Tech Ed: Vendors Look To Back Up And Restore Exchange Data

Veritas Software on Monday introduced new capabilities to rapidly recover Microsoft Exchange data using its Veritas NetBackup and Veritas Backup Exec backup and restore applications.

Veritas Edition for Microsoft Exchange 2000, when used with Veritas NetBackup or Veritas Backup Exec, gives automated, one-step rapid recovery and protection from data corruption or viruses, said Bob Maness, senior director of product marketing at Veritas.

Customers using the new application first perform a full backup to disk for verification, Maness said. Future backups are then created as image snapshots to that disk so if data needs to be restored, the customer can point to a specific image for the data, he said.

The application can also be used to roll forward from the recovery, Maness said. Customers can pick a specific time from which to start the recovery and then track all the changes to the time that the data was corrupted, he said. "If you tried to do the full backup and had a corrupted file, you may want to go back to the last validated full copy and grab changes made since then instead of maybe restoring a corrupted file," he said.

Veritas Edition for Microsoft Exchange 2000 is a separate module for Veritas NetBackup or Veritas Backup Exec, not an upgrade to those applications, Maness said. Prices start at $2,500 for the Windows Standard Server version and $4,000 for the Windows Advanced Server version, he said.

Sales of Veritas Edition for Microsoft Exchange 2000, expected to start this month, are expected to be initially sold through Veritas' direct-sales force. But the company will roll it out to solution providers as they get certified, especially for Veritas Backup Exec, which he said sells predominantly through the channel, Maness said.

In other vendor news, Solid Data Systems, a manufacturer of solid-state storage systems, unveiled the R2 Revolutionary Recovery system, a combination of solid-state disk technology and software aimed specifically at speeding up backup and recoveries in Microsoft Exchange environments, company executives said.

Using the Exchange-optimized R2, it is possible to recover up to 1 million messages and 5,000 users in less than 10 minutes, Solid Data executives said. With the R2, the Exchange environment is virtualized into a single unified inbox for users regardless of where their e-mail is located, they said.

The R2 Revolutionary Recovery is slated for general availability through Microsoft certified solution providers starting at the end of the third quarter. It is certified initially for use with Microsoft Windows 2000 Advanced Server. Prices start at about $18,000 for systems aimed at 100-user environments, company executives said.

Recoveronix, a Tallinn, Estonia-based software developer, on Monday unveiled its ExchangeServerRecovery 2.1 software for recovering corrupted Microsoft Exchange Server database files.

The application supports files of more than 30 Gbytes and can recover folders, messages, attachments, notes, contacts, tasks and appointments, as well as creation dates for all objects, company executives said. It also recovers formatting for RTF and HTML messages, they added.

ExchangeServerRecovery 2.1 is priced at $799. Recoveronix is looking for channel partners to sell and implement the software, executives said.