Backup Exchange Server 2007 on Windows 2008 using NTBackup

All those System Administrators running their Exchange Server 2007 on a Windows 2003 (64-bit) server have the previlage to get access to the traditional NTBackup utility to backup their exchange stores. But those who are running their Exchange Server 2007 on Windows 2008 (64-bit) must have faced the dilema of which tool to use to backup their mail stores. This is because Windows Server Backup in Windows Server 2008 no longer supports Exchange-aware backups or restores. In order to back up and restore Exchange Server 2007 Service Pack 1 (SP1) on Windows Server 2008, you must use an Exchange-aware application that supports the Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS) writer for Exchange 2007, such as Microsoft System Center Data Protection Manager, a third-party Exchange-aware VSS-based application, or a third-party Exchange-aware application that uses the streaming backup APIs locally on the Exchange server to make a backup locally on the Exchange server.

What does all this mean? Nothing but shelling out extra $$$ to invest in a backup solution unless you are interested in a very simple backup solution to assure that the logs get truncated and you have backup copies which you can restore. Here is a basic hack which can help one save a couple of $$$.

Step #1

Get access to a Windows 2003 R2 Server which is running a 64-bit OS. Assuming that you are not running your production Exchange Server 2007 in 32-bit environment, we require the 64-bit version library files. If you do not have a one handy, you can get the source files and then expand the DLL’s or install one in a virtual environment.

Step #2

Copy the ntbackup.exe, ntmsapi.dll, and vssapi.dll files from C:\windows\system32 into a new folder on your Exchange Server 2007 running on Windows 2008. I created a folder called NTBackup under Program Files and placed them there.

Step # 3

Right click Ntbackup.exe and choose “Run as administrator”.

Your should see the Exchange Server Information Store as part of your backup wizard.

Select the Information Stores that you want to backup. Choose the Backup media or filename and the path where you want to store your backups. Once you have finished the configuration, click on Start Backup and the exchange store backups should start.

Once the backup is complete, you should see all the transaction logs getting truncated (hope circular logging is not enabled) and also the mail store would be stamped with the Last Full Backup date and time stamp.

One thing to note though: you cannot back up a storage group in a Standby Continuous Replication (SCR) environment. Backups of storage group copies are available for Local Continuous Replication (LCR) or Cluster Continuous Replication only.