Using Windows backup for Exchange 2010

stoofa · 18 Jul 2013 at 11:35

Hi all,
In one of our remote offices I want to take a regular backup of the local Exchange server.
This backup will be to a hard disk location rather than a tape drive - as I cannot rely on the local users changing tapes for me.
The hard drive location would be on a separate local NAS device.

When launching the Windows backup software there seems to be the option of backing up to a network location, however there is a warning that only one backup would exist - so each backup would overwrite the previous one.
There is the option to backup to a "dedicated hard drive". Does anyone know that if I mapped a drive letter to the NAS from the Exchange Server if it would still treat that as a remote network location and still only allow me to have one backup existing?

If this is still the case, can anyone recommend some relatively cheap backup software that can cope with Exchange 2010. That can backup to a drive location rather than tape and would create multiple backup's over a period of time rather than simply overwriting the previous one each time?

Cheers.

clade · 18 Jul 2013 at 16:00

Im unsure about the logistics of backing up exchange 2010 with windows own software but when it comes to the local backup problem could you not use a scriptable tool like beyound compare to copy the local folder over to the nas to bypass this problem....might need to be tested on restore side though!!

Yamahahahahaha · 19 Jul 2013 at 10:07

To backup Exchange 2010 (on 2k8 R2) using Windows Backup I think you need to do a full backup of the entire server, it's just the way that Windows Backup allows you to do consistent state application snapshots. The option to restore Exchange will appear in the 'application aware' restore part.

Windows Backup only does one backup at a time. You can take a backup and then move the file, but they are huge (not surprisingly).

You can back up to a UNC path or a local USB disk drive, having done both personally.

madman045 · 19 Jul 2013 at 19:10

I would give this a try and see what you think, you can backup down to mailbox level, just make sure you are happy with the module licensing

http://www.backupassist.com/BackupAssist/index.html

#Chri5# · 20 Jul 2013 at 21:34

Backup Assist would be a good option, especially with the Exchange Granular Restore option that has just come out. V7 also added the concept of storage containers so you can have multiple backups (beyond a week) to a NAS.

If you don't mind some CLI messing, I've used MKSBackup in the past to get daily backups (up to a week) to a NAS.