3:20:39 PM 20/05/2005 TM Restoring Exchange Server 2003 with NTBackup Need to Know Version 1.00 Exchange server holds all the email messages for network users. NTBackup software can backup the Exchange data for recovery. There are two ways that you can recover Exchange email data. You can firstly restore the complete Information Store. This will over write any existing email information. Alternatively, you can restore a recovery mail store and then merge or copy the email data into the active Exchange information store. The procedures below out line how to complete both of these options when using NTBackup software to restore your Exchange information. To Restore the complete Exchange Information Store 1. Ensure that Exchange services are running. You can do this from Services in the Administration Tools. 2. Open the Exchange System Manager via Start | All Programs | Microsoft Exchange | System Manager. 3. In Exchange System Manager navigate to Servers | <Servername> | First Storage Group. Underneath this folder you should see Mailbox store (SERVER) and Public Folder Store (SERVER) © Computer Information Agency 2005 http://www.ciaops.com 3:20:39 PM 20/05/2005 4. Dismount both stores. Right mouse click on Mailbox store (SERVER) and select “Dismount store”. Repeat the process with the Public Folder Store (SERVER). You can tell whether the mail store is dismounted by the fact it has a small red icon over the picture for the store name. © Computer Information Agency 2005 http://www.ciaops.com 3:20:39 PM 20/05/2005 5. Right mouse click on the Mailbox store (SERVER) again and select “Properties”. 6. Select the Database Tab 7. Check the option “This Database can be overwritten by a restore” © Computer Information Agency 2005 http://www.ciaops.com 3:20:39 PM 20/05/2005 8. Right mouse click on the Public Folder Store (SERVER) and select “Properties”. 9. Click the Database Tab 10. Check the option “This Database can be overwritten by a restore” 11. Locate the Exchange MDBDATA folder. Normally this will be in d:\program files\exchsrvr\mdbdata. 12. Delete any files that appear in this directory. 13. Open NTBackup from start | programs | accessories | system tools | backup, Select Restore files and settings, click next 14. Expand <MediaName> | backup.bkf. Then select SERVER\Microsoft Information Store\First Storage Group by placing a tick in the check box on its right. Then click next © Computer Information Agency 2005 http://www.ciaops.com 3:20:39 PM 20/05/2005 In this example we are restoring from a file, normally you would restore from a tape 15. The server name should be displayed in the restore to: field. Type D:\temp in the Temporary location for log and patch files. Tick the checkbox Last Restore Set (Log file replay will start after this restore completes.). Click next. © Computer Information Agency 2005 http://www.ciaops.com 3:20:39 PM 20/05/2005 16. Make sure the Preserve existing volume mount points checkbox is ticked, Click Next 17. Click Finish © Computer Information Agency 2005 http://www.ciaops.com 3:20:39 PM 20/05/2005 18. Once the restore is complete, Click Close 19. Once the restore has completed navigate to the MDBDATA directory and check to see whether priv1 and pub1 files exist and are of the correct size. 20. Return to the Exchange System Manager. Right mouse click the Mail Store (SERVER) and select Mount Store. 21. Right mouse click the Public Folder Store (SERVER) and select Mount Store. To Restore the Information Store to Recovery Storage Group 1. Ensure that Exchange services are running. You can do this from Services in the Administration Tools. 2. Open the Exchange System Manager via Start | All Programs | Microsoft Exchange | System Manager. 3. In Exchange System Manager navigate to Servers | <Servername> . Right mouse click on <Servername> and Select New | Recovery Storage Group. © Computer Information Agency 2005 http://www.ciaops.com 3:20:39 PM 20/05/2005 4. Set the location of the recovery storage group. Ensure that you allow enough space for the entire store to be recovered. This means that during the process a copy of the entire information store will be installed in the location you specify here. Thus, you will have 2 copies of your Exchange Information Store on your server. © Computer Information Agency 2005 http://www.ciaops.com 3:20:39 PM 20/05/2005 5. You should now see an item called “Recovery Storage Group” listed in the Exchange System Manager tree. Right mouse click on this and select “Add Database to recover”. © Computer Information Agency 2005 http://www.ciaops.com 3:20:39 PM 20/05/2005 6. You will be presented with a list of Mailbox stores that you can recover. For SBS systems only one should appear, select it and hit “OK”. © Computer Information Agency 2005 http://www.ciaops.com 3:20:39 PM 20/05/2005 7. You will now be presented with the Mailbox store (SERVER) Properties window. Select “OK” to save your settings. © Computer Information Agency 2005 http://www.ciaops.com 3:20:39 PM 20/05/2005 8. If you now look under the “Recovery Storage Group” item you should see Mailbox Store (SERVER”. You should also see that this store is dismounted, leave it this way. Don’t mount the recovery mail store until after you have completed a restore from backup. © Computer Information Agency 2005 http://www.ciaops.com 3:20:39 PM 20/05/2005 9. Open NTBackup from start | programs | accessories | system tools | backup, Select Restore files and settings, click next 10. Expand <MediaName> | backup.bkf | SERVER\Microsoft Information Store\First Storage Group. Then select ONLY Log Files and Mailbox Store (As displayed in the diagram below) by placing a tick in the check box on its right. Then click next © Computer Information Agency 2005 http://www.ciaops.com 3:20:39 PM 20/05/2005 In this example we are restoring from a file, normally you would restore from a tape 11. The server name should be displayed in the restore to: field. Type D:\temp in the Temporary location for log and patch files. Tick the checkbox Last Restore Set (Log file replay will start after this restore completes.). Click next. © Computer Information Agency 2005 http://www.ciaops.com 3:20:39 PM 20/05/2005 12. Make sure the Preserve existing volume mount points checkbox is ticked, Click Next 13. Click Finish © Computer Information Agency 2005 http://www.ciaops.com 3:20:39 PM 20/05/2005 14. Once the restore is complete, Click Close 15. Once the restore has completed navigate to the MDBDATA directory and check to see whether priv1 is the same size as the priv1 in the Recovery Storage Group. 16. If you are not using Exchange 2003 Service Pack 1 you will need to use the Exmerge utility to extract and import mailboxes between the Recovery Store and the normal Mailbox store. 17. If you are using Exchange 2003 Service Pack 1 you can recover mailboxes directly from the Exchange System Manager. 18. Mount both the Recovery Storage Group | Mailbox Store (SERVER) and the First Storage Group | Mailbox Store (SERVER). 19. From the Action Menu, Select refresh 20. To use the Exchange System Manager to recover email boxes locate the mailbox folder under Recovery Storage Group | Mailbox Store (SERVER) and select it. On the right you should see a list of all the mailboxes in your Exchange with a red cross through them indicating they are not connected. To recover an email box simply right mouse click on a user email box and select “Exchange Tasks”. © Computer Information Agency 2005 http://www.ciaops.com 3:20:39 PM 20/05/2005 21. Once the Exchange Tasks Wizard has started select “Next”. On the next screen the only item that should be available is “Recover Mailbox Data”. Ensure this is selected and press “Next”. © Computer Information Agency 2005 http://www.ciaops.com 3:20:39 PM 20/05/2005 22. The destination mailbox store is show, click “Next” to continue. © Computer Information Agency 2005 http://www.ciaops.com 3:20:39 PM 20/05/2005 23. You can now choose whether you wish to Merge the Data into the existing mailbox ( this will merge data with what already exists in the users mailbox ). You can also choose to Copy Data into the users mailbox ( this will recover data into a folder in the user’s current mailbox ). Once you have made your preferred option select the “Next” button. © Computer Information Agency 2005 http://www.ciaops.com 3:20:39 PM 20/05/2005 24. You can select when you wish the merging to commence ( immediately by default ). You can optionally specify when to stop the merging process ( to prevent the merge hanging or running during production hours ). Beware that the time required to restore the data to the original mailbox may take quite a while depending on the size of the mailbox. © Computer Information Agency 2005 http://www.ciaops.com 3:20:39 PM 20/05/2005 © Computer Information Agency 2005 http://www.ciaops.com 3:20:39 PM 20/05/2005 25. When you have completed restoring the mailbox data you should delete the Exchange Recovery Storage Group to free up disk space. To delete, highlight the Mailbox Store under the Recovery Storage Group ( not the Mailbox store under the First Storage Group which is your live Exchange Data ) and press the delete key. Check you are deleting the correct Mailbox store and press “Yes”. You will be prompted with a message about manually deleting database file, press “OK” to proceed.