Murat Yildirimoglu (MCSE, MCT)
murat@muratyildirimoglu.com
Backing up
Exchange 2000 is very diffent from the backing up Exchange 5.5. And if you are not carefull, your backups
will be rendered useless when you have, and you’ll have, a problem.
In Exchange 5.5,
there are three database files: DIR.EDB, PRIV.EDB, and PUB.EDB. DIR.EDB holds
the directory database, that is, information about Exchange 5.5 objects, like
mailboxes, distribution lists, public folders etc. PRIV.EDB (private database)
holds the database containing the messages in the mailboxes. PUB.EDB (public database) holds the database
containing the messages in the public folders. It was enough to backup only
these three files in Exchange 5.5. And backup program that comes with Exchange
5.5 is enough to backup all these files.
In Exchange 2000,
there is no database like DIR.EDB. The information about the objects are saved
in the Active Directory (AD) of the Windows 2000 domain. There are private and
public databases, and there may be more than one private and public databases,
thanks to the new database structure. But this structure makes the backup of
the Exchange 2000 system harder. In Exchange 2000 it is not enough to backup
the messaging databases. You must also backup the directory information, that
is AD. And you can not backup AD seperately. AD is included in the system
state, so you must backup the system state. So, when you backup Exchange 2000 you must also backup
the system state. This point is not clear in the backup program that comes with
Exchange 2000. People use this backup program and think that they succesfuly
backup the Exchange 2000 system. And when they have a problem they find that
their backup is useless.