Restoring Your Exchange Server Databases From A Backup

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Written by Brian Fleishman

Tuesday, 26 January 2010 13:22

The Windows 2000 or 2003 server must be recovered first. For more information, see the
Disaster Recovery chapter in the Backup Exec Administrator's Guide. If a hard copy of the
Backup Exec Administrator's Guide is unavailable, the complete manual in PDF format can
found on the Backup Exec CD at this location:

%CDROM Drive Letter%:\WINNT\INSTALL\<languages\docs.

Section 1 is the Administrator's Manual (beadmin.pdf).
Section 2 is the Options Manual (addons.pdf).
The beadmin.pdf (Administrator's manual) for version 8.5 and 8.6 can be
downloaded from the Related Documents section below.

Note: Make sure to restore all of the Exchange 2000 and 2003 files that existed on all disk partitions.

After the Windows 2000 server disaster recovery procedure is complete (after the last reboot),
the Exchange 2000 or 2003 server can be recovered. If Intelligent Disaster Recovery
was purchased, see the Backup Exec Intelligent Disaster Recovery Option for directions on using
Intelligent Disaster Recovery to recover the Exchange Server. The following procedures describe
the manual recovery process.

Note: The Service Pack that was applied to the installation of Microsoft Exchange during the backup
will need to match the Service Pack that is currently installed on the Microsoft Exchange application
when you attempt to restore the information store.

To perform disaster recover for an Exchange 2000 or 2003 Server:

Note: Transaction logs that are present on the system before the databases are restored may interfere
with the recovery process and prevent the database from being mounted after the recovery.

1. If the transaction logs were not excluded from the file system backups, then these must be removed
from the Exchange server before continuing with the recovery. Delete all log files (*LOG) from the
transaction log directories that were configured on the server being recovered.

For example, to delete the transaction log directories installed at the default location, type the following:

C:\Program Files\Exchsrvr\mdbdata>del *.log

NOTE - If the Exchange 2000 or 2003 sever was configured with additional storage groups, delete
the log files from the other transaction log directories as well.

2. From the Services console, verify the Microsoft Exchange Information Store Service is started

3. To configure the mailbox stores and public stores to be overwritten, follow the steps below:

a. Open the Exchange System Manager and connect to the Exchange 2000 server

b. Expand Servers, expand the server name, and then expand First Storage Group

c. Right-click on the mailbox store to be restored, click on Dismount Store (Figure 1)

d. Right-click the mailbox store and select Properties (Figure 2)

e. Select the Database tab

f. Select the option This database can be overwritten by a restore (Figure 3) and click OK

g. Repeat steps c to f for additional mailbox stores and the public store

Figure 1

Figure 2

Figure 3

4. Start Backup Exec

5. Catalog the media that contains the latest Full, Incremental, and Differential backups of the
Microsoft Exchange 2000 or 2003 storage groups that are to be recovered

6. Select the latest full backups of the storage groups for restore

Note: If the Exchange 2000 server being recovered contains the Site Replication Service (SRS)
or Key Management Service (KMS), then select those databases for restore as well.

7. Select all subsequent incremental storage group backups. If differential backups are to be restored,
only the most recent differential storage group backups need to be selected.

8. In the Restore Job properties Box , Select Microsoft Exchange under Settings and then choose
Restore all transaction logs; do not delete existing transaction logs (no loss restore) (Figure 4)

Figure 4

Explanation of No Loss Restore: (Do not delete existing log files): When the No loss Restore option
is selected, the existing transaction logs on the Exchange 2000 server are preserved. Transaction logs
from the storage media are then restored and added to the existing set of transaction logs on the
Exchange 2000 server. When the restore operation finishes, Exchange 2000 automatically updates its
databases with the uncommitted transactions found in the existing and newly-restored transaction logs.
This option is selected by default. If No Loss Restore is cleared, only the restored log files will be applied
to the database.

Caution: If restoring individual databases into a storage group, the No loss Restore option should be
selected. If this option is not selected, log files for the entire storage group will be deleted.

9. Enter a location where the associated log and patch files are to be kept until the database is restored in
the field Path on the Exchange server for temporary storage of log and patch files (Figure 5). After
the database is restored, the log and patch files in the temporary location are applied to the database. After
the restore is complete, the log and patch files are automatically deleted from the temporary location
(including any sub-directories).

Note: Make sure the temporary location for log and patch files is empty before starting a restore job.
If a restore job fails, check the temporary location (including any sub-directories) to make sure any
previous log and patch files from a previous restore job were deleted.

Figure 5

10. If the selection contains the last backup set to be restored, select Commit after restore completes
(Figure 6). Do not select this option if backup sets still exist to restore. If the option Commit after restore
completes is selected when an intermediate backup is being applied, the job cannot continue to restore
backups and it must restart the restore operation from the beginning.

Figure 6

11. If the database is to be immediately available to users after the recovery, select Mount database
after restore (Figure 7). This option is only available if Commit after restore completes is selected.

Figure 7

12. Click OK, then click Run Now. The recovery procedure is complete.

13. After completing the restore, it is recommended that a full backup of the restored databases be performed.