Survey: What do you use to backup exchange?

[NicktheNewbie]

We just implemented exchange, and our current backup solution is pretty sad.

What do you guys and gals use?

I am leaning towards Veritas backup Exec 8.6 w/ exchange option, but I am curious to see what would be the cheapest/best/easiest solutions out there.

Thanks in advance.

 

[dbsnole]

We used Veritas Backup Exec 8.5 and I liked it. It was pretty easy to configure and didn't give me many problems. Then we moved to CA ARCserve, and it was a pain in the behind to setup and get running correctly. I still get a warning I haven't completely figured out.

I'd go with Veritas.

 

[derson]

have been using 8.5 with exchange for a while and all good
but have had to reinstall and cant get the backup service email account to be recognised si i cant do individual mailboxes - have tried loads of procedures from veritas FAQ's but no joy- any suggestions?
cheers

 

[JeremyMordkoff]

I'm using Arc-Serve and I don't like it and I barely trust it and their support model is horendous....$95 to get a bug fix....like it was my fault their software is buggy.

 

[marcus1234]

I agree about arcserve, my exchange backup was down for about a month, while CA support helped with my problem. Turns out i had to install the SQL client as well??????

Try Veritas!

 

[Ian18]

Backupexec is a really good product - I have used it on two different jobs. I don't like Arcserve. Cocks up too many times.

 

[rrsub]

A backup plan is only as good as the restore functionality.
Veritas is easy to use but all backup software is easy once you're familiar with it.

Veritas is notorius for forcing a registry change once a mailbox is restored.

I use exmerge for backup and restore.

 

[jaksen112]

I use NTbackup for store backups local to the server, does about 40gb in 3 hours .. love it.

I only do bricks level backup once a week b/c I have deleted item retention set to 30days. Bricks runs off a remote server using veritas. 01110000

 

[mortkc]

I currently user Veritas BE 8.6 and have had no problems restoring individual email calendars and folders. I used to use Arcserve, but found it to be too much trouble to restore.

 

[Zelandakh]

I'm a BE user too - have been for years. Do a brick and server backup each night and regularly test your restore procedure, both indiv emails and DR. That is the proof of the pudding. System documentation is critical for E2k too.

Then send all notes to the boss and hope for a brownie point....

Yeah, right.

 

[notorious]

Hi,

I am currenly using ArcServe 2000 and with it I am backing up both Exchange and Active Directory.

Unfortunaely, you can not use any backup program to completely backup Exchang 2000, but with ArcServe 2000 you can perform what's a called a Brick Level Backup. Which means that you can backup only the mail boxes that are important to your end-users. Check it out! The price is fair if your realy serious about Exchange Backing.

Peace. Notorious 1963

 

[NicktheNewbie]

Does anybody know where i can get a trial version of the exchange plug-in for veritas server?
Right now, i have a full version of the software, but don't have the change plug in... and I want to try before i buy. Thanks.

 

[eagriffin]

Along these lines, does anyone have a problem with brick level backup using BackupExec? When there is a corrupt mail item (we believe) the backup fails at that user's mailbox, but worse, it kills the information store service. Veritas has been unable to help us on this one, and it has happened in unrelated circumstances (separated by months, not the same mailbox).

 

[jbead]

We use veritas backup exec 8.5, but will be moving to 8.6 shortly. We just upgraded to win2k and exchange 2k enterprise and the mailbox backups failed and not able to log on to the backup account. Our UK office just upgraded to 8.5 and fixed the problem. catch it works for a few weeks then fails. Very reliable backup, easy to use and diagnostic is easy as well. Tech support is great and know their product! jbead JBead

 

[senseforgreed]

We use Backup Exec 8.5 with the Exchange option. Works great and is easy to use.

Bart

 

[WhiteWiz]

We use Legato Networker 6.2 What a pain in the @$$. We have unix and Windows servers and Networker was chosen because it is the defacto standard in the unix world. It's error reporting is terrible. It doesn't support a daily, weekly, monthly retention scheme. Client initiated backups can only go to the default pool. The first time backing up a client you may need to do a manual backup initiated from the client. the setup file (.res) eventually gets so full of crap you need to re-install the product). I don't know how much of Active Directory it backs up. Disaster recovery is difficult because you need to re-create groups and pools before restoring. Indexing tapes is an extremely slow process.
Pros: it supports storage nodes, fiber channel connected devices, supports jukeboxes directly without windows drivers, supports staging, EVERYTHING can be done from a command line, it can backup all our unix boxes, very customizeable, restore times are extremely fast.

 

[mclowery]

I have about 30 clients using Veritas Backup Exec 7.3-8.6 with Exchange Option. I've never had a problem restoring mailboxes with BE. We do have 1 client that uses ArcServe 2000, and test restores fail about 70% of the time.

 

[NicktheNewbie]

How much did the exchange option for BE server cost?

Also, where did you guy it>?

 

[tlowner]

I use Galaxy commvault. It blows away all the other products. I deleted my entire inbox and was able to do a restore of the entire box in 5 minutes. Not only does it restore the email it brings it back in the same state (ie read or unread) It's a little difficult to setup the initial job but after that it's a breeze. The restore capability is out of this world

 

[virtualranger]

I use BE 8.6 with Exchange Client on a SBS server with 30 users. Its good, but if you use your standard admin account for the install (rather than setting up a Veritas service account) don't ever change your admin password!

It kept hanging my server when I installed the exchange client for no apparent reason, nothing in windows event logs and BE job logs didnt even exist for the failed job. Reinstalled and all works fine. Have restored documents, db tables etc no problem but never attempted restore of exchange (maybe I should.....)

Jamie Cheers,
Jamie