Hi guys, We have a meeting on Monday morning, where we wish to fight the case to move to Exchange Server. I havn't been given much notice of this, so havn't had much time to do the homework or any testing, but one point i'd like to know is a rough idea of how long it should take to do a full backup of a 2TB Exchange database. Also will it take approximately the same time to do a full DR restore? In our environment, the database would be stored on a NetApp Filer (ie dedicated fast storage and network throughput), and writing to LTO4 tape over dedicated fibre. Assume we are backing up the full 2TB in raw format and no de-dupe or other data transfer reducing features are in place. TIA Mark

Mark, I'm sure you're looking for a response more specific than "it depends", but that's about all I think anyone will be able to offer without very specific, technical, data about your environment. Assuming you're just looking for some benchmarks so that you can offer your stakeholders some estimates, my advice would be to consult an engineer from the vendor you will use for your backup software. If that decision hasn't been made yet, I think your best bet would be to engage pre-sales support from the industry leaders in the backup/availability space and see if they can provide you with some numbers. Hope that helps, and good luck! Charles

While this doesnt' answer your question (I like Charles' "it depends" answer myself!) I am wondering - are you attempting to move an Exchange server by somehow utilizing a backup and restore? Or are you just looking to do this for DR purposes incase someone "drops" the server during the move? :)Mike Crowley: MCT, MCSE, MCTS, MCITP: Enterprise Administrator / Messaging Administrator

What does it mean about Move to exchange server? Does it mean that migrate the mail server from another product to exchange? As Charles said, the time depends on lots of stuff. However, on the exchange side, here are some findings from MSIT: Individual backup throughput per storage group can be sustained at approximately 1.2 GB per minute Restore rates can be achieved in the range of 2 GB per minute for a disk-to-disk-based restoration. This throughput is achievable once the disks being written to are not under any form of production load -----------Refer to<Backup Process Used with Clustered Exchange Server 2003 Servers at Microsoft> If the exchange version is 2007, please use Mailbox Server Role Storage Requirements Calculator, which would help to calculate the backup and recovery speed