Imported Tape w/Ex2k3 Backup Shows No Mailboxes Under Inf Store

[Hmoll]

I see no mailboxes under the Information Store for an Exchange 2003 server on a Tape I just Imported/Catalogged.

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I am required to restore messages (or the whole mailbox, if need be) from October 2007. Since the tape's information has been pruned from the BE db, I Inventory'd and then Catalog'd the tape.

When I select the Exchange 2003 server, and then select "Mailbox Store", however, there are no Mailboxes to chose.
 

• The problem exists on three consecutive tapes frm October through November 2007
• All Tape backups are Full backups, not Incremental or Differential
• The tapes were far from full (80GB out of 200GB)
• The other (general file server) data is on the tape, ready to restore (down to individual files)
• I do test restores frequently and find it unlikely that I had any backup failures, let alone for three consecutive weeks
• I am currently on BE 12; I don't remember what version I was on in October 2007 though it was probably the latest at that time

NOTE:  Though the server I need to restore data from tape is still in service, not a single mailbox currently remains on the server as all mailboxes have moved to an Exchange 2007 server. This should not matter, as I planned to do an Exchange restore redirection to a Restore account... but I'm wondering if maybe it does have something to do with my issue...

 

[CraigV]

If the mailboxes don't exist, it's not an issue. You can always install it back into the Information Store anyway.
Have you looked at setting the restore back to some date in 2007 prior to when this was used for backups? I had an issue with this too, and had to set the date back a couple of months to see the information. I did exactly the same thing by cataloging and inventorying the tape, but saw nothing,

[Ben_L_]

Do you remember what version of Backup Exec Exchange was backed up with?  At that time 10d and 11d were the current releases, it really does make a difference to resolve this to know the version.  If it was 11d, we need to make sure that GRT was enabled during the backup to see the mailboxes in the restore selections.  Also do you know if the Backup was successful?

Since you can't see the mailboxes at this time, the fastest way to get the data back is going to be to restore the Information Store to a RSG, then use ExMerge to pull the data out that you need.

[Hmoll]

If I had to guess,  it was 11d.  And though that installation no longer exists (it was upgraded to this v12 version!).

I'm sure GRT was enabled, since I often do message level restores.


So, do I use the VSS writer to restore to a file?  It does not appear that RSG's (though they exist) are available for Ex2k3.

[Ben_L_]

So, do I use the VSS writer to restore to a file? - Yes, just make sure you restore it to an exchange server since it will be trying to use Exchange VSS writers for the restore.

[Hmoll · Accepted solution]

I contacted Symantec. They stated that there is a known problem and there is no fix. It had nothing to do with re-importing the tape, they say.

I had to resort to an RSG restore, but that was OK.