To adhere to the service level agreement, you should ensure that you have the necessary hardware (such as hard disks, disk controllers, and backup devices) for your Exchange 2000 deployment.
Furthermore, it is important that you understand the performance benefits and risks of the hardware you select. For example, tape devices are faster streaming devices than disks, as long as the data streaming speed is maintained. Tape devices can also provide built-in data compression that increases backup speeds.

Selecting hard drives and other hardware that use the latest technology to maximise performance can significantly decrease the amount of time it takes to back up and restore your servers. Ensure that your hard drives have enough capacity to handle future Exchange database growth.

Before selecting a specific combination of hardware needed to run your back up and restore operations, you should consult the hardware specifications to determine in advance whether the time it will take to restore your server will be sufficient to meet the requirements of your service level agreement.
Note To help reduce the amount of time it takes to back up and restore Exchange data, you should establish size limits for your mailboxes and public folders. You should also store your Exchange databases across multiple storage groups. If you store your databases across multiple storage groups, you can perform backup and restore operations simultaneously.

The information in this article applies to:

• Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 Enterprise Edition
• Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 Standard Edition
• Microsoft Windows Small Business Server 2003, Premium Edition
• Microsoft Windows Small Business Server 2003, Standard Edition
• Microsoft Exchange 2000 Server