently delete mailboxes and items until the store has been backed up option. However, this option overrides the “Deleted item retention” intervals for items and mailboxes. Therefore, to recover deleted items without restoring and extracting Exchange data from a tape, do not permanently delete mailboxes and items until you back up the store.

You can cause these Exchange features to be triggered by scheduling a periodic backup using a standard backup utility, such as NTBackup.

Ensure that the backup that you use for this purpose is a copy or differential backup. Performing any other type of backup causes the existing SnapManager backups to become unusable for up-to-the-minute restore operations. Also ensure that you perform no extra backup operation at the same time as a SnapManager backup.