A Message Restore (Exchange 2010)

[rsiddiqi]

I was trying to restore a message however I end up cancelling the restore job. The total message size was less than 1 MB. The backup was done using VMware agent for Backup Exec 2010 R3 with GRT enable. So in other words whole Exchange 2010 machine was backup. The restore job status was showing "Staging".

What is process and how long does it take to restore a message less than 1 MB? I hope the restore process would not copy whole VMware machine (vmdk) file C:\temp on media server and then restore the item. When I cancelled the restore process the temp folder size was 9 GB and I started with 0 MB

Thank you.

[pkh]

I guess you are restoring from tape.  When you do a GRT restore from tape, BE will stage the entire VM onto your disk.  After staging the VM to disk, then it will extract the individual item.

You can avoid this staging by duplicating the tape backup to disk and then restoring the item from the disk backup set.

[VJware]

Staging exactly does that...When performing a GRT restore from tape, the entire IS would be staged on the temp directory & then the individual message will be extracted..

Best thing to do would be to duplicate the existing backup sets from tape to disk & then perform the restore. Here is a KB on how to do so - http://www.symantec.com/business/support/index?page=content&id=TECH24544

[rsiddiqi]

So, if I backup the exchange 2010 using RAW (native backup) not VMware agent to tape will it be faster?

[CraigV]

...nobody has answered your question, so I will...no, doing a RAWS-based backup using GRT of Exchange to tape will also see you staging to C:\Temp. GRT-backups to tape all follow the same restore procedure.

You should follow the first post's advice to duplicate to disk, or change the staging location to a drive with the same amount of disk space as your Information Store is big...

Thanks!

[rsiddiqi]

What does duplicate to disk really mean? Can you explain bit more? Thanks

[CraigV · Accepted solution]

A duplicate-to-disk of a GRT backup is basically a copy of that information to disk. You will be left with the *.edb, *.stm and any logs comitted during the backup, and a couple of other files. You would be able to restore through BE from disk, or use something else to crack open the Information Store, or copy the flat-file elsewhere.

Check my article below on how it is done through BE 2010:

https://www-secure.symantec.com/connect/articles/restoring-exchange-or-individual-mailboxesitems-using-backup-exec-howto

Thanks!

EDIT: This is for Exchange only, not the VM!