Recovering an exchange mailbox to a server with a different name

[systemsadmin3000]

Hello All,

I have two exchange 2003 servers. EXCH1 is in production and EXCH2 is a test server. Both server run Windows 2003. My two domain controllers run Windows 2000.
My dilema is that is am having problems recovering a mailbox that I created in EXCH1 to EXCH2. These are the steps I performed.

1. I created a test user in ADS on my Win2K DC called johnd and set up the mailbox on EXCH1.

2. I sent some mail and created some contacts, appointments etc just to populate the mailbox.

3. Using System Manager on EXCH1, I moved the mailbox to a storage group called Unrestricted.

3. I then backed up the Unrestricted mail store using Windows Backup on EXCH1.

4. I deleted the user, johnd, from ADS and I also deleted the mailbox johnd from EXCH1.

5. On EXCH2, I created a recovery storage group and named it Unrestricted, the same as that store I backed up on EXCH1.

6. I then added the Unrestricted mail store database to this recovery storage group.

7. Using Windows Backup on EXCH2, I restored the unrestricted mail store.

8. I mounted the mail store and it mounted successfully.

9. When right click on the johnd mailbox and went into Exchange Tasks to Recover Mailbox Data the destination mailbox store is pointing to EXCH1/Unrestricted/Unrestricted Mailbox Store. And there is no way for me to change that path.

Can this procedure even be done? Is it because the recovery server has a different name that this is happening? Is there any way to bypass or work around this?

I also tried ExMerge utility:

1. I added back the user to ADS and set up the mailbox on EXCH2.

2. I ran Exmerge on EXCH1 and stored the PST file on the c: drive. I ran exmerge again to merge the data in the PST file to the johnd mailbox. The operation was successful but no data is showing up in the mailbox.

Can anyone help?

 

[systemsadmin3000]

CORRECTION:

I also tried ExMerge utility:

1. I added back the user to ADS and set up the mailbox on EXCH2.

2. I ran Exmerge on EXCH2 and stored the PST file on the c: drive. I ran exmerge again to merge the data in the PST file to the johnd mailbox. The operation was successful but no data is showing up in the mailbox.

 

[msteder]

I have a similar quesion. I would like to restore an entire Information Store to a similar backup server, if my primary exchange server dies. Is this possible?

 

[anawrocki]

My favorite tool for restores is Power Controls from OnTrack. It is not exactly what you are asking for but the beauty of the tool is that you can use it to extract mailboxes from Exchange DB backups and pump the restored data to a PST or back to a mail box. Very versitle tool that is worth every penny if you need to restore from time to time. Totally eliminates the need for brick level backups.

 

[xmsre]

That's a lot to go through. Let's think about this in production.

1. How long does it take you to restore a production mail store?

2. How long does it take to exmerge the mailbox? (let's forget about the 2G limit and lack of unicode support for a moment)

3. What's your SLA for recovery of a single mailbox?


I bet that the sum of 1 and 2 are longer that the requirement in 3.

Tools like powercontrols are great, but they're only part of the story. Powercontrols lets you take a store (even a dead one) off of disk or tape, open it up, and extract mail to a pst or live exchange server. It supports unicode psts, and is a vast improvement over exmerge. The problem is still time. You still have to recover a store to work with.

Now, if you combine a tool like powercontrols with snapshots, you get around the time problem. Mount your last snap, connect via iSCSI, and run powercontrols to extract the target mailbox directly onto a production server. This is exactly what you get if you're on Netapp storage and purchase the Single Mailbox Recovery Option (you guessed it, the SMBR is a licensed version of powercontrols).

 

[ilpadrino]

Powercontrols is interesting. However in my tests for DR, it doesn't apply. If I setup a standby server in the same domain and Exchange Org, then mount my iSCSI snapshot where the database is, there is no way to export the database because the mailbox has to exist on the standby server. But the mailbox doesn't exist since it's located on the dead exchange server.

 

[58sniper]

Power Controls is great, but I'm curious as to why it wasn't restored to the Recovery Storage Group on the original server?

Pat Richard, MCSE(2) MCSA:Messaging, CNA(2)