I'll admit it. I'm a fan of Exchange. Probably Microsoft's best product, the features and integration it provides are unmatched, especially for a small business.
But Microsoft completely blew it with exchange 2007.
The product is fine, don't get me wrong. But if you run Exchange 2007 on Windows Server 2008 (as opposed to 2003) there is a small problem. There is no way to back it up.
Let me repeat that.
THERE IS NO WAY TO BACK IT UP.
How is this possible? Well I guess 2008's native backup changed pretty significantly over 2003. enough so that exchange 2007 couldn't use it for backups any more.
OK, well, when exchange 2007 SP1 came out (which allowed Exchange 2007 to run on Server 2008) it would have some sort of solution for backup, right? WRONG.
Now you can use 3rd party backup software, such as backup exec, but to release a product with no native way to back it self up? Completely unacceptable.
The exchange team announced that they will be releasing a tool to do your backups. Their intention to do this was proclaimed almost a year ago. Still no release.
Luckily someone found a work-around for this, that has been effective for me. Basically you need to take the backup software from a working 2003 server (64 or 32 bit, whichever matches your install) and put it on your 2008 box. It is kludgey, but will get the job done during a transitional phase (like I'm in)
Microsoft really dropped the ball here. Microsoft's integration of their back office products has always been their strength. I hope this is not an indicator of things to come.
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