How do you know if you are getting a good backup of your Exchange Server?

One of the best ways to tell of you are actually getting backups of the Information stores is to check the logs in your exchsrvr\mdbdata folder where the PRIV.EDB file is located. This folder is usually located on the drive where Exchange is installed, but depending on your configuration, it could be located elswhere.

After you do a full backup (or what you think is a full backup), take a look in this folder. If it's still full of log files predating the backup, you didn't get a good backup! Once you get a good backup, these log files will dissapear.

When the Exchange store sees a completed backup of the mailboxes and the data store it automatically clears out the log files from this folder.

You might want to go take a look and see if you're REALLY getting a good backup!

Stephen Amontis and Reny Torres are network engineers for Mercy Healthcare System.