Question:
Can I automatically suspend the Exchange Server (i.e., programming it to shut down) so that I can take a backup?

I am using ARCserver to back up the server.

Answer:
Yes, you can. But before I answer that, let me point out that what you’re trying to do is what’s called an “OffLine Backup” and those are significantly less valuable than an “Online backup” for a number of reasons—not the least of which is that offline backups don’t clean up the log files and restoring from them isn’t as easy.

So, my first suggestion is that you make sure that your primary backup strategy revolves around using an Exchange-aware backup program (I believe ArcServe is Exchange-aware, though you may need an optional add-on) to make online backups. Offline backups are useful mostly when you’re about to update the application or the operating system, or as an occasional supplement to online backups.

Now, if you really want to shut down the Exchange services to do your backup, create a batch file with these lines in it:

net stop "Microsoft Exchange Event Service" /y net stop "Microsoft Exchange Internet Mail Service" /y net stop "Microsoft Exchange Message Transfer Agent" /y net stop "Microsoft Exchange Information Store" /y net stop "Microsoft Exchange Directory" /y net stop "Microsoft Exchange System Attendant" /y

Or you could just write:

net stop "Microsoft Exchange System Attendant" /ynet stop "Microsoft Exchange System Attendant" /ynet stop "Microsoft Exchange System Attendant" /y

Skip the rest of them (since they’re all dependant upon the System Attendant and will be shut down when it is). Then do your backup and Net Start them all again.

You can schedule this to happen automatically by using the NT Scheduler service and the AT command.