Backing up Exchange

This one is to save me time ranting / repeating myself in forums.

 

It is now ten years since I started using Exchange Server with a stunningly stable and solid product called Exchange Server 5.5. In “those days”, the product of choice was Backup Exec around version 6. Backup Exec was a great product and in fact the ntbackup product built into Windows from the days of NT up to and including 2003 was a slightly modified version of Backup Exec with rather less functionality.

 

Its chief advantage was that as well as backing up the server and integrating into the scheduler service, when you installed Exchange Server onto the box, you additionally could back up your Exchange Server properly. For free.

 

So, what do we mean here?

 

Despite my ten years in Exchange and the number of deployments that have been made and required troubleshooting, newbie admins are *still* trying to do odd things to get their backups complete. Or not.

 

Examples of what NOT to do:

Ignore backing up, you’ll be fine

Stop all Exchange Services, back up priv.edb and priv.stm (if applicable), start all Exchange Services

Script the line above to do it out of hours with no intervention

Use ntbackup to back up priv.edb and priv.stm

Only back up one store

Just delete “those annoying little log files that fill up my drive”

 

No, children. No...

 

Backing up your Exchange Server isn’t rocket science and it isn’t supposed to be difficult to back it up or restore it. NTBackup is free, it is part of the OS and will sort out the log files.

 

PLEASE just look at the simple route. In ntbackup, tick the box next to “Microsoft Information Store” for your server and carry on. Oh and take that completed backup file off the server – just in case.

 

This will give you a backup.

It will remove the log files that are clogging up your hard drive.

It will not make your Exchange database smaller.

You will not pass Go.

You will not collect $200.

Your home is at risk if you do not keep up repayments.

Etc.