Backup command

Microsoft Exchange Server considers the asterisk (*) wildcard character to be an invalid character when used in database names. Databases that contain the asterisk (*) wildcard character in their name are not backed up. When a full VSS snapshot backup is done, the backup remains active until the backup version is deleted with the delete backup command, or expired by IBM Storage Protect Snapshot according to the defined policy. Two different active backups can exist at the same time:

• Full backup, along with any associated incremental backups and differential backups.
• Copy backup, along with any associated incremental backups and differential backups.

When you run Exchange Server backups, the Exchange database file size might increase because of increased database commitments that are triggered by backup operations. This condition is a Microsoft Exchange server standard behavior.

IBM Storage Protect Snapshot for Exchange Server supports the following types of VSS backups:

Full

Back up the entire database and transaction logs. If a successful backup is obtained, the Exchange Server deletes the committed log files. In Exchange Server Database Availability Group environments, the log files might not be immediately deleted after a successful full backup.

Incremental

Back up the transaction logs. If a successful backup is obtained, the Exchange Server deletes the committed log files. In Exchange Server Database Availability Group environments, the log files might not be immediately deleted after a successful incremental backup.

Differential

Back up the transaction logs. The translation logs are not deleted.

Copy

Back up the entire database and transaction logs. The transaction logs are not deleted.

All databases must be mounted at the time of the backup operation. If any database is not mounted, the database is not backed up. In addition, the transaction logs are not truncated.