Backing Up Exchange Server 2007

Furthermore, if you attempt to recover the IIS metabase after having run the Setup /mode: RecoverServer command, then the IIS Metabase will be out of sync with AD, and the Client Access server will experience errors. Therefore, Microsoft recommends that you don't attempt to recover the IIS metabase after you've run the Setup /mode:RecoverServer command. Instead, you should create a log of any customizations that you've made to the Client Access server so that you can manually reapply those changes after a recovery.

The easiest way to back up a Client Access server is to perform a file-level backup that also includes a backup of the system state. Table 1 lists the components that you can back up through a file-level backup and where they are located. A system state backup will back up the remaining Client Access server components, including the Autodiscover service, the Windows registry, and the Web Services configuration.

The Unified Messaging Role
The Unified Messaging role is new to Exchange 2007. This is the role that allows voice messages and faxes to be stored in user's inboxes. You can back up Unified Messaging servers by performing a filelevel and system state backup.

The vast majority of the configuration data that's associated with a Unified Messaging server is stored in AD. In fact, in the event of a crash, you can rebuild a Unified Messaging server by running the Setup /m:RecoverServer command. So much of the server's configuration information is stored in AD that the only thing that a system state backup really gives you is a backup of the configuration data located in the Windows registry.

Configuration data located in the registry isn't essential for server recovery, and therefore a system state backup isn't an absolute requirement. Keep in mind that if you've created custom auto-attendant or custom voice prompts, you'll need to back them up or you'll lose them. The same goes for any auto-generated grammar file containing the table names for the auto attendant.

The most important location to back up during a file-level backup is the \Program Files\Microsoft\Exchange Server\Unified Messaging\Prompts folder. This is the folder that contains any custom audio files that you've created.

AD
As you know, Exchange Server is completely dependent on AD. As such, the only way to protect your Exchange Server organization from a catastrophic failure is to also have backups of your AD and your DNS server. DNS server backups are necessary because DNS is an AD dependency. The easiest way to perform an AD backup is to perform a file system and system state backup of your domain controllers (DCs).

New Architecture, New Strategies
You can see a summary of Exchange 2007's new server roles and points to remember about their associated backup strategies in the sidebar "Exchange 2007 Server Roles and Backup Techniques." . As you can see, Exchange 2007's roles-based architecture makes it quite different from its predecessors. Therefore, the techniques that you use to back up Exchange 2007 will likely also be different from what you are used to. But once you understand Exchange 2007's new server roles, you should have no trouble backing up and restoring your vital Exchange data.