Schedule a server backup
I'll jump right into creating a backup schedule in order to schedule a regular backup of this Exchange Server database. To start the process, go to the Action menu and choose Backup Schedule.
Backup Schedule Wizard Getting Started page
Starting the backup schedule kicks off a wizard that begins with a welcome screen that outlines what decisions you need to make. For the purposes of this tutorial, I'll stick mostly with defaults.
Choose what to back up
On the next page of the wizard, you're asked to decide what you'd like to back up. You can choose to back up the entire server (this includes all data, applications, and system state), or you can choose to perform a custom backup, which allows you to make granular options about what to back up. You see in this figure that I'm performing a full server backup that will use 17.52 GB of space.
Decide at what time(s) each day you'd like to run backups
Although the backup default is to run every day at 9:00 P.M., you can choose to run the backup at a different time or, if you need a shorter recovery period, can choose to run multiple backups each day. To add additional daily backups, select the button next to More Than Once A Day, specify the times you'd like, and click the Add button. After you make your choices, click the Next button.
Where do you want to save backups?
With the "what" and the "when" out of the way, it's time to consider the "where"; specifically, you need to make sure to back up your information to a location that can survive a server failure.
You can choose to back data up to a hard drive that you've dedicated to this purpose. Ideally, this would be a removable drive of some kind that you can store away from the server. If you can't do this, you can back data up to an existing server volume, although you may take a performance hit and, if the server is lost in a disaster, recovery won't be possible. The option that I prefer is to back data up to a volume on a separate server. In my case, this second server resides in a different building.
Heed the warning
When you choose the remote location option, you're told that each backup will overwrite previous backups and only the latest backup will be available. If you need multiple backups to be available, consider other backup options.
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