Can’t restore Mailbox Store to a Recovery Storage Group on anything but an the internal fixed drive.

[Richard_Berry]

I just found out the even though I’ve been selecting the “Enable the restore of individual mail messages and folders from the Information Store backups” it don’t work. Why is it there if it don’t work?

So:

I’ve followed the documentation and if I add the Recovery Storage Group and the Mailbox Store database to it, I can start a Backup Exec restore that will fail because I don’t have enough drive space. It will copy the first 8GBs of the more than 45GBs of the Mail Store.  If I try to point the Recovery Storage Group to a share that has enough space it says that it must be a physical drive. So, then I added a USB hard drive and I can point the Recovery Storage Group to it with no problems from the Exchange System Manager but then the restore will fail saying that Backup Exec don’t have the rights to write the mail box.

Please Help.

[Richard_Berry]

This is the error message I get if I set the path to anything other than local:

Restore- \\CMCMS1\Microsoft Information Store\First Storage Group
Access denied to database Mailbox Store (CMCMS1).

Error writing file data.

V-79-57344-33861 - The media operation was terminated by the user.

[Richard_Berry]

Anyone?

[D_B_5]

Hmm... well first, what do you mean by the option to restore individual items does not work?  There are quirks (it is version 1.0 after all) and so there are some work arounds to some problems, and sometimes it is just a setup issue...  Are you using B2D or a tape device for the backups?

As for the Recovery Storage Group issue, it is possible the disk space is checked before the rights are.  So the two different issues you see may just be one (the disk space issue) was blocking you from getting to the rights issue. 

Does your BE account have full rights to Exchange itself, a milabox, and is NOT hidden?

[Richard_Berry]

Thanks for the reply.

As best I can find online, the option is there but don’t work with the version that I have. (11.0 Rev. 6235) They added it a little too soon I guess. So I need to the new build for that option to work.

Unfortunately we have a tape auto loader that everything is backed up to. I wish it was all on disk. :)

I can see what you are saying about the disk space being checked before the rights

are but when I have it pointing to the local drive it will create an 8GB file before

running out of space and then failing with this error: Restore- \\CMCMS1\Microsoft 

Information Store\First Storage Group 
V-79-57344-33935 - Insufficient disk space.

 If I point it to the USB drive that has enough space it only processes 178 bites

before failing with the error: Restore- \\CMCMS1\Microsoft Information 

Store\First Storage Group 
Access denied to database Mailbox Store (CMCMS1).

Error writing file data.

V-79-57344-33861 - The media operation was terminated by the user.

[D_B_5]

Right, the staging from the tape to the drive doesn't have enough room.  It's good to do the backup to tape and then duplicate copy the set from B2D to Tape, that way you can run a restore from B2D without doing the staging.  I am not sure if the issue with duplicate copies was fixed, but they just released a new hotfix so it may be int here.  That's the best way to go.

Before you waste anytime though with your problem, upgrade your build to 7170, there are a lot of fixes and such you do not have since you are running an old version of 11d. 

[Richard_Berry]

B2D? Is that, backup to disk? You say "backup to tape and then duplicate copy the set from B2D to Tape" ???

Do you know if all the clients with remote agents will have to be rebooted if I upgrade to the latest version?

[David_Woo]

B2D? Is that, backup to disk? Yes B2D is back up to Disk You say "backup to tape and then duplicate copy the set from B2D to Tape" ??? This is what is known as a two phase backup regeme, backup to Disk then Disk to tape.

This is achieved by selecting the job from 'Job setup' then selecting Duplicate this Job from the task pane. or setting it up via policy.

Do you know if all the clients with remote agents will have to be rebooted if I upgrade to the latest version?

beremote.exe (RAWS or Remote Agent) in version 10d is compatible with an 11d Media Server however, if it is utilised such functionality such as GRT (Granular Restoration Technolgy) will not be available to you.

You will need to reboot your machine after the installation of the 11.0.7170.x remote agents as the installation path between the versions have changed, likewise the dll's will need to be deregistered and registered.

[David_Woo]

Also i concurr with D B we release hotfix 14 last week, HF14 was to resolve many GRT issues, however this will not resolve your original issue.

are you using a snapshot backup? You can see this next to the restore selection inside the restore set.

If not, I would suggest that the following take place:

If you ensure that the BE service account has permission to the External drive

create 2 folders on the external HDD 1 for the staging and 1 for the final Exchange IS

Within Exchange System Manager:-

Create the RSG, mount the Mail store, this will create the edb, stm files

move the RSG log files to the folder you've chosen for the Final Exchange IS

move the Mailstore to the folder you've chosen for the Final Exchange IS

dismount the store

select 'Enable this Database to be over written by a Restore'

From Backup Exec:-

Select Exchange Redirection, redirect to the RSG as per the technote you would have already read

On the Exchange selection, select the staging area to be the folder created on the HDD for staging.

Run the Job, and see how you go

[D_B_5]

Sorry Richard, I had a freudian typo apparently!   Yes, I meant you can run the backup to a B2D folder (backup to disk) and then duplicate copy it to tape.  I mistakenly said backup to tape, then duplicate to tape.  My bad.

David has a good suggestion.  Let us know how it works.  Make sure you upgrade to 7170 either before or after you do the exchange restore.

[Richard_Berry]

It turns out that exchange would not let the restore complete on the USB drive for some reason. It won’t even let you select a network drive though it would let me select the USB drive for the Recovery Group but it would then fail anyway. I found that if the USB drive is connected when the server is booted it works! I could not believe it. I could see the drive just fine and read and write files to it but the restore would just hang. Anyway, thanks for the input. I was finally able to restore the user’s mailbox. :)