Recipe11.10.Using the Exchange Server 2003 Mailbox Recovery Center to Recover a Mailbox


Recipe 11.10. Using the Exchange Server 2003 Mailbox Recovery Center to Recover a Mailbox

Problem

You have multiple disconnected or deleted mailboxes on an existing, mounted mailbox store and you need to recover them, or you have multiple mailboxes whose properties you need to export to an AD container or LDIF file.

Solution

Adding mailbox stores to the Mailbox Recovery Center

  1. Launch the Exchange System Manager.

  2. Expand the Tools node to display the Mailbox Recovery Center.

  3. Right-click on Mailbox Recovery Center and select Add Mailbox Store. You can add multiple stores at the same time.

  4. Enter a partial or whole mailbox store name in the selection dialog, then click Check Names. If there are multiple stores that match, you will be prompted to select one or more of them. Click OK when you have selected the desired stores.

  5. Click OK to add the selected stores to the Mailbox Recovery Center.

  6. The Details pane should now display a listing of any deleted or disconnected mailboxes in your selected stores.

  7. Since ESM is an MMC application, you can customize the columns displayed in the details pane to provide specific information. Either right-click on Mailbox Recovery Center and select View, or select the View menu. Choose the Add/Remove Columns option.

  8. Select the various columns that you want displayed. Click OK to apply your choices.

Recovering mailboxes with the Mailbox Recovery Center

  1. Launch the Exchange System Manager.

  2. Expand the Tools node to display the Mailbox Recovery Center.

  3. Ensure that the desired mailbox stores have been added.

  4. Select one or more mailboxes to recover. You can use Shift to select a range or Ctrl to make multiple selections.

  5. Right-click and select Find Match.

  6. The Exchange Mailbox Matching Wizards starts. Click Next to continue and allow Exchange to automatically attempt to find matching accounts for the selected mailboxes.

  7. When the results are displayed, examine the matching operations that were successful and those that raised a conflict.

  8. Click Finish to close the wizard.

  9. Select the mailboxes that were not successfully associated. Right-click and select Resolve Conflicts.

  10. When the Exchange Mailbox Conflict Resolution Wizard starts, click Next.

  11. The wizard will display a list of user accounts that could be matches for the selected mailboxes. If the desired account is not listed, click Browse and choose a user account. You will not be able to choose a user that already has a mailbox associated.

  12. When the account is selected, click Next.

  13. Click Next to complete the process and Finish to close the wizard.

  14. Select the mailboxes that were successfully associated with user accounts.

  15. Right-click and select Reconnect.

  16. When the Exchange Mailbox Reconnect Wizard starts, click Next.

  17. Review the proposed operations to ensure they are correct. If so, click Next to begin the recovery.

  18. Review the report and note any conflicts or errors, then click Finish to close the wizard.

Exporting mailbox properties with the Mailbox Recovery Center

  1. Launch the Exchange System Manager.

  2. Expand the Tools node to display the Mailbox Recovery Center.

  3. Select one or more mailboxes whose properties you wish to export. You can use Shift to select a range or Ctrl to make multiple selections.

  4. Right-click and select Export.

  5. When the Exchange Mailbox Export Wizard starts, click Next.

  6. You will be presented a list of AD properties to choose. These are properties of the user objects related to the selected mailboxes. By selecting these properties, you will be making copies of them in your Active Directory. Unless you want to do this, clear the selected properties.

  7. Click Browse. You will be asked to select a container in AD to hold the exported properties selected in the previous step. Click OK.

  8. Click Next.

  9. You will be asked to provide a filename for the export data, which will be placed in a LDIF file. Click Browse to navigate the filesystem and specify the name and location of the file. The typical extension is .ldf.

  10. You can choose to either append data to an existing file or overwrite it completely via the Append the Next Definitions or Replace Existing Content options respectively. Click Next to begin the export.

  11. Click Finish to end the wizard.

Removing mailbox stores from the Mailbox Recovery Center

  1. Launch the Exchange System Manager.

  2. Expand the Tools node to display the Mailbox Recovery Center.

  3. Right-click on Mailbox Recovery Center and select Remove Mailbox Store. You can add multiple stores at the same time.

  4. Enter a partial or whole mailbox store name in the selection dialog. If there are multiple stores that match, you will be prompted to select one or more of them. Click OK when you have selected the desired stores.

  5. Click OK to remove the selected stores from the Mailbox Recovery Center.

Discussion

The Mailbox Recovery Center is yet another new feature of Exchange Server 2003, and it gives you the ability to deal with multiple deleted or disconnected mailboxes at one time. In previous versions of Exchange, you had to recover them one by one.

The Recovery Center has some limitations, however, and many people confuse it with RSGs (see Recipe 11.11):

  • You can't use it to recover mailboxes from other servers in the administrative group. All message stores must exist on and be mounted by the local server.

  • You can't use it to recover mailbox data from backup sets.

  • You can't use it to recover items on an individual basis.

What it does allow you to do is reassociate mailboxes with user accounts, so that you can access them with other tools and manipulate their contents. The mailboxes need to be physically present in the store to begin with (Exchange does not physically create a mailbox until the user account has logged in to Exchange for the first time or until mail has been sent to the recipient), and must still be physically present (not cleaned up via the default 30-day retention period).

The export capability is also very useful, as you can either put the information back into AD or into an LDIF file for manual examination and manipulation.

The Mailbox Recovery Center will not, by design, show healthy mailboxes. If you still have an empty Detail pane after adding a mailbox store, then you don't have any deleted or disconnected mailboxes in that store.

See Also

Recipe 11.11 for using the RSG



Exchange Server Cookbook
Exchange Server Cookbook: For Exchange Server 2003 and Exchange 2000 Server
ISBN: 0596007175
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2006
Pages: 235

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