Exchange 2000/AD restore 2

[DennisZhao]

I am currently running Active Directory with exchange 2000 servers, backup by using Veritas 10.0.

We are trying to restore our AD and exchange in to a lab environment, so it can be used for testing exchange server upgrades. I can restore the domain controllers and the exchange mailboxes fine, but the links between AD accounts and the mailboxes are broken after I mount the restored storage groups. I can get the single mailbox to remap by running the cleanup function, and then recreate the AD account, but I need to find a way to re-link all the accounts.



If you have some experience in this process, please give me some pointers.

 

[paulha]

is mbconn what you are after ?

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/271886

 

[DennisZhao]

I read the article, it talked about recreating all the AD account by using mbconn, and then connecting to them. I already have all the AD accounts there, so will it create duplicate accounts? I really only need to find a way to reconnect them.

 

[paulha]

It has been a few years since I went through the excercise that you are currently on, but if the grey matter is still functioning correctly, you (may?) need to remove the exchange attributes from the user accounts that you want to reconnect, then use System Manager to reconnect the mailboxes

I dont remember any way to do it as a batch job though.

Like I said, my memory is a bit hazy on this one, you may be able to do it without removing the attributes, probably (logically) not.

 

[Zelandakh]

VMWare Server and the VMWare auto thing (I forget the name) where you point at a live server and virtualise it. Then you've got everything ready to test.

 

[Davetoo]

VMWare Converter...

http://www.vmware.com/products/converter/

I'm Certifiable, not cert-ified.
It just means my answers are from experience, not a book.

 

[paulha]

Excellent, very useful, thanks

 

[Zelandakh]

That's the boy, thanks Dave.