Maintaining the system : Backup and restore : Backing up and restoring the mailboxes : Configuring mailbox backups
Configuring mailbox backups
Use the Backup Options area of the Mail Data tab to configure which backup media to use when you back up or restore email users’ mailboxes. You can also configure the schedule the FortiMail unit uses to automatically perform backups.
 
You can only back up mail data when you store the data locally on the FortiMail hard disk. If you store the mail data on a NAS device, you cannot back up the data. For information about selecting a storage device, see “Selecting the mail data storage location”.
While a backup or restoration is occurring, you cannot change the configuration of this area, and this area will display the message:
Backup/Restore is busy, no configuration changes can be made.
However, you can view the status of the backup or restoration to determine if there are any errors. You can also manually initiate an immediate backup if the backup media was unavailable at the time of a previously scheduled backup. For details, see “Backing up and restoring the mailboxes”.
Before you can manually initiate a backup, or in order to configure automatic scheduled backups, you must first enable backups and configure the backup media.
To configure backups
1. Go to Maintenance > System > Mail Data.
2. Configure the following in the Backup Options section:
 
GUI item
 
Description
Enable
Mark this check box, configure all other options in this area, then click Apply to enable backups and restoration of email users’ mailboxes.
Copies to save
Select a number for both:
• Full: The total number of full backups to keep on the backup device.
• Incremental: The number of incremental backups to make between each full backup. Incremental backups can reduce the amount of time and disk space required for each backup, but may increase the amount of time required to restore the backup, and depend on a previous full backup, because incremental backups only contain the differences since the previous full backup.
For the initial backup, whether manually or automatically initiated, the FortiMail unit will make a full backup. For subsequent backups, the FortiMail unit will make the number of incremental backups that you set in Incremental, then make another full backup, and repeat this until it reaches the maximum number of full backups to keep on the backup media, which you selected in Full. At that point, it will overwrite the oldest full backup.
For example, if Full is 3 and Incremental is 4, the FortiMail unit would make a full backup, then 4 incremental backups. It would repeat this two more times for a total of 3 backup sets, and then overwrite the oldest full backup when creating the next backup.
Schedule
The Schedule options are disabled if Protocol is External USB (auto detect).
 
Day
Select either:
• None: Disable scheduled backups.
• A day of the week: Enable scheduled backups, and select which day of the week that the FortiMail unit will automatically back up email users’ mailboxes to the backup media. Also configure Hour.
To minimize performance impacts, consider scheduling backups during a time of the day and day of the week when email traffic volume is typically low, such as at night on the weekend.
Regardless of whether or not scheduled backups are enabled, you can manually initiate backups. For details, see “Backing up and restoring the mailboxes”.
 
Hour
Select which time on the day that you selected in Day that the FortiMail unit will automatically back up email users’ mailboxes to the backup media.
To minimize performance impacts, consider scheduling backups during a time of the day and day of the week when email traffic volume is typically low, such as at night on the weekend.
If the backup media is not available when the backup is scheduled to occur, the FortiMail unit will re-attempt the backup at the next scheduled time.
This option is not available if Day is None.
Device
 
 
Protocol
Select one of the following types of backup media:
• NFS: A network file system (NFS) server.
• SMB/Windows Server: A Windows-style file share.
• SSH File System: A server that supports secure shell (SSH) connections.
• External USB Device: An external hard drive connected to the FortiMail unit’s USB port.
• External USB Device (auto detect): An external disk connected to the FortiMail unit’s USB port. Unlike the previous option, this option only creates a backup when you connect the USB disk, or when you manually initiate a backup using “Backing up and restoring the mailboxes”, rather than according to a schedule.
• ISCSI Server: An Internet SCSI (Small Computer System Interface), also called iSCSI server.
 
The availability of the following options varies with the device chosen.
 
Username
Enter the user name of the FortiMail unit’s account on the backup server.
 
Domain
If you choose SMB/Windows Server as the backup media AND if the account name has a domain part, you must enter the domain name as well.
 
Password
Enter the password of the FortiMail unit’s account on the backup server.
 
Hostname/IP address
Enter the IP address or fully qualified domain name (FQDN) of the NFS, Windows, SSH, or iSCSI server.
 
Port
Enter the TCP port number on which the backup server listens for connections.
 
Directory
Enter the path of the folder on the backup server where the FortiMail unit will store the mailbox backups, such as:
/home/fortimail/mailboxbackups
Note: Do not use special characters such as a tilde ( ~ ). Special characters will cause the backup to fail.
 
Share
Enter the path of the folder on the backup server where the FortiMail unit will store the mailbox backups, such as:
FortiMailMailboxBackups
Note: Do NOT type / before the path name. FortiMail v5.0 release supports both forward slash (/) and backslash (\) in the path name, while FortiMail v4.0 release only supports forward slash (/).
 
Encryption key
Enter the key that will be used to encrypt data stored on the backup media. Valid key lengths are between 6 and 64 single-byte characters.
 
ISCSI ID
Enter the iSCSI identifier in the format expected by the iSCSI server, such as an iSCSI Qualified Name (IQN), Extended Unique Identifier (EUI), or T11 Network Address Authority (NAA).