Exchange Server - Backup - Backup Status

Full Backup Thresholds:

• Threshold: Indicates the frequency at which a full backup should occur. A warning is set to be issued if a full backup has not occurred within 24 hours, and a critical alert if 48 hours have passed without a full backup.
• Monitoring Options: Admins can choose to monitor full backups or not.
See: Use Windows Server Backup to back up Exchange | Microsoft Learn

Incremental Backup Thresholds:
• Threshold: Similar to full backups, this sets the frequency for incremental backups. The same time frame applies: 24 hours for a warning and 48 hours for a critical alert.
• Monitoring Options: Admins have the option to either monitor or ignore incremental backups.

Differential Backup Thresholds:
• Threshold: This sets the acceptable time lapse for differential backups, which back up only the data that has changed since the last full backup. The thresholds are identical to the full and incremental backups.
• Monitoring Options: Differential backups can also be monitored or not, based on the administrator's choice.

Weekend Backup Monitoring:
• Option: Includes weekends in the mailbox backup monitoring, acknowledging that backup schedules may differ on weekends versus weekdays.

The alert intelligence feature in this context is designed to provide automated monitoring of backup processes, which is critical for ensuring data integrity and availability in an Exchange environment. The system will continuously check the last backup times against the defined thresholds and generate alerts when these times are exceeded. These alerts allow IT personnel to take timely action to address any backup issues, such as investigating why backups did not occur as scheduled or resolving any failures in the backup process.

By monitoring full, incremental, and differential backups separately, the system can provide more granular insights into the backup strategy's effectiveness and identify specific issues with each backup type. The inclusion of weekend monitoring is important because it accounts for different operational schedules that might be in place during those days. This proactive monitoring and alerting can prevent potential data loss by ensuring that backup processes are regularly and successfully executed.