Backing up Outlook psts with ntbackup

[fusio]

Hello,

I was referred here from the Technet File services forums,

I'm looking for a way to backup users' PST files without them closing Outlook.
The users are all running Windows XP + Outlook 2007.

After looking around for a bit, I found ntbackup.
My question is rather straight forward: Is it safe to use NTbackup to
incrementally backup PSTs?

Thanks,
Ron

 

[neo]

If the files are open by the user during backup, then they won't be backed
up. You are looking for something that can do an open file backups.

 

[fusio]

To my understanding , NTBackup uses VSS, this means it should be able to copy
the files while they're open

 

[Roady [MVP]]

That's not exactly how it works. It still requires a VSS writer specific to
that application to create streaming backups of an open database. A file
level copy of an open pst-file will in most cases render the backup useless.

 

[DL]

Niether can you incrementaly backup a pst, since whenever the pst is open
within outlook its modified and as such the entire pst would be backed up

 

[fusio]

I see,
In that case, is there any Microsoft based tool that allows for real time
Outlook PST backup?

There's a Microsoft Outlook Add-in that backs up the PST when Outlook is
closed, but it does not support incremental backups.

Thanks,
Ron

 

[Pat Willener]

NTBACKUP is fine to do PST file backups, but the PST file *must* be
closed during the backup, otherwise it will not be usable in case of an
emergency recovery.

Always test your backup / restore procedures, so that you *know* that
they will work in case of an emergency.

 

[fusio]

Great,

Thank you for all the replies and explanations!

Thanks,
Ron

 

[Roady [MVP]]

No, you cannot make a real backup when Outlook is running nor can you make
incremental backups.

If all you care about is the data, then there are some pst-to-pst sync tools
which can create incremental copies of the data but at that time the
pst-file that is being synced to is in use so it cannot be backed up itself
again before it gets disconnected and Outlook restarted.
One such backup tool that can make incremental copies of pst-files is Dunes
Outlook Backup;
http://addins.howto-outlook.com/dunes_outlookbackup