Hello, I'm in quite a predicament. I have a Windows 2008 R2 server with Exchange 2010. I have the logs on a 4TB volume and the databases on a 4TB volume. The databases only fill 2TB and the logs hardly any of the volume.
So I've been backing up with Windows Backup, but only backing up the root database directory on one volume, and the root logs directory on the other volume. What's interesting is that when I started this backup job it took the standard long period of time 'Running the consistency check for application Exchange' an after the backup completes, the logs are committed and properties on the databases show a last full backup completed.
Now the concerning part. When I perform a mock restore, Applications is grayed. After doing some research, I find documented in several places that you MUST back up the volumes to have an application aware backup. If that is true, why did I get the 'Running consistency...Exchange' message and why does it clear the logs? So I can't chose the entire volume on this server, because of the 2TB limit.
So question are:
1. Why does it act like an exchange application backup by clearing the logs, and checking exchange consistency, yet not allow an application level restore?
2. What other options do I have here? Could I still restore Exchange just uses the database and log files without issue?
3. Is there possibly a fix coming from Microsoft? It could either be in the form of allowing backup of volumes larger than 2TB (isn't 2TB getting small at this time?) or allowing Exchange application level backup without choosing the entire volume. I wish it could be done like NTBACKUP where it simply showed Exchange and you checked it.
Thanks in advanced. I doubt I'm the only one stuck with this issue. And I really don't want to go with a 3rd party backup product.
Max
