RE: Exchange on integrated x Series

OK, this is getting _way_ off topic of midrange stuff, so I'll try and
squeak in an answer before David tells us all to move to pc tech.

It's not that you can't backup/restore at the mailbox (or even
folder/mail item level) you can. There are several brick-level backup
programs out there, and they do work. But here's the problem...

Exchange is a single-instance storage engine. If I send a 1 Meg excel
sheet to 100 people in my company there is _one_ copy of the file and
message on the server, and 100 entries in 100 mailboxes pointing to that
one message. 100 users, 1 meg message, but I only need 1 meg of server
storage. Nice deal. 

If I start doing brick-level backups and restores I loose that
single-instance storage advantage. When I backup I need to store that 1
meg excel sheet in each of those mailboxes on tape (disk, cd, whatever)
so while that message took 1 meg on the server it takes 100 meg on tape.
Likewise, if I ever restore it, exchange has no way of linking that
restored message to the original message (if it even still exists) so it
creates a new message. Restore 100 mailboxes now that message takes 100
meg, not 1.

>From an end-user point of view, bricked-backups work. No argument. IT
backs up my mailbox, I mess it up, I call IT and they restore it, I get
it back, no data loss, no problem.

The problem is one of storage utilization. Take that 1 meg message that
became 100 meg on tape, multiply it by thousands of messages by
thousands of users and you begin to see the problem.

Now, in many cases it isn't a big deal, small (relative term) shops will
work just fine with a brick-level backup, and large shops have multiple
exchange boxes, and more importantly, a lab environment with a box
running exchange where they can do a temporary restore of a non-bricked
backup. (Yes, a lab, you don't think Merrill Lynch just decides to
deploy Exchange 2003 and throws the cd in the production servers, do
you? <G>)

-Walden

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Walden H Leverich III
Tech Software
(516) 627-3800 x3051
WaldenL@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
http://www.TechSoftInc.com

Quiquid latine dictum sit altum viditur.
(Whatever is said in Latin seems profound.)