Exchange 5.5 Recovery

[Imashe]

We run Exchange 5.5, SP4 on a Windows 2000, SP3 member server. I have successfully created a recovery server in a lab environment.

Veritas' procedure (v9.1) for restoring Exchange 5.5 from an online backup includes the following: "IMPORTANT: Make sure you restore the Exchange Server files (in the \EXCHSRVR directory)."

I inadvertently skipped this step, yet my Exchange recovery worked perfectly.

QUESTION: If I am performing an online restore of IS and DS, why would I need to restore the \EXCHSRVR directories?

Any information will be greatly appreciated!

"The worst dilemmas are often the best opportunities in disguise."
'Carpe Diem'

 

[freaktechnique]

I've never had to restore any files other than IS and DS (with logs if necessary) to recover an exchange 5.5 server.

As long as you have a restore server with the same version of Exchange and same service pack with System Attendant running Veritas can restore the server using only the IS and DS backups.

 

[Imashe]

Thanks, freaktechnique. That's definitely helpful to me. Now if I could just find an official document from Microsoft or Veritas for my oh so particular boss!!

"The worst dilemmas are often the best opportunities in disguise."
'Carpe Diem'

 

[rdroske]

freaktechnique is definitely correct, the only reason I could see for backing up the directories would be in a disaster recovery situation where you wanted to restore the whole machine (OS and all which I would never do anyways).

 

[zbnet]

You mean you haven't shown your boss this?

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/exchange/exchange55/plan/disaster.asp