Microsoft Exchange Brick-Level Backup of Individual Mailboxes

Exchange mailbox backup, also known as brick-level backup, is the type of Exchange server data protection oriented towards easiness and speed of restore. While the other type, full backup of the entire Information Store manages Exchange Server completely, brick-level backup processes individual mailboxes and public folders. Thus if a data loss emergency happens, there is a chance to restore only the unlucky mailbox instead of restoring ALL the mailboxes.

The opportunity to restore only the needed Exchange individual mailbox backup data seems highly attractive. However, there are issues with the brick-level backup of mailboxes.

Slow Exchange Mailbox Backup

In most cases the speed of getting individual mailboxes backed up is much lower than the speed of full backup of all information stores. Even if the Exchange databases are dismounted (offline backup), the brick-level backup will show a rather poor promptness.

In view of this fact the common practice is to use Exchange mailbox backup software the way the brick-level backups are scheduled to happen after other backup operations.

In some cases incremental backup might help to reduce the brick-level backup time. But note that the Exchange mailbox backup software you use for individual mailbox backup might scan Exchange databases entirely (e.g. with an built-in anti-virus), so it might not that much time won with the incremental strategy.

Open Item and Compatibility Issues

Nonetheless the Exchange individual mailbox backup is a thing commonly delivered as an online server backup feature (i.e. server interruption is not required to accomplish the task) brick-level backups are reported to sometimes skip open items. In addition to that, Exchange mailbox backup software might experience compatibility issues with items generated by various applications (e.g. PDA synchronizers).

Storage Media Requirements

Despite the fact that keeping emails as handy PST files is a general practice for brick-level backup software, those backed up individual mailboxes require more media storage space than the same mailboxes stored as a part of the full Exchange backup.

Exchange Mailbox Backup by Handy Backup

Exchange mailbox backup is a feature of the Handy Backup software yet to come. If you want to boost the development of this option, feel encouraged to vote for it on in the Feature Poll on Handy Backups brand page on Facebook. This season voting might win you a free license for the Handy Backup software! Read more on Facebook (and dont forget to Like the Handy Backup fan page too).

See also: email backup, back up MS Exchange 2003, exchange 2010 backup