Re: [rdiff-backup-users] backing up MS exchange databases

[dean gaudet]

On Wed, 15 Jan 2003, Keith Edmunds wrote:

> On Wed, 15 Jan 2003 23:23:52 +1100
> "David Kempe" <address@hidden> wrote:
>
> > has anyone backed an MS exchange database with rdiff-backup?
>
> I haven't; however, last time I was involved with Exchange (admittedly a
> couple of years ago) MS were quite insistent that only backup products
> specifically designed for Exchange should be used to back it up. If
> you're going to use rdiff, I'd use NTbackup to create the backups first.
> Also, I would emphatically NOT rely on diff backups (this is a comment
> on Exchange databases, not the abilities of rdiff-backup).

yeah -- without either a volume or filesystem snapshot capability, backup
tools can't get an atomic copy of a file.  there are problems with all
"database files" and rdiff-backup (and tar, and rsync, and...)

NTbackup uses APIs provided by the exchange server to co-ordinate the
backup with on-the-fly updates occuring to the exchange database.

if you've got a volume manager though, you should be able to create a
snapshot and then back up the snapshot.  the snapshot is no different from
your system crashing at that exact instant -- and the database format
*SHOULD* be able to survive such a thing (usually through playing back the
transaction log).

-dean