Backup-to-disk bkf files and img folders

[jpbuckley1981]

Hi,

We have an Exchange 2007 server that has 4 database stores and 1 public folder store.

These databases are currently backing up to disk, which once completes gets backed up onto tape.

I would like my backups to get overridden every night, the media has no over-ride / append protection.  Each database has its over backup to disk folder to keep things organised.

Can someone please explain to me why I have a large bkf file and a large IMG folder in my backup to disk location??!

I would expect that a database of say 50Gb would need around about 50Gb worth of space to backup to, its appears my bkf file is around 50Gb
and so is my IMG folder, making a total backup size of 100Gb?  This is to much and with 4 large stores to backup it is stealing all the disk space

Do I need both bkf files and IMG folders? If I look in a restore job it only list the IMG folders as options, does that mean the bkf files can be deleted?

Thanks

Jon

[Hywel_Mallett]

The .bkf file is a "normal" backup-to-disk file. The .img file is used for granular restore. You end up with two copies because you have granular restore enabled in your backups. You could disable it which will prevent the creation of .img files, but then Exchange restores of individual items becomes difficult.

[Kiran_Bandi]

When you run a GRT-enabled backup job, Backup Exec creates media with an IMG prefix for storing the backup data.

Also ensure that allocate the maximum size option is not been selected while creating the B2D folder.

[Colin_Weaver]

In the normal run of things if you run a backup job of just an Exchange Information Store with GRT enabled and the job starts as an Overwrite, then it will create a very small BKF file and then just use the IMG.

Then assuming that the next day the IMG and the BKF are overwritable, it should overwrite the bkf file, but delete the IMG and create a new one.

If however your bkf is large then you are either pre-allocating the space using the maximum size option mentioned above or you are backing up file system data as well as Exchange data in the same job and it is the file system data that is held inside the BKF

Note the above is a very simple explanation of how it should work given correct media set and job startup settings etc. Your Media Set and media managemenet options, along with how the job is set to start can change the behaviour.

[Kiran_Bandi]

Hi jpbuckley,

Any updates?