Q&A: Windows Server 2008 Will Not Backup Exchange Databases

Windows Server 2003 ntbackup program, that is included with the operating system installation, was able to back up Exchange databases.  Now Windows Server 2008 server backup program does not recognize Exchange and it not able to back up Exchange databases.  The question as to why the functionality was removed was posed to me last week and I wanted you all to know the answer.

The business case for removing the functionality, as I am told, is that when we asked our customers what they were using to back up their Exchange databases, only a few very small businesses were using the ntbackup program for that purpose.  A resounding response showed that other backup solutions were being used for backing up and restoring Exchange. Therefore, the decision was made to introduce an enterprise grade backup solution. That solution is called System Center Data Protection Manager. You can read more about it here.

As for our small business customers going to the next version, Small Business Server running Server 2008 will still have a plug-in that enables it to back up Exchange databases.  Those small businesses will still be able to back up their Exchange databases using the out-of-box Windows Server backup utility.