One missing features in the native Windows 2008 Server Backup utility is the ability to backup Exchange 2007. This more or less forces you into a third-party backup solution or DPM.
Not every Exchange implementation requires mailbox level restore capabilities. In those situations it was nice to be able to utilize the native backup, assuming you were running Exchange 2007 on Server 2003.
And what about those times when Backup-Exec suddenly decides (for no apparent reason) it no longer wants to back up the information store and purge the logs? It was comforting knowing in Server 2003 that you could fire off a native backup and purge the logs. Not so in Server 2008. You’re stuck surfing the Backup-Exec knowledgebase for the fix while keeping a nervous eye on your Exchange volume’s available disk space.
The folks over at the Exchange Team Blog have announced that exchange aware backup capability will be included with Exchange Server 2007 SP2.
This is good news, and something that never should have been excluded from Server 2008 or Exchange 2007 in the first place.
Exchange 2007 SP2 is slated for release sometime in Q3 of 2009.
