Running Exxhange 2007 SP2 with Netbackup. We run Full backups every night. So I understand that, from the server perpsective, commited log files are removed once a backup completes. However - in terms of what's backed up, does the backup software back up these commited log files, or only uncommited ones? The reason I ask - when I look at what's backed up for a night, I see the EDB file and a bunch of log files. When I come to restore, do I need to restore these log files too? What do they actually represent in terms of commited/uncommited data? And what would happen if I tried to restore only the DB?

It doesn't backup all of the logs. All it backs up is the logs that were created while the backup was running. In the event of a restore, you do an Exchange aware restore, and let Exchange and the backup software manage it. You don't restore "files". Simon.Simon Butler, Exchange MVP Blog | Exchange Resources | In the UK? Hire Me.

Hi For example, the DB is backed up at 20:00 HRS. The last commited log file is at 19:50, which means there are ten mins of transactions that have been written to the logs/database cache but not to the DB itself. I then restore that backup from 20:00, surely unless there are the log files from 19:50 - 20:00, the database won't be in a consistent state?

If you are looking at the time stamp on the log files to see what is "committed" then you are wasting your time. The Windows file system doesn't work like that. Simply take a look at the Exchange databases, their time stamp can be weeks ago. The Exchange backup system works very well. As long as you are using an Exchange aware backup application it will backup everything that you need to restore the server to the point of the backup. The only times I have seen the restore fail is because of a problem outside of Exchange. Simon.Simon Butler, Exchange MVP Blog | Exchange Resources | In the UK? Hire Me.

Hi This article explains backup log in details. http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa998870(EXCHG.80).aspx Do you have anything to update?