How reliable is doing a restore on file backed up using NTBACKUP?

[oespinoza]

NTBACKUP seems to work well but I'm being told that other 3rd party applications are reliable and NTBACKUP is not reliable. I'm currently using a bat file which stops the MS services then runs NTBACKUP, then starts the MS services. I know I can't do a mail box restore but I want to make sure I'm doing a disaster recovery backup. Is MS restore from an NTBACKUP an un-restorable backup? I'm all ears.......

 

[zbnet]

Why aren't you running online backups? What do you do do with your transaction log files?

NTBACKUP is stable enough I reckon. In fact, for simple installations that don't need tape libraries and complicated scheduling, there's a lot to be said for not over-engineering your backup solution. Some backup software I've been is definitely bloatware.

 

[ebimprov]

I've used NTBACKUP for online backusp for going on 5 years and it has restored successfully several times. be sure to check you logs regularly to make sure you're getting the /IS and /DS backed up. I run this cmd line for my backup (exchange 5.5 on 2000 server)

ntbackup backup systemstate c:\scripts /DS "apollo" /IS "apollo" /l:s /p "4mm DDS" /HCn /UM

where apollo is my server name

 

[Excalibur1701]

What's the command line for an Exchange 2003 server? I'm told that the /IS switch is no longer supported. So I'm manually backing up the IS every morning. Wish there was a way to automate this.