The Mailbox add-on in BackupAssist does work for Exchange 2007, but it also requires a little more configuration and there are two “gotchas” to be wary of.
I have set up a simple test environment on some VMs in our test lab, and the set up works first time, every time.
The gotchas
Exchange 2007 is a 64 bit application and needs to be installed on a 64 bit computer. However, the two known ways of extracting email messages to PST format (the Outlook/PowerShell method or ExMerge) are 32 bit applications, and they link to 32 bit DLLs. As it’s not possible to call 32 bit DLLs from 64 bit code, it means that extracting mailboxes to PST cannot be done on the Exchange Server itself.
FIRST GOTCHA: You need to do the mailbox backup on a machine other than your Exchange Server (ie. remotely), and on a 32 bit OS.
Why Microsoft didn’t see that coming is beyond me!
SECOND GOTCHA: you need the Exchange 2003 Server Management tools installed on your backup computer. This is only available on the Exchange 2003 CD. [Note: we are working on a version of our Mailbox add-on that will only require the Exchange 2007 Server Management Tools, which is available as a free download off the Microsoft website. We hope to make this available shortly.]
How to set it all up
- Pick a machine on which to run your mailbox backups – this must be a 32 bit machine
- Install the Exchange Management Tools for Exchange 2003 on this machine – follow the instructions outlined in the BackupAssist Exchange Mailbox White Paper from page 7 onwards. Or if your machine is an Exchange 2003 Server then you don’t need to install the management tools (they come with Exchange!)
- On the same machine, install and run BackupAssist, choose to backup Exchange Mailboxes, and let BackupAssist install the ExMerge program (as outlined in the BackupAssist Exchange Mailbox White Paper)
Our test environment
I followed this procedure on the following test environment:
- Windows Server 2003 Standard, 64-bit OS, with Exchange 2007 installed
- Windows XP 32-bit, with Exchange 2003 Management Tools and BackupAssist v4.0.16 installed
After it was all set up, the mailbox backups worked perfectly, with no additional modifications required. There were no warnings or errors.
As always, we expect that although this procedure will work for the vast majority of our clients, there will always be some tricky or unexpected network setups that will cause problems. In that case, it’s best to contact BackupAssist support, and we’ll investigate on a case-by-case basis.
11 thoughts on “Exchange Mailbox Backups on Exchange 2007”
Exchange Mailbox Backups on Exchange 2007
Does this mine i will have to purchase another license in oreder to do my mail backups?
Leon… There are two licenses. One is the basic license for the Backup Assist product then a second licens for the Exchange Add-on module. The prices are explained here: http://www.backupassist.com/purchasing/purchase.php
Hi , im having a problem backing up exchange mailboxes, i have enabled remote backing by editing registry, but the problem is it keeps saying access denied with credentials im using.
Ive tried using the administrator username, and i believe administrator is denied by default, so i used powershell to give administrator full access to a mailbox, but when i check the security on the mailbox, it says administrator has full access, but it also has the denied box ticked, which is greyed out, how the hell can i get the denied to remove?
Ive also tried creating a new user for backup purposes, what account did you use and what is it a member of?
Driving me up the bloody wall !!
Leon, make sure the account you are using to do the backup is a member of the Exchange Administrator and Exchange Organization Administrator group. This groups have full access to the Exchange 2007 files.
Hello what if we dont have exchange 2003 to get the managment stuff. is there some where on the internet we can download it?
Hi,
we’re planing to buy backup assist but we absolutely need to use Exchange 2007 Server Management Tools on x64 machine (2003 doesn’t work on x64!).
What is the status of new plugin development? When will it be released?
Thanx
Hi Marco,
I’m Jason from the BackupAssist development team.
As you are already aware, the new addin will support mailbox backup on 32bit and 64bit clients for Exchange 2007 as well as for Exchange 2003 and all currently supported scenarios.
We are actively developing this right now, and will have a beta ready in mid-late May. Would you be interested in beta testing the addin when it is available?
Regards,
Jason
Jason – I am a BA Reseller and my own environment is Exchange Server 2007 on Windows Server 2008 R2 RC (x64). I would therefore very much like to be involved in beta-testing the new addin as I have an immediate requirement to perform PST-export from my 64-bit server without having to use a 32-bit client.
How can I get involved?
Thanks,
Fork.
I just downloaded the trial today and attempted to backup my total exchange store. It kept giving me a selection error as it there was nothing to backup. I really need a solution to backup the calendars and local email for my clients that are using server 2008 with exchange 2007. If you can get this to work you will have a reseller for life.
Hello Joseph,
Did you select your drives (volumes) for backup? You must select the drive that contains the Exchange databases for backup.
Please let me know!
Linus
I’m evaluating Backup Assist for our company.
We have an Exchange 2007 on Windows 2003 R2 64 bit.
And Backup Assist trial is installed on a Windows 2003 R2 server 32 bit.
Its not clear to me what I need to have installed on the 32 bit server even after reading all documentations sources of backupassist to doing individual mailboxes backups.
I have chosen the option ANSI PST using Exchange. (It is showed as installed).
Set mailbox rights is checked for “2007 servers”. and I’m using Administrator account Witch is Ecxh Org Adm and Exch Adm.
I get this error when running the job:
06-11-10 22:03:17.718 (I) 0D48/Adding a Service entry to MAPISVC.INF for “$s”
06-11-10 22:03:17.718 (E) 0D48/MutexedCreateServiceA: CreateMsgService(MSEMS) error — Specified item not found
06-11-10 22:03:17.718 (E) 0D48/CreateMMAPIMailboxSession: MMAPICreateExchangeMailboxSession(IAGAPP, /o=IAG/ou=First Administrative Group/cn=Recipients/cn=mdcocina) failed
Please let me know what we are doing wrong.
And please let me know if there is other communication channel to get pre-sale support.
Thanks a lot