1. Product Version: All
2. OS: Windows

Backup Strategies for the backup of MS Exchange Information Store:
In a small office environments with relatively small numbers of messages passing through the system, a daily full server backup will provide good data protection and the quickest recovery. When log file growth becomes an issue, you can consider using transaction log backups at midday to provide an added recovery point and to manage the log file growth.

On the other hand, in a larger office environments, transaction log backups should be used to provide more frequent recovery point options throughout the week and to manage log file growth. Many of our partners perform full server backups on a weekly basis, preferring to run transaction log backups throughout the week to keep backup runtime to a minimum.
 
A disadvantage with this backup technique occurs at recovery time when you must not only recover from the full database backup but from each transaction log backup as well. What will work best would be to based the backup practice on the size of your environment, number of transactions processed per day, and the expected recovery time.

In conclusion, please consider the following backup strategies:

1. Full backups is performed as frequently as possible, no less than once a few days
2. Full backups every few days (no less than monthly) with frequent transaction log backups in between each full backup

We strongly recommend that in addition to backing up the MS Exchange Information Store, you should also backup System State of the system on a regular basis.

1. Steps:

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1. Workaround:

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1. Also See:

Additional information regarding the backup of MS Exchange Information Store:
1. Disable Circular Logging on the Information Store, this allows for more precise control over the Information Store recovery process
2. Isolate Exchange Information Store backup jobs. This will be helpful for troubleshooting potential issues and recovering store data
3. Allow sufficient disk space for maintenance and recovery procedures
4. Make sure the Information Store maintenance process is not running at the time of the database backup
5. Monitor the Application and System Event Logs for relevant events which may affect Exchange server functionality
6. Backup the MS Exchange server System State
7. Make sure that all versions of the ESEbcli2 DLL file are the most current and that all versions are the same in any relevant locations

1. Other Info:

http://www.msexchange.org/tutorials/Exchange-Backup-Strategies.html