Cannot restore emails within BAR from Exchange 2003/Veritas NBU 6.5.6

[yvonne_ewry]

Good morning all,

I'm running into some weird problems when trying to do a mailbox restore in Veritas NetBackup 6.5.6 on Exchange 2003 servers/mailboxes.  I have fulls that complete on the weekends and they complete successfully; however, when I login to the Exchange 2003 server and open up the BAR, when I hit "Select for Backup," all of the mailboxes enumerate, and I can see all of the user's mailboxes with their mail inside of the each container.

The weird thing is, when I hit "Select for Restore" the BAR only expands the Microsoft Information Store and the First Storage Group, but absolutely none of the mailboxes show up so that I can indiviually select emails to restore...what am I doing wrong here?

NetBackup backup's up the mailboxes with no problem (differential and full backup's).  But, when I try to restore an email, none of the mailboxes show up/enumerate when I hit Select for Restore within the BAR.  Only the Information Store and the First Storage Group show up.  I need to be able to see the mailboxes enumerate when I hit Select for Restore, and they're not :(

Help!

Any and all comments/suggestions is greatly appreciated.  I am able to supply more information if needed.  I can provide screenshots if anyone is interested in seeing what I'm seeing. 

Thanks,

Y

[yvonne_ewry]

I also wanted to add I have my backup selections set up as:

NEW_STREAM

Microsoft Exchange Mailboxes:\

NEW_STREAM

Microsoft Information Store:\First Storage Group

I just kicked off a Full backup on the server and am noticing that even though the application is backup up files, and is writing, in the status window it is also saying WRN - unable to successfully enumerate folder: Microsoft Exchange Mailboxes:\ yet it is still writing files. 

How can I fix this?  Seems to be related to my above post with not being able to see mailboxes when I hit Select for Restore within the BAR.

Thanks again to all.

Y

[MKT]

Does the NetBackup Client Service on the Exchange box running as 'Local System' or the Account you are running under to view the BAR?  Change it to the account you are viewing the mailboxes in BAR as Mailbox backups require a specific account. 

[Mark_Solutions]

Yvonne

It is not supported to backup the Information Store and the Mailboxes in a single policy.

The NetBackup Client Service account is used to gain rights to the information store during the backup but for mailbox backups you need to actually specify a mailbox name to use, that has all appropriate rights, on the Exchange Clients Host Porperties - Exchange tab in the NetBackup Admin Console.

It is this mailbox that is used to enumerate the mailboxes during a mailbox backup in a schedule.

If you want to restore mailboxes from an Information Store backup then you need to use the GRT technology and set up NFS on the exchange server and media server, back up to disk and select the GRT option on the policy attributes tab - see the Exchange Admin Guide for full details:

http://www.symantec.com/docs/TECH52811

Hope this helps (edited my typos!)

[yvonne_ewry]

Hi MKT,

The NetBackup Client Service on the Exchange box is running as the netbackup domain admin (exchange full admin) account, not Local Service.  Account is in good standing.  How do I change it to the domain admin netbackup account in the BAR to view the mailboxes?  Thanks for your reply.  I appreciate it.

Mark_Solutions:  So it is best practice to not have the information store and mailbox backup contained within the same policy?  I will create a new policy and just have NEW_STREAM and the Microsoft Exchange Mailboxes:\ options added and see what happens.  I don't think doing GRT is possible as there isn't enough space on the Exchange server disks...I'll let you know what happens after I manually kick off the full backup using the newly created policy eliminating the information store option from it.  Also, where can I find the account under Exchange Clients Host Porperties - Exchange tab in the NetBackup Admin Console ?  I can't seem to find that Exchange tab...

Thanks to all again!

[yvonne_ewry]

So I created the new policy only containing just NEW_STREAM and Microsoft Exchange Mailboxes:\ and the associated netbackup mailbox I found in the client properties, it is indeed there.  When I kick off the Full backup now I get an Error 71:

1/30/2012 8:41:51 AM - connected; connect time: 00:00:01
1/30/2012 8:41:54 AM - Warning bpbrm(pid=3564) from client hostxxxx: WRN - unable to successfully enumerate folder: Microsoft Exchange Mailboxes:\
1/30/2012 8:41:56 AM - Error bpbrm(pid=3564) could not send server status message      
1/30/2012 8:41:58 AM - end writing
none of the files in the file list exist(71)

:(

[Mark_Solutions]

Yvonne

You should have seperate policies - no need for the NEW_STREAM at the start, just the Mailbox line

Note that these run at about 20 times slower that an Information Store backup so you may want to split them up into streams, which can be done alphabetically as follows (allowing multiple data streams in the policy attributes tab - make sure the first in the list is NEW_STREAM - obviously choose the letters to suit yourself and have more streams if you wish):

NEW_STREAM
Microsoft Exchange Mailboxes:\[a-g]*
NEW_STREAM
Microsoft Exchange Mailboxes:\[h-l]*
NEW_STREAM
Microsoft Exchange Mailboxes:\[m-q]*
NEW_STREAM
Microsoft Exchange Mailboxes:\[r-z]*

For the client host properties in the Console go to the NetBackup Management section - Host Properties - Clients then double click the Exchange Server, expand the Windows Client section and select the Exchange section - you must have a mailbox specified in the "Mailbox for message level backup and restore" section for the backup to work

Hope this helps

[yvonne_ewry]

Hi Mark_Solutions,

I modified the policy by removing the NEW_STREAM and just had the Microsoft Exchange Mailboxes:\ as the only option to backup.  I kicked off the manual Full backup, and still received the above Error 71.

I then modified the policy again to contain the split up mailbox streams, per your suggestion, and also allowed mutliple data streams in the policy attributes tab, and am now receiving an Error 69:  Error bpbrm(pid=7464) from client hostxxxx: ERR - object not found for file system backup: Microsoft Exchange Mailboxes:\[a-g]*
1/30/2012 8:58:20 AM - Error bpbrm(pid=7464) could not send server status message      
1/30/2012 8:58:23 AM - end writing
invalid filelist specification(69)

I checked within the windows client section of netbackup and the mailbox is indeed there as well.

Thanks again.  Any other suggestions? 

[Mark_Solutions · Accepted solution]

This all suggests that the account you are using does not have the correct rights to access the mailboxes.

Please double check all of the requiurements in the admin guide I linked you to - page 24 onwards I believe - the unique name for the mailbox os actually very importatnt as it can stop it working (if you mailbox is called "admin" you have little change as there as bound to be lots with the word admin in them! - extract from the guide:

For NetBackup to gain access to the mailboxes and folders to perform backup and restore operations, the NetBackup Client Service must be associated with a valid Exchange mailbox. Symantec recommends that you create a uniquely named mailbox.
To create a user account for the NetBackup Client Service
1 Use Active Directory Users and Computers to create a user account that has a mailbox with a unique name. A unique name is one that does not already exist within the Exchange Organization. This name cannot be contained as a set of characters in an existing name. For example: EXCH1 is entered as the unique mailbox name, and other mailbox names such as EXCH1BACKUP or BACKUPEXCH1 exist. The backup or restore of individual mailboxes or both fail.
2 After you create the account, double-click the account, click the Members Of tab, and add this account to the Domain Admins group.
3 Open Exchange System Manager.
4 Right-click the Exchange Organization and select Delegate Control.
5 Click Next.
6 On the Users or the Groups screen, click Add.
7 In the Delegate Control dialog box, provide the following information.
Group or User Specify the name of the account that was created in step 1. Role Select Exchange Full Administrator.
8 Complete the Delegation wizard.
9 If you have an Active/Active configuration, continue with the next section, ... etc

[yvonne_ewry]

Thank you Mark_Solutions,

You are correct.  I created another netbackup domain account with Exchange Full Administrator privileges within the Exchange environment in ESM, added that new account to the three Exchange servers registry, and started the Netbackup service using that account.

I've set up the mailbox streams per your suggestion, as well as allowing the enable multiple data streams, and I kicked off another Full backup, and so far no error, and I can see within the status window, the users mailboxes and the items being backed up.  Hopefully when the full backup finishes, I will be able to expand those mailboxes within the BAR when I do a test restore.

I'll let you know how it goes.  Thanks for your help.  I'll mark your post as a solution once the full backup finishes successfully (fingers crossed).

Thanks again,

Y

[yvonne_ewry]

Thanks to Mark_Solutions and all that have provided suggestions.  Re-creating the netbackup domain service account was the solution.  Even though I had the previous account set up and *was* working at one point, it just stopped.  Not sure how or why the 'old' netbackup domain service account ended up getting FUBAR.  Re-creating a new one worked.

Thanks again.  I'm sure you'll see me post on here in a minute...I have some Error 13's I need help troubleshooting with on yet again, some Exchange servers and a Blackberry Enterprise Server except this time, I'm only backing up ALL_LOCAL_DRIVES and still am receiving an Error 13.

Thanks to all once again!

Y

[Mark_Solutions]

Glad to have helped - happy to help with your next set of questions!