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Best solution for Backing up Exchange?

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9 replies

by gsi_tech

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Hi,

I'm trying to put together a backup strategy for a 2003 SBS. In the past, I've often used Exmerge to perform nightly Brick-Level mailbox backups to tape, with monthly online backups of the mailbox store(mainly just to purge the database logs and also check the store for corruption). However, I've noticed that Exmerge has several disadvantages, including the time it takes exmerge to backup and the resulting size of the backups.

I'm wondering if it is better to just run nightly online backups of the mailbox store and also create a recovery storage group, to allow for quick recovery. I've never used a recovery storage group before and I'm wondering if this is the best/fastest method of recovering after an incident.

9 replies

by cg it

works really well for automated backup of Mailbox Store.

by normh3

I would be interested in how others do this as well using what's available in SBS. It's just way too easy to shell out the big bucks for BE and all the required agaents.

by gsi_tech

Backup Exec is usually the first thing every IT Admin recommends. However, it's not always economical for a small business. I would also like to know if/how this can be done using NTbackup.

by Member 25348569

That lets you do a database backup using ntbackup - which cleans out your logs - and then you use PowerControls to read in the database and this gives you a restore capability down to the individual mail item level. We use it with CommVault backup and the agent is ?325 per server. The ntbackup agent is FOC.

ntbackup can be used for recovery of corrupted databases but that is so seldom these days. I haven't done a database restore in four years - 2003 through 2007 Exchange with 32 databases.

Neil :)

btw This bloody system cannot reproduce the UK currency symbol! X-(

by nimmo

http://www.storagecraft.com/products/ShadowProtectServer/

It'll image the server and is a hell of alot faster than backup exec and restoring files is as simple as mounting the image as a drive, browsing the file system, then drag and drop.

One other great feature is that it provides a hardware independant restore so if you have a new server you can simple image the old, then do a HIR and your ready to go.

by gsi_tech

Some of these solutions are good but I should have specified - I want/have to do this with NTbackup.

Thanks.

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