About backing up Enterprise Vault components

Last published : Apr 02, 2026
You can select any or all of the Enterprise Vault components for backup when you create a backup job. If you select all of the components for backup in the same job, recovery time is faster. However, if you create multiple backup jobs for the components, the backup jobs run faster.
The Enterprise Vault components that you can select are described in the following table, along with recommendations for backup:

Table: Enterprise Vault components

Enterprise Vault Component Description
Directory database The Directory database is a Microsoft SQL
Server database that contains configuration
data.
After the database is populated, the amount
of data in the Directory database changes
very little over time.
You should back up the Directory database
after you add or remove any Enterprise Vault component. You should also back up
the Directory database if you change the
location of any component. Configuration
changes can include creating vault stores,
creating vault store partitions, and changing
vault store partition statuses.
Monitoring database Enterprise Vault includes a Monitoring agent on each Enterprise Vault server. The Monitoring agent monitors the following\:
- The status of Enterprise Vault services and tasks.
- Performance counters for vault stores, disk space, memory, and processors.
- The status of Exchange Server journal mailbox target archiving targets, including item counts for Inbox, Archive Pending, and failed operations such as Failed DL Expansion.
The Monitoring agent collects monitoring data at scheduled intervals, typically every few minutes.
All of the information that the Monitoring agent collects is stored in a Microsoft SQL
Server database called the Monitoring database.
Fingerprint databases The Fingerprint databases contain the single
instance storage-related information for all
of the vault stores in the vault store group.
If you enable single instance storage of
archived items, you should back up the
Fingerprint databases on a regular basis.
Index location The index location stores all of the archived
data content that is indexed to enable fast
searching and retrieval of archived items.
The indexing data is stored in index files in
the location that is specified when you install Enterprise Vault.
You should back up the index location on a regular basis.
Vault store group The vault store group is a logical entity. If
you select it for backup, all of the vault
databases, vault store partitions, and the
Fingerprint databases are backed up. Because
these components are closely related, you
should consider selecting the vault store
group to back up all of these components
together.
Vault store The vault store is a logical entity. If you
select it for backup, all of the vault databases
and the vault store partitions are backed up.
All partitions A vault store partition represents the
physical location where the archived items
are stored. A vault store can contain one or
more vault store partitions. If you select All Partitions for backup, then all of the vault
store partitions in the vault store are
selected for backup.
Note: When you back up an open partition, Backup Exec automatically backs up the vault store database.
Site An Enterprise Vault site is a logical
representation of an installation of the
Enterprise Vault. If you select this
component for backup, the Directory
database is also automatically backed up.
Compliance Accelerator database and Discovery Accelerator database These databases are installed as optional add-ons to Enterprise Vault and are part of the Discovery Accelerator and Compliance Accelerator products.
See Backing up data.
See Editing backup definitions.
See Adding a stage to a backup definition.