Can't see user mailboxes for Restore - Exchange 2003, GRT activated, BEWS 12.5

[roeme]

Hi all,

first post here. Let's see how it works out!

Just minutes ago, an employee came to me and asked me if I could restore a particular mail he accidentially deleted. Of course, I said, and fired up my trusty BEWS Mgmt Console, . However, I broke quite a sweat when I browsed to the most recent backup, drilled down through "Microsoft Information Store > First Storage Group > Mailbox-Store" and couldn't see any user mailboxes in there!

What happened here? The job ran sucessfully and the last backup used about 30 gigs, so data was actually backed up. GRT is enabled on the jobs backing up the server, and both jobs are doing a full backup. Everything goes to tape.

Am I doing something wrong? Thanks in advance for any help!

[chicojrman]

Backup exec and exchange on the same server? if not run hotfixes and then update your remote agent as well so that there on the same version.

[roeme]

Thanks for your response.

Backup Exec has a dedicated machine. The installation is fairly recent, as I'm regularly updating when hotfixes apply for my environment. After your suggestion, I did check for hotfixes, but none of the currently available ones apply for Exchange.

I'm now updating the Agent and doing a new backup afterwards. I'll let you know how it turned out.

But still, why can't I see any indiviual mailboxes etc., even though obviously all job settings seem right?

[Ken_Putnam]

Only TechNote I can find is

http://seer.entsupport.symantec.com/docs/256537.htm

but if the mailbox is not Unique, the backups should have failed also

[lebisol]

I assume that mail was just deleted or very recently...and that exchange server has some retention set (at least 7 days).
In this case just have user go in outlook to Tools--> Recover Deleted Items.

[roeme]

Thanks, lebisol, I really forgot about this option. While the user could restore his mail, the orignal issue persists. I did bring up the Agent to the same version as the main installation, but this didn't help as well.

Ken, upon reading your hint, I checked the situation with the logon accounts. We're using a dedicated user account for Backup Exec - this account did not have a mailbox however. Straight from the Admin Manual:

Keep in mind the following requirements when you use Granular Recovery Technology (GRT) with the agents listed:
(...)
Agent for Microsoft Exchange Server:
Backup Exec must have access to a uniquely named mailbox within the Exchange organization for backup and restore of the
Information Store. See “Exchange mailbox access requirements” on page 1215.

According to the mentioned page, BE should have prompted for a different user, since this account did not have a mailbox:

You must use a Backup Exec logon account to connect to the Exchange server when you select mailboxes or public folders for backup. Backup Exec attempts to find a mailbox with the same name as the user name that is stored in the Backup Exec logon account. If you use a Backup Exec logon account that stores a unique user name and has a corresponding mailbox with the same name, then you are not prompted for an additional logon account. Otherwise, you must choose or create a Backup Exec logon account that stores the name of a unique mailbox within the Exchange organization.

I did assign a mailbox and email adress to the backup user account, but I still can't see any individual mailboxes. I'm running a backup now, I hope that the individual messages appear for restore at least in this backup set, and from now on.

Quite the hassle, eh? The VMware agent, in contrast, sets the backup's job completion state to "Completed with exceptions" when the requirements for GRT are not met (and GRT was requested in the job settings). The Exchange agent should do that too!

[ghuegerich]

I recently installed a new backup server using version 12. I believe it was set up with the same options as before, and my settings appear to be correct based on this thread and other articles I've found on GRT. Unfortunately, I do not have visibility to the individual mailboxes in the Restore Console.

[roeme]

Backup Exec backs up the Exchange Server without error messages, but still, I can't see no messages or mailboxes. Anyone out there having some additional Information for me?

As far as I understand, I can mimic GRT by redirecting when restoring, separately attaching the restored information store and then manually move single messages or mailboxes. But aside from not knowing the exact procedures for that, I'd rather use the mechanisms provided by BE.

I checked for any hotfixes, but none of the four available apply for this situation, nor for the exchange agent (the installation is on SP1). As I'm seeing it, quite a few users have this problem.

[CraigV]

Is this not simply a case of filtering the date you want to restore from? Have you looked into that? If the date you're restoring from is from before the default dates it automatically puts in, you might not be able to see it.
Can you see the mailboxes in your selection list?

[roeme]

Nope. I select "View by Resource", expand the exchange server, then  "Microsoft Information Store"  and "First Storage Group", subsequently. This shows the dates where a backup was made, and upon selecting one, the different information stores show up. It's just that no mailboxes are displayed when I select the mailbox information store.

[respada]

We have exactly the problem that you are describing. I recently acquired some new disks for B2D's and enable that option which i know was working before. but we stoped using it due to hard disk limitations. but now i enabled it again and its not working. it just shows no selections exist for this resource.

[DFY]

Hello Roeme and Respada,

We seemed to have exactly the same issue. Our config:

Media server is Win2k3 R2 SP2, Backup Exec 12.0 with SP3. Backup job is policy based, GRT full backup of exchange information store.
Exchange server is Win2k3, Exchange 2003, BE remote agent is 12.0 with SP3.

All backup jobs report successful but when going to restore -> select by resource -> server -> Microsoft Information Store -> First Storage Group -> Date -> Mailbox Store, there would be no option to expand the mailbox store for the individual mailboxes.

I tried re-starting the backup exec services, re-inventoring the B2D devices, re-cataloguing the media, all of it without success.

Finally I just rebooted the server, and voila, I could now expand the mailbox store in GRT exchange restore jobs.