on 03-20-2009 08:54 AM
- The Scenario -
You back up your Exchange 2007 mailbox stores with Backup Exec 12 and the Microsoft Exchange Server Agent regularly. You've never actually tried to restore the mailbox store.
The good news...This is not an uncommon scenario, but recovery testing should be an important part of any backup plan, that way, if you ever need to actually perform disaster recovery, you're familiar with the steps. Exchange 2007 has some new features which make this very easy. You can create a Recovery Storage Group (some features available in Exchange 2003 SP1), which will allow you to restore a mail store from tape without affecting your currently mounted mail stores.
- Creating a Recovery Storage Group in Exchange 2007 -
1. Open the Exchange Management Console. From the Toolbox node, click on Database Recovery Management.
2. Enter a descriptive lable for this activity (i.e. "Creating a recovery storage group" at the top, then type the name of your Exchange server and the name of a Domain Controller server in the appropriate fields and then click Next at the bottom of the screen.
3. From the Tasks options, under Manage Recovery Storage Group, click on the Create a Recovery Storage Group
4. You'll need select the original Storage Group that you're trying to recover, Exchange will base the Recovery Storage Group on this selection. Select the Storage Group that you want to restore from and click Next:
5. Next, You'll need to name your new Recovery Storage Group. Once done with that, you can choose the location of the original Storage Group files (DB + Logs), I recommend leaving the default settings.
6. Click "Create the recovery Storage Group"
- Restoring to an Exchange 2007 Recovery Storage Group from Backup Exec 12 -
1. Within Backup Exec, click the Restore button to create a new one-time restore job.
2. Select the specific data that you'd like to restore.
3. Select the "Microsoft Exchange Redirection" section.
4. Choose the "Redirect Exchange Sets" option and enter your Exchange Server name as "\\SERVERNAME", then "Redirect using Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS) Snapshot Provider". Now select "Restore to Recovery Storage Group (RSG) (Exchange 2007 Only)"
5. Once you've done this, you can Run the backup job and restore your tape data to the Exchange Server's Recovery Storage Group.
- Restoring Exchange 2007 Mailbox Data from your Recovery Storage Group -
Once you've restored the Backup Exec data to the Exchange 2007 Recovery Storage Group, you can use the Microsoft Exchange Troubleshooting Assistant's Database Recovery Management section to mount your Recovery Storage Group and/or restore mailboxes or the entire Mailbox Store database.
Note: Creating a Recovery Storage Group and recovering data from it can be automated using the Exchange Management Shell. For more information, you can reference the following pages:
How to Recover a Mailbox by Using a Recovery Storage Group
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa997694.aspx
I have followed the guide in this article which appears to be the most comprehensive instructions on how to restore an item (in my case 1 users Mailbox) but am still unable to restore. My understanding is that there are 2 methods that can be used:-
1. restore of mailbox database to a Recovery Storage Group on the exchange server
2. restore of mailbox using GRT
Initially I tried 2. which failed with error: e000fe30 - A communications failure has occurred, refer to symantec backup exec link V-79-57344-65072
Restore - \\EXCHANGESERVER\Microsoft Information Store\Third Storage Group
V-79-57344-65072 - The Exchange Store service is not responding. Backup set canceled.
Exceptions showed as
Item EXCHANGESERVER\hidden\Mailbox Database 02\USER [user]\
No Subject
was skipped by the user
for hundreds of files, possibly all.
Method 1 gave the same results after showing on backup exec that over 30 gb (ie full mailstore database) had been restored just as method 2 had done. The datastore does not appear in it's entirety in either the temp GRT location ( \\BACKUPSERVER\mbtemp share on D:) or in the database recovery storage group create on \\EXCHANGESERVER\ following instructions from http://www.symantec.com/connect/articles/how-restore-exchange-2007-mailbox-store-tape-using-backup-exec-12
To save time in the next steps. I can confirm the following:-
a) Messaging API and Collatoration Data objects 1.2.1 is installed on the exchange server EXCHANGESERVER
b) Symantec Backup Exec Remote Agent Utility of windows systems V12.5 is running on EXCHANGESERVER
c) the system account being used is 'backupadmin' and is an Exchange Server Administrator on Exchange Management Console for the scope EXCHANGESERVER and is an Exchange Organization Administrator, it is also a domain administrator, has an active mailbox which isn't hidden.
d) when creating a restore job and testing the resource crudentials, in order to work successfully, it has been necessary to reboot BACKUPSERVER on several occasions. As yet EXCHANGESERVER has not been rebooted although it has been recommended by a colleague
Any assistance would be gratefully recieved.
Kind regards,
Steven G
Thank you for useful post.
I had setup BE12.0 for Exchange 2007 Sp3.
Now, I am facing a problem that is very similar as following.
The error message and behaviour is same.
Regarding my environment, we have 2 Active directory (DomainA and DomainB).
Threre are conecting forest root domain directly and the two domains are same level in forest tree.
The exchange server is in DomainA. And DomainA has an ExchangeAdministrator which is a member of DomainAdmins of DomainA and DomainB.
And this ExchangeAdministrator is a system logon account of BackupExec.
BackupExec server is a member server of DomainA.
I created MailboxDB for each Domain (MboxA for DomainA User, MboxB for DomainB User)
About Backup and Restoration:
I use GRT restoration.
Backup OK : MboxA, MboxB
Backup Failure : None
Restore OK : MboxA,
Restore Failure : MboxB (Restore Test is OK, but actual restoration has failure)
I already took DebugLog of remote exchange agent. However it is too big for pasting.
What infromation should i show for your more understanding?
Thanks for your helpful opinion.
HMoro