Evaluate the business priorities of your organization. Typically, the primary business priorities that affect your backup and restoration strategy are the following:

• Business continuity requirements
  
  
• Data completeness
  
  
• Data criticality
  
  
• Portability requirements
  
  
• Cost constraints
  
  

Business needs such as these drive the service level agreements you develop with your customers. Service level agreements greatly influence your backup and recovery strategy.

Your business priorities and service level agreements will drive your organizations' requirements for backing up and restoring Lync Server. Identify and document your requirements for the following:

• Frequency of backups   Keep in mind that Lync Server supports only the Simple Recovery model, which means you restore to the last full backup. Plan thoroughly for how often you need to take a full backup. For details about best practices for backup frequency, see Best Practices for Backup and Restoration.
  
  
• Backup and restoration tools   Include who is to use the tools and on which computers. For details about the tools covered in this document and necessary permissions, see Backup and Restoration Requirements: Tools and Permissions.
  
  
• Backup location   Identify whether the backups are kept locally or remotely, taking security and accessibility into consideration. Specify the media to be used for the backups.
  
  
• Hardware and software requirements   Identify and document your specific hardware and software requirements, including the hardware for backup storage and restoration of specific components and any software and network connectivity required to support backup and restoration. As you develop your hardware and software requirements, keep in mind the various restoration scenarios that follow.
  
  
• Restoration scenarios   This document describes the restoration process for the following scenarios:
  
  
  • A Standard Edition server fails. This scenario requires rebuilding the server on a new or clean computer and restoring databases.
    
    
  • Loss of the Central Management store. At a minimum, this scenario requires restoring and publishing the Central Management store.
    
    
  • Loss of a Back End Server when the Central Management store is still functioning normally. This scenario requires rebuilding the server on a new or clean computer and restoring databases.
    
    
  • A server that is a member of a Lync Server pool fails. This scenario requires rebuilding the server on a new or clean computer.
    
    
  • A Lync Server pool fails. This scenario requires rebuilding each server in the pool.
    
    

    Note:
    Lync Server pools include Front End, Director, Mediation, A/V Conferencing, Archiving, Monitoring, and Edge pools.

  • A File Store fails. This scenario requires restoring the file server or file cluster.
    
    
  • An Archiving Server or a Monitoring Server with a collocated database fails. This scenario requires rebuilding the server and databases, and, if the data is critical to your organization, restoring the data. Archiving and Monitoring data is not required to get Lync Server back up and running.
    
    
  • A stand-alone Archiving or Monitoring database fails. This scenario requires recreating the databases, and, if the data is critical to your organization, restoring the data. Archiving and Monitoring data is not required to get Lync Server back up and running.