Well I am a belt and suspenders kind of guy deep down inside. So I have been a bit annyoed that I had to choose between ShadowProtect and SBS Backup. If you read KB838183 it will explain the problem. Well today is the day I said enough. So I put together a plan and a few files which I am going to share with you here, but as always USE AT YOUR OWN RISK.
First the plan, on this system SBS Backup runs at 9:00pm until 3:30am then at 4:30 I snap a full ShadowProtect image which finishes around 7:00am which goes offsite each day. So I am going to schedule a job to turn on the Exchange VSS Writer on at 4:15am another one to turn it back off at 7:30am
We will need to create a few files first, you can do this in notepad.
first lets build 2 reg files called ExchIS-disable.reg and ExchIS-enable.reg
all these files are assumed to live in D:\DHC\Exch if you put them somewhere else
you will need to modify them accordingly.
also if you do not have CRM loaded on your server you can leave out the CRM lines
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The following file is ExchIS-disable.reg
Do not include the dashed lines
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Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\MSExchangeIS\ParametersSystem]
“Disable Exchange Writer”=dword:00000001
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The following file is ExchIS-enable.reg
Do not include the dashed lines
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Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\MSExchangeIS\ParametersSystem]
“Disable Exchange Writer”=dword:00000000
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Now lets build the 2 command files
called EnableExchVSS.cmd & DisableExchVSS.cmd
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The following file is EnableExchVSS.cmd
Do not include the dashed lines
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Rem Batch File to turn Exchange VSS Writer on
D:
cd D:\DHC\Exch
reg import ExchIS-enable.reg
net stop “Microsoft CRM-Exchange E-Mail Router Service”
net stop “Microsoft Exchange Information Store”
net start “Microsoft Exchange Information Store”
net start “Microsoft CRM-Exchange E-Mail Router Service”
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The following file is DisableExchVSS.cmd
Do not include the dashed lines
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Rem Batch File to turn Exchange VSS Writer off
D:
cd D:\DHC\Exch
reg import ExchIS-Disable.reg
net stop “Microsoft CRM-Exchange E-Mail Router Service”
net stop “Microsoft Exchange Information Store”
net start “Microsoft Exchange Information Store”
net start “Microsoft CRM-Exchange E-Mail Router Service”
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Now that we have our files, here is the process
We will create a couple of scheduled tasks.
Here is how to do that and what they look like
First Create a new Scheduled Task
Lets call it PreSPvssOn
Now lets set it’s properties
Point it to it’s command file
Schedule when you want it to run
Make sure to give it enough privledges to run,
you may want to run it as the domain Administrator
Now lets do the other one, call it PostSPvssOff
Point this one to it’s command file also
Schedule it for a time that the image will be complete
Make sure to give it enough privledges to run,
you may want to run it as the domain Administrator
They should both appear in your scheduled task list now
See you can have the best of both worlds with a little bit of work.
Until Next Time
