Thanks to everyone for the useful feedback re W2K Backups for Exchange.
I've finally managed to get my backups running automatically. I've
created a batch file (see below) that works quite efficiently. This
is heavily plagiarized from various sources so my apologies to anyone
I haven't acknowledged here. You just need to replace the names
for the .bks and tape drive (i.e. " c:\backups\daily.bks" and "ARCHIVE
Python 06408-XXX SCSI Sequential Device") and it'll work. I've tried it on 2
different servers with different tape drives and it does the job nicely.
Regards
Tony
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
rsm.exe refresh /lf"ARCHIVE Python 06408-XXX SCSI Sequential Device"
sleep 10
for /f "Tokens=1-4 Delims=/ " %%i in ('date /t') do set dt=%%i-%%j-%%k-%%l
for /f "Tokens=1" %%i in ('time /t') do set tm=-%%i
set tm=%tm::=-%
set dtt=%dt%%tm%
ntbackup.exe backup "@c:\backups\daily.bks" /n "Daily Backup %dtt%" /d
"Daily Backup %dtt%" /v:yes /r:no /rs:no /hc:on /m normal /j "%dtt%" /l:f
/UM /p "4mm DDS"
rsm.exe eject /pf"Daily Backup %dtt% - 1" /astart
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Known bug - http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;Q267574
Anyway the trick is to run rsm and have it inventory your drive before
running ntbackup.
Another little gotcha - the log file produced by ntbackup is unicode. If you
plan on having a script peek at the log file, this might trip you up.
-----Original Message-----
From: Tony McCarthy [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
Sent: Thursday, August 22, 2002 4:48 PM
To: Exchange Discussions
Subject: RE: W2K Backup
The main problem I'm having is with the scheduling of the backups. I know
this is a well documented problem but the MS fixes aren't too hot. I'm
currently working on a backup script that will get around the numerous bugs
but have had problems in this area; i.e. even with a script I'm finding that
the backup sometimes fails because the server thinks there's "no unused
media of the appropriate type" even though there's a tape in the drive.
The other concern I have is that you can't restore individual mailboxes with
W2K Backup. I'm not too worried about enterprise-level software because many
of the offices are connected via slow links so a backup for each individual
server is required at each location. Do you just backup the Info Store and
Directory William or do you backup the whole Exchsrvr directory as well (or
alternatively). I'm not sure which is the best option.
Regards
Tony
W2K's NTBackup does backup Exchange5.5 reliably. Restores it reliably
as well. What problems are you having?
If you have lots of servers at different sites, a more enterprise-level
backup solution might be better for you.
William
-----Original Message-----
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] On Behalf Of Tony McCarthy
Sent: Thursday, August 22, 2002 2:24 PM
To: Exchange Discussions
Subject: W2K Backup
Hi Everyone,
I know this topic has been dealt with in the past but I'm trying to find
some hard data on why W2K Backup doesn't reliably backup Exchange 5.5. I
have been pushing to get Veritas Backup Exec in every office in our
organization but am a voice in the wilderness. The powers that be reckon
Backup Exec isn't significantly better than W2k Backup as far as
Exchange is concerned. It's a cost thing. I know W2K Backup doesn't
backup open files but in a worst case scenario (server crashes and
burns) what will I lose when trying to restore site and server objects?
I mean, I'm not too worried if a few e-mails are lost because they were
being edited at the time but if I were to lose whole mailboxes, public
folders etc, that's a different story. Basically I've just been backing
up the Public Information Stores and Directories of the various servers
and hoping for the best. We have yet to suffer an Exchange Server crash
at the offices that don't have Veritas. We have Veritas at other offices
and it has definitely proved its worth a couple of times when Exchange
servers have been nuked. I once had to restore an Exchange 5.0 server
with NT 4.0 backup and this went reasonably well. Anyway, I'd appreciate
feedback re this. I know how badly W2K Backup sucks for other reasons
but how well does it backup Exchange 5.5?
Regards
Tony
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