You may not have heard about this yet, but more and more people have been asking me about this. The "Windows Server Backup" feature running on Windows Server 2008 cannot backup your databases/stores on Exchange 2007. What were refer to as streaming backups, is no longer supported with the built-in backup tool (still possible with 3rd party). So what do we use to backup the DBs? Well, you have a few options. First, of course, you have 3rd party products, the same you may currently be using to backup Exchange 2003 servers, are available in versions supported by Windows 2008/Exchange 2007. Second, if you want to stay on the MS side of things, you will want to use System Center Data Protection Manager (SCDPM) to perform VSS-based backups of your Exchange 2007 servers. (SC DPM cannot take streaming backups)

 

Now what will happen in Cougar (SBS 2008)? I haven't had a chance to check it out yet, but this may be prohibitive to small businesses who look for simple backup solutions. My guess (and this only a guess) is that they will leverage SC Essentials with a minimal version of SCDPM. Well... at least that's what I would do...

 

I also want to point out though that I've recently been told that you can restore, on Windows2008, Exchange Offline DB backups done in Windows Server 2003 (no online backups supported). I've actually tried this out (other than the SCDPM) and the options for Exchange are simply not there.

 

More guidance on this from Microsoft will be arriving soon.