Hi all,
If you have Exchange 2007 running in a Hyper-V guest (so it might be Exchange 2007 on Server 2008, SBS 2008 or EBS 2008) and you perform a VSS backup from the host machine, then Microsoft have officially stated that they support the Exchange backup in this scenario.
The critical bits of information are on this page: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc794548.aspx
under the section Backup and Restore Considerations
VSS backup of an Exchange guest virtual machine from within the root machine is supported when Hyper-V virtual hard disks (VHDs) are used.
This means that backing up your Hyper-V guests by imaging the host machine is supported by Microsoft.
Regards,
Linus
6 thoughts on “Exchange 2007 Backup in Hyper-V Guest – yes it’s supported”
This means that I can run BackupAssist from the host machine imaging the volume where I store the vhd files of an exchange guest and I will obtain an exchange-aware backup of my exchange DB??
Hi Gabriele,
Yes, that’s correct. I can confirm that the Exchange logs are pruned correctly, and the VSS writer for Exchange is notified of the backup.
Linus
Hi Linus
Does this mean the functionality of your exchange plugin is somehow encapsulated in the Hyper-v vss writer i.e. prune logs consisstancy check etc. I always like to understand how these things are working for my own piece of mind.
Thanks
Mike
Hi Mike,
Actually, it means that the consistency check isn’t done in the VM.
I was alarmed by this, contacted Microsoft, and they came back and pointed me to the documentation that stated that it was supported (the link in my original blog entry).
However, when performed on a local machine, the Exchange consistency check must be done according to MS requirements.
Why the inconsistency exists, I don’t know, but you can read the Microsoft response here:
http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/windowsbackup/thread/952fd92f-09fd-4bc3-b36a-c2b49cd8b086/
Regards,
Linus
Good site, admin.
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