Restore Exchange Whole Database

[Eric_Cohen]

I had a need to restore the complete Exchange information store from file. I went to restore the directory mdbdata and found it reported empty in on all of my backup tapes. I am unfortunately not running the backup agent for Exchange, but was under the impression that I could still backup a complete copy of the databases, just not divided into individual mailboxes. I have never received an error that the files were not backed up. Is there any chance that something is not being reported properly? Why would I not receive an error if the files were not being backed up?

[Ken_Putnam]

As of v9.0, Backup exec will skip all Exchange, MSSQL, Sharepoint and Domino files using what it calls "Active File Exclusions" see http://seer.support.veritas.com/docs/259152.htm. These files will be skipped with no entries in the job log.

The only way you can backup Exchange without using the Agent is to shut down Exchange and do a flat file backup (usually not an option)

I guess you could also run NTBackup on the Exchange Serve and backup to disk the Exchange databases and then grab the BKF files with a flat file backup.


As it is, you are SOL as far as Exchange backups are concerned

[Eric_Cohen]

Thanks for the reply