Backing up Exchange Server 2010 with Windows Server Backup and Powershell

This was fun, or not as the case may be.So I have a temporary Exchange 2010 server that I am using to migrate users on to, and then off at a later date.

I slapped a 2TB external usb disk in the back of the server and wanted to back it up.  Using the GUI is easy, but I wanted to use Powershell do it!

Now you can use wbadmin to run a backup, but this for some reason doesn’t work if you run it in powershell.  After some digging I found the powershell snapin windows.serverbackup

So you can start powershell and run Add-PsSnapin windows.serverbackup

You then find a whole load of cmdlets you can use.  Check it them here: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee706683.aspx<

I’m not going to go in to real detail, but this is basics:

$policy = New-WBPolicy
$fileSpec = New-WBFileSpec -FileSpec D:\exchange.databases\database.swing01 
Add-WBFileSpec -Policy $policy -FileSpec $filespec
$fileSpec = New-WBFileSpec -FileSpec D:\exchange.databases\database.swing02 
Add-WBFileSpec -Policy $policy -FileSpec $filespec
$fileSpec = New-WBFileSpec -FileSpec D:\exchange.databases\database.swing03 
Add-WBFileSpec -Policy $policy -FileSpec $filespec

Set-WBVssBackupOptions -Policy $policy -VssFullBackup   
$backupLocation = New-WBBackupTarget -NetworkPath $BackupTarget 
Add-WBBackupTarget -Policy $policy -Target $backupLocation   
Start-WBBackup -Policy $policy