Restore of individual mail items to Exchange 2003 consistently fails

[AHJ]

We are having problems restoring individual email items. Our scenario is as follows : Windows 2008 SP2 Server running Backup Exec 2010 rev 2896 in a workgroup, with the following hotfix's, 348284, 348518, 348315, 351870, 355131, 354911, 354451, 355938, 355922 and 351400. All services, other than Remote Agent For Windows, are running under a domain administrator account. Windows 2003 SP2 Server running Exchange 2003 (6.5.7638.1) in a VM environment, with 13 other servers, all in the same domain, using Remote Agent for Windows (we redeployed the agent again today). Scheduled job which runs a backup-to-disk each day using the domain administrator account and GRT The backup-to-disk folder, among other things, are written off to tape daily We only have room for a single days data, but each days backup-to-disk job successfully deletes the previous days data. Our problem comes when we attempt to restore an individual email item, the whole reason for purchasing the software. We can browse the backup-to-disk media, choose the an item from any mailbox, but when the job runs, we get the following error consistently V-79-57344-65298 The exchange store service is not responding. Backup set cancelled. Connection to the restore target has been lost. Operation cancelled. The job returns an error code of 0x000ff12 in Job Monitor. Exchange is running, the restore path is not on C:, the mailbox that we are redirecting the restore to is not open, it isn't hidden from GAL and the account is a domain admin. I have looked at a number of articles including http://www.symantec.com/connect/articles/restoring-exchange-or-individual-mailboxesitems-using-backup-exec-howto. There is no mention of a backup server that is in its own workgroup causing a problem. Does anyone have any ideas? Thanks in advance.

[sksujeet]

Do you have the remote agent installed on the VM machine on which you are restoring the individual mailbox. Have you tried restoring a small file other then exchange to see if it gets backed up.

[CraigV]

Hi AHJ,

Are you restoring to an Exchange server in a domain, or in its own workgroup? Does your service account have admin rights on that server you are trying to restore too (I have seen this cause issues)? And lastly...is your RAWS agent publishing correctly to your media server?

Laters!

[AHJ]

Hi, thanks for the responses.

sazz: I do have the agent installed on the VM machine and it is running under the local system account.  I haven't tried restoring anything other than an email.  Is it worth testing a single file backup to a backup-to-disk folder and then attempt a restore?  The actual server itself is backed up with Veeam and we use Backup Exec 2010 to backup to tape.

CraigV: The Exchange Server is in the domain with the services run under a domain administrator account and Backup Exec is installed and running on a server in its own workgroup, with the services, except RAWS, running under the local administrator account.  Couple of questions if I may ... How would I add a workgroup account to a domain server?  How can I tell if the RAWS agent is publishing correctly to the media server?  I can browse information in the backup-to-disk and find the email I want to restore ... is that what you mean? 

Pardon any ignorance guys .. this isn't my forte and I've inherited the issue while the network administrator is away.

[AHJ]

Hi sazz

I have just managed to backup a file from the Exchange Server C: drive to a backup-to-disk folder and restore the same from the media using the domain administrator account.  Does that help us at all? 

[CraigV]

Why not put the BE server onto the domain? It would make life so much easier.
What you can do is create a local administrator on that Exchange server, and then add that into your BE media server as ServerName\AccountName.
Once done, try to browse the Exchange server from a selection list, and when it pops up a username failure, select the new account created.
To check whether or not your RAWS agent is publishing correctly, go to the Exchange server, and open up the Remote Agent for Windows Servers --> Publishing - and it will have your BE media server in there...well, should have!

Laters!

[AHJ]

Hi CraigV

I couldn't agree more about putting it in the domain.  The VM environment was setup by a 3rd party and they recommended that the Backup server remain in its own workgroup from a disaster recovery perspective.  Does that sound rubbish?  Perhaps we'll have to review this requirement.

When you say open Remote Agent for Windows Server on the Exchange Server, are you expecting some software?  All I have is the service installed.  I can browse to the Symantec/Backup Exec/RAW directory, but there doesn't appear to be a publishing folder.  That doesnt sound right does it?

[AHJ]

Is there a way to turn debugging on so I can see where the failure is happening and perhaps give me somewhere else to look.

[CraigV]

Hey man,

I am not sure why they would want that server in a workgroup for DR purposes...if they can show you Symantec's best practice on that, then I will believe it.
However, from my side, the server should be on the domain. It means it uses a domain account with the required permissions (BE service account needs delegated rights to Exchange for example, and the only way around that is via a domain account which is in the correct groups/delegated rights in Exchange Administrator). This also means 1 account to use when setting up RAWS...not an account for your local admin to run the services on the media server, and then having to troubleshoot issues with a domain account you have to try adding in.
Put it on the domain, and you might find your issues go away!
As for the RAWS agent, if you go Start --> Programs, you should see a directory entry there for Symantec Backup Exec, and the RAWS agent will be in there. Click it, and you will see the Publishing tab. If it doesn't show that, check the Services console to see if any BE services are running. If not, the RAWS service/agent has not been installed.

Laters!

[AHJ]

Hi CraigV

You're absolutely right.  There is a Symantec Backup Exec Remote Agent Utility and I can indeed switch to the Publishing tab.  I can see the workgroup server listed in the "Enable the Remote Agent to publish information to the media servers in the list" box, the interval is 240 minutes and "Published names for this agent" shows <exchange_server>.<domain> in that list.  So, can assume that the agent is installed correctly and that the setup is sufficient to create the backup to disk, but insufficient to restore?

I will certainly take up your point regarding placing the backup server into the domain.  I'm not sure whether its a license cost issue, SAN space issue or A N Other.  I'll see if it is possible to test out the scenario reasonably quickly.

Cheers.

[CraigV]

No license cost...simply put it onto the domain.
If the Publishing tab shows your media server listed there, then it is communicating. the issue might be with restores and how it uses service account permissions. Your workgroup server would not have the correct permissions to restore into Exchange!

[AHJ]

Thanks CraigV, I've raised this with guys who set up the VM environment , and my manager, and waiting for a response.

[AHJ]

The backup server now logs in with a domain account, but sadly, it has made no difference to my attempts at a restore.

What is I go back to basics. If I ...

• create a new AD account and mailbox from scratch and make it a member of Domain Admins and Exchange Services; is this the equivalent of Exchange Admins or is there another group to join?
• implicitly add this user to the Information Store permissions by selecting the Security tab of the Mailbox Store properties and give it Full Control, which presumably, should include Send As and Receive As
• Do the same for Public Folder Store

The new account should have access to all users mailboxes by way of group membership of Domain Admins/Exchange Services.  I can then change the resource credentials of the backup job to the new user account and use the same for the restore job.

Does this sound like a reasonable plan?  Have I missed anything?

[AHJ]

Each time the restore process runs, its takes down the RAWS service on the exchange server after about 20 seconds.  Am I correct in thinking it could be the service failure that causes the communications error with the exchange stores rather than possible restricted permissions causes the service failure?

[pkh]

It could be. On the exchange server, go to the properties of the Backup Exec Remote Agent for Windows System service.  On the Recovery tab, change First Failure to Restart the Service.

If the service fails more than once, you would need to look at the minidump to determine the cause of the failure.

[AHJ]

I've had a technical support call ongoing for three days now.  I will update you when, hopefully, it gets resolved.

[Stephen_Baer]

I know that granular restore of individual mail items requires that
"V-79-57344-4615 - To support individual mailbox message and folder restores from Information Store backups, you must download and install the Microsoft Exchange Server MAPI Client and Collaboration Data Objects package version 06.05.7888 or later on the Exchange 2007 server. This package can be found on the Microsoft web site."

I was getting this alert on by backups until I installed this. I think it may have required a (sigh, why, why, why, Microsoft?) restart, though. Hope it helps.

[AHJ · Accepted solution]

Hi

Following two staff holidays, two weeks of technical support calls by multiple members of staff and several debug sessions, the following seems to have resolved the issue :

• Created a new account and added it to the delegate list of Exchange System Manager and assigned full control
• Removed Outlook 2002 client software, which relates somewhat to the MAPI settings mentioned in the last comment posted; I can't even remember why this was installed, but it never posed a problem backing the server up directly on the same machine with BE9.1

Thanks for everybody's input.  It's good to know there is help when needed.

Regards and thanks.

[CraigV]

Cool dude...can you close this off with the solution for others?

Thanks!

[Mahesh_Roja]

KB

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa996226(EXCHG.65).aspx