What Backup solutions do people use for Exchange 2007? In particular i'm interested in those that allow a mailbox level backup, so that individual mailboxes can be restored.
Microsoft's DPM is an amazingly good backup tool. It does mail box level backups for Exchange. In addition to being able to backup files, SQL Server, and SharePoint. The SharePoint backup is better than EVERY other tool out there (right down to file level).
A couple of free, hack-your-own solutions while waiting for the WSB Exchange plugin...
You can copy ntbackup.exe from a Win2003 box. I tested backup to disk with a restore, and it seems to work fine. Note that I you can't write direct to tape with it, or get brick level backups.
At work we are currently in the process of rolling out Ahsay (OBM and OBS). From what we can tell so far it does a good job our exchange 2007 store and also seems to play well with some of the more common 2003 exchange stores.
I am using CA ArcServe R12 to backup an Exchange 2007 SP1 mailbox server running on Windows Server 2003 R2. Email, folder, and mailbox level restore is possible.
The ArcServe Exchange client is installed in the Exchange server and data is backed up to tape. So far so good, and I am happy with it.
It does mailbox and mail level backup and restore. Been working great with Exchange 2007 for the last month or so. I can browse into the backup and restore any piece of mail.
We like it because it doesn't have client license costs, they charge based on capacity, and it's fairly reasonable. It is an appliance though.
We are using Windows 2003 NTBACKUP, I'm confident with it and it's free, just make sure that you also have a restore plan with docs to follow when problem arises.
It can backup mailboxes or database directly to tape. DP has worked flawlessly so far, but we do have a small exchange server: Exchange 2003 with a ~25GB data in mailboxes.
SMB with ~500 mailboxes; running Exchange 2007 SP1 on W2K3 R2 64-bit VMs; using Local Continuous Replication; have been using NTBackup via Scheduler for 2 years without a hitch, backing up the LCR database and logs. Just began using NetBackup to handle all Exchange database backups.
FWIW, anyone looking for an NTBackup solution, I have our .bks and .cmd files freely available.
Microsoft's DPM is an amazingly good backup tool. It does mail box level backups for Exchange. In addition to being able to backup files, SQL Server, and SharePoint. The SharePoint backup is better than EVERY other tool out there (right down to file level).
A couple of free, hack-your-own solutions while waiting for the WSB Exchange plugin...
You can copy ntbackup.exe from a Win2003 box. I tested backup to disk with a restore, and it seems to work fine. Note that I you can't write direct to tape with it, or get brick level backups.
You can use PowerShell and diskshadow.exe to do an online VSS backup.
You can use ExMerge or Export-Mailbox to export out PSTs for brick level backup.
You can stop Exchange services, run a normal backup, and start Exchange for an offline solution.
All of these are disk based, so - for maximum recoverability - you'd want to copy offsite or to tape using your favorite tape writing software.
At work we are currently in the process of rolling out Ahsay (OBM and OBS). From what we can tell so far it does a good job our exchange 2007 store and also seems to play well with some of the more common 2003 exchange stores.
I am using CA ArcServe R12 to backup an Exchange 2007 SP1 mailbox server running on Windows Server 2003 R2. Email, folder, and mailbox level restore is possible.
The ArcServe Exchange client is installed in the Exchange server and data is backed up to tape. So far so good, and I am happy with it.
We use a small local companies appliance. www.revinetix.com
D2D2D backup style.
It does mailbox and mail level backup and restore. Been working great with Exchange 2007 for the last month or so. I can browse into the backup and restore any piece of mail. We like it because it doesn't have client license costs, they charge based on capacity, and it's fairly reasonable. It is an appliance though.
Brian
We are using Windows 2003 NTBACKUP, I'm confident with it and it's free, just make sure that you also have a restore plan with docs to follow when problem arises.
We use Hp Dataprotector here.
It can backup mailboxes or database directly to tape. DP has worked flawlessly so far, but we do have a small exchange server: Exchange 2003 with a ~25GB data in mailboxes.
SMB with ~500 mailboxes; running Exchange 2007 SP1 on W2K3 R2 64-bit VMs; using Local Continuous Replication; have been using NTBackup via Scheduler for 2 years without a hitch, backing up the LCR database and logs. Just began using NetBackup to handle all Exchange database backups.
FWIW, anyone looking for an NTBackup solution, I have our .bks and .cmd files freely available.