Restore individual mail messages from Information Store backups

[HH]

Hi,

I run 11d Rev7170 on win 2k3 sp2 to backup Exchange 2003, How can I restore individual mail messages from Information Store backups, although the job was completed successfully but when I go to restore I can't see the individual mailboxes in the selections tree. I did the following configurations but still no luck;

·         Checked Enable the restore of individual mail messages and folders from Information Store backups.

·         Checked Enable the restore of individual mail messages and folders from Information Store backups.

Also how can i verify whether Exchange GRT is enabled or not. Can any help please.

Thank you all.

HH

[HH]

Any ideas.

[Tony_Ferro]

I have been having the same problem on my Windows 2003 server.  The software works great except for restoring individual messages.  I posted on here a while ago and one of the Moderators assured me that they would have a patch for this soon.  I think this bug has been around for at least 3 months now.  I'm on day 48 of 60 in my trial of Backup Exec so if it isnt fixed by then i'm going back to Retrospect.  It was slow but at least it worked. 

Restoring individual messages is a huge selling point that they advertise as GRT and it just flat out doesnt work.  I would have thought that something as big as this would have been fixed within a few weeks.  I've heard horror stories about Symantec support and they seem to be true.

Tony

[thegoolsby]

Please make sure that you are using Backup Exec build 11.d revision 7170 (check this by going to Help > About Backup Exec for Windows Servers) and that you have run Live Update and applied all of the available Hot Fixes.

If you are still running 11.d rev. 6235 then please download the newest version by visiting https://fileconnect.symantec.com.

To determine if GRT was enabled on your backup, review the backup Job Log and you should see the following:

Microsoft Exchange Server Agent: Started

The option to enable the restore of individual items from the database backup was selected for this backup.

Please confirm that you are seeing this in your job logs. If you are not, try recreating your Exchange backup job and see if you get any different results.

Alternatively, as a work around, you can also enable the Legacy Mailbox Backups (MAPI) and have the ability to restore individual mail messages and folders.

In addition, for Exchange 2003 you can also restore your Information Store to a Recovery Storage Group and use ExMerge to merge the individual data into your production store. You can find more information here:

Restoring Exchange 2003 data using the Recovery Storage Group

http://support.veritas.com/docs/264815

[HH]

Thanks Collin for the professional support, actually I'm running 11d rev7170  with the latest hotfixes. The problem got partially resolved after doing the following;

-Unchecked AOFO in the backup job properties. Now the Job is using Microsoft Exchange Server Agent not AOFO.

- Checked Enable the restore of individual mail messages and folders from Information Store backups.

Now all mailboxes can seen in the selection list when doing a restore using IS backup. But I'm facing a problem when restoring individual messages , I'm doing IS backup to tape, the temporary path for staging the entire database is located on the Media server which has about 50GB free size and IS backup size is 80GB " includes both Mailbox store and Public Folder store". when restoring individual messages it stages the entire database then it fails with the below error.

V-79-57344-33935 - The path on the media server for staging temporary restore data when restoring individual items f...

Is it staging the entire database for restore or just the Mailbox store, which is less than 50GB. 

Is it possible to  change the temporary path to another location In the network.

Thanks again..

HH

Message Edited by HH on 06-05-200708:35 AM

[savas_cucum]

Why i restore the full IS for need individual mail ? its not good.

If IS is 100GB, i need 125GB space on my disk? Not Good.

any ideas

[D_B_5]

GRT Restores are handled two different ways.:

Backup to Disk:  If the backup was done to B2D, the restore is very quick.  The database in the backup is read dynamically on the fly and the message is pulled out quickly and restored.  This is the preferred method.

Tape: a GRT backup to tape has the database written in a format for tape that is different from the B2D method.  This is a result of the requirements of the hardware (tape).  As a result, when you want to do a restore, the database if "staged" so it is put into the format as B2D has it and then after staging, the restore reads the  new "staged" database dynamically and restores the message(s).

The database cannot be stored on the tape in a format which allows direct access.

Space requirements are hard to resolve of course. 

Best practices would be all things considered:

- Run backup jobs to B2D folders.

- Run duplicate job from B2D to a tape device

- Let IMG folders in B2D get overwritten as space permits (B2D properties - Disk Space Reserve)

This would keep the space used by B2D controlled, but also allow you to keep a recent backup to do your individual restores from.

If you only do tape backups, if you need to restore an individual message, do a duplicate copy job from the tape drive to a B2D folder. You can then restore the message as needed, and you will have a convenient database to use for any more restores which may be needed in the next few days.  Staged database are not accessible once the job is completed, so duplicating from Tape to B2D will leave the database usable for other restores and save you some time.  That's just an option.

[HH]

Thanks