In virtually all Small Business Server instances I have worked with, the chosen method of backup has invariably been that of the included SBS backup functionality. This isn’t a standalone backup system, but rather a control mechanism that utilises NTBackup to create the actual backups.
Invariably, this backup method does start to misbehave after time. Whilst some problems are easy to resolve (insufficient space on the backup media for example), there are some problems that do not appear to be easily resolved. When this happens, I fall back onto a approach where that rebuild the backup configuration from scratch.
The basic are as follows:
- Turn off SBS Backup through Server Management
- Go to C:\Program Files\Microsoft Windows Small Business Server\Backup and rename the backup script file Small Business Backup Script.bks
- Return to Server Management and re-configure the Backup
That’s it. The key part here is the renaming/removal of the Small Business Backup Script.bks file. This contains the configuration data for the SBS backup, and is not removed when the SBS backup is disabled.