Can messages replaced by shortcuts be recovered using Exchange only?

[BruGuy]

Hello,

When a mail item is "replaced" by a shortcut, is it deleted or modified? I'd like to know if we can get the original item back using Exchange only, e.g., from the user's deleted items folder?

The reason I ask is that we've noticed a gap in our backup windows for Exchange and EV when new messages are immediately manually archived by users to recover space.

Also... say we lost our EV and SQL servers and had to restore a day-old backup of EV and SQL. Outlook would contain newer shortcuts which wouldn't work. If the archived messages were still intact, e.g., on a Centera, could the shortcuts from Outlook be re-built?

Thanks,

- Alan.

[MichelZ]

Alan

I think I got the perfect solution for you:
Set your Vault Store Partition Safety copy setting to "After Backup".
This ensures exactly this behaviour.

Have a look here (my post): 
https://www-secure.symantec.com/connect/forums/mails-pending-archiving-ev2007

To answer your question: EV does not soft-delete it (deleted items folder), and you can't get it back from the "recover deleted items" function.

Cheers
Michel

[BruGuy]

Thanks but doesn't that mean that the item will still take up the same amount of space in Outlook until after a backup runs?

If that's the case, then manually archiving won't help a user with a full mailbox to recover space immediately because the backup could be hours later during the night? That's not what we need.

The archived messages would be on mirrored Centeras. It's the EV/SQL part that's causing the backup Window problem.

[MichelZ]

Alan

Mirrored Centeras? YEEEHAW! :)
This simplifies what you want to do, because an item is considered "backed up" as soon as it is replicated to the secondary Centera! (So, no need to wait for a backup).

Cheers
Michel

[BruGuy]

Not so easy. The Centeras hold the archived messages but not the SQL databases. If you lose the SQL databases, you end up with Outlook shortcuts and archived messages but no link between the two. And if you only do an SQL backup once or even twice a day but allow manual immediate archiving on new messages, there's a 12-hour period where you're at risk. Go figure. That's why I also asked if the SQL part could be rebuilt "backwards" from the archived messages in the Centera - or if original items could be recovered from Exchange (they must still be in its database for a while).

[John_Chisari]

 Yes you can rebuild from the archived message on the Centera - using EVCenteraChecker - there is an option to Recover Missing Vault Store information.

To get this tool, you will need to contact Support - as it is version specific.

[BruGuy]

Great! Do you have a link to the tool's documentation please? I'd like to read up on it to see exactly how it works. Any idea of the speed, can I select just the last day's data for all users to rebuild?

[John_Chisari]

That is something I have - but I am not even sure whether it is available for public consumption (the doco I mean)  - why, most probably because it is a tool that should only be used at the direction of EV support (or from another technote specifying what to run to fix a particular issue).

No idea on speed, can't even remember the last time I have had to run it (maybe someone else can chime in) - and yes you can select just the last days data if you want.

This has also changed in EV8 (evcenterachecker is no more) - as we now use EVSVR as the only tool.

[MichelZ]

Any news here?

Cheers