Backup Exchange 2003/2007/2010 with Exchange 2003 backup software

Backup Exchange 2003 with Windows built in backup software or third-party backup software

This article tries to discuss ways of backup and disaster recovery solutions provided by both Windows Server 2003 itself and third party Exchange backup software.

Volume Shadow Copy service

Windows Server 2003 provides a new Volume Shadow Copy (VSS) service, which produces a mirror of the file system. The purpose of this VSS* is to allow the operating system to carry on working with the live data, while backup locks onto a shadow copy of the files.

If you want to use this method to backup Exchange Server 2003, you must ensure that the backup program should include an Exchange Server 2003 aware Volume Shadow Copy service requestor. Because the backup program that is bundled with Windows Server has no such requestor, organizations must use third-party backup applications.

Three requirements to keep for the integrity and recoverability of Exchange databases:

Exchange database, transaction log and checkpoint files must be backed up exclusively through the Exchange Writer.
The backup application must validate the integrity of the shadow copy backup set.
Restores to original location** must be done exclusively with the Exchange Writer.

Third party solution for Exchange 2003 backup

As it states before, you need a third-party application with the use of VSS service to better backup Exchange Server data. EaseUS Todo Backup Advanced Server not only supports major backup operations on Windows Server, but also can backup SQL and Exchange Server data.

Exchange 2003 backup software