Hello,I was planning to use ntbackup (W2K3) to backup our Exchange database. The intention is to backup the information store daily to a file and afterwards backup that file to tape with another program. What "type of backup" is the best to choose (Normal/Incremental/...)? If I choose "normal", does it append the original backup file or do I have to use a file per day?Can ntbackup do both Exchange 2003 and Exchange 2007 backups?I also heard that the new backup-program Windows 2008 (Windows Server Backup) could not make a backup of exchange anymore at first, but when you install Exchange 2007 SP1 it can. Is this information correct? And how about Exchange 2010?I hope someone can help m on these questions!!!

Hi,The best option you can do is upgrade to Exchange 2007 SP2 this will let you make a VSS backup using Windows Server Backup. You will need to use the Windows Server Backup of the server where Exchange is installed on. (http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee221172(EXCHG.80).aspx)For your question about backing up both Exchange 2003 and 2008 with ntbackup it will work but not standard if you want to perform a remote backup see this technet article, Microsoft disabled remote streaming backup by default:http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa998870(EXCHG.80).aspxWhen using NTbackup I recommend to make a normal backup once a week or if possible every day, this because this will cleanup the transaction log files of Exchange.Exchange 2010 can be backuped with Windows Server Backup or DPM 2010 (is not RTM yet) or a 3rd party product. In the last case please contact the vendor to check if they can backup Exchange 2010.Regards,JohanExchange-blog: www.johanveldhuis.nl

Hello Johan,Thank you very much. This answered all my questions, except 1 that I am not sure about. Using ntbackup to do a normal backup daily, can I always use the same filename? Does ntbackup append the original file?Thank you very much!!!

Hi,When using the wizard it will indeed use the same file every day to add the data to. This option will use the same filename for every backup.Regards,JohanExchange-blog: www.johanveldhuis.nl

Thanks again!!!One last question:What does it do with the database file? Does it overwrite the original one in the backup-file, or does it daily copy the whole database into the backup? My concern is just that I am not sure how much the backup file is going to grow every day: just the size of the new logfiles, or daily the size of the whole database?Thanks again.I promise this is my last question about this...

Hi,It places all backuped files in the same BKF file but gives you the possibility to restore files from several dates, depending on which backups have been made to this file. It depends on what kind of backup you do and how many messages will be received, how many logs will be created etc.My advise it to monitor the diskspace so you won't get in troubles.Regards,JohanExchange-blog: www.johanveldhuis.nl