Troubleshooting Lab

If you do not need to perform test restores of public storage groups, and if your budget or organizational policies do not permit a recovery server, then you can restore individual mailboxes or mailbox stores to a recovery storage group. In this lab, you troubleshoot backup and restore by restoring a previously performed full backup to a recovery storage group. When you are satisfied that the restore completed without errors, you can then merge the recovered mailbox data with regular mailbox groups.

In order to perform this lab, you need to have the hardware and software configuration described in the "Before You Begin" section of this chapter.

Exercise 1: Set Up the Recovery Storage Group

To set up the recovery storage group, perform the following steps:

1. Start Exchange System Manager.

2. Navigate to Administrative Groups\First Administrative Group\Servers\Server01.

3. Right-click Server01, click New, and then click Recovery Storage Group.

4. Click OK to accept the default file locations specified in the Transaction Log Location and the System Path Location boxes. The new recovery storage group will appear in the server's list of storage groups.

5. Right-click Recovery Storage Group and click Add Database To Recover.

6. In Select Database To Recover, click Mailbox Store (Server01), and then click OK.

7. In Mailbox Store Properties, review the mailbox store's properties, and then click OK to accept the default settings.

   Important

   If you are restoring multiple stores at the same time, the stores must all be from a single storage group.

Exercise 2: Back Up the First Storage Group

In this exercise, you create a backup of the First Storage Group that you will subsequently restore to the recovery storage group that you created in Exercise 1. You created a backup of My Storage Group in Chapter 12, but that backup may not be suitable for Exercise 4 of this lab because there is no guarantee that it contained any mailboxes. Before starting this exercise, ensure that you have a suitable folder for holding the backup—for example, D:\Mybackup.

To create a backup of the First Storage Group, perform the following steps:

1. On Server01, from the Start menu, click Run, type ntbackup, and then click OK.

2. The Backup Or Restore Wizard starts. Click Next.

3. Click Back Up Files And Settings, and then click Next.

4. Click Let Me Choose What To Back Up, and then click Next.

5. Expand Microsoft Exchange Server\Server01\Microsoft Information Store, select First Storage Group, and then click Next.

6. In the Choose A Place To Save Your Backup box, browse to a suitable folder (for example, D:\Mybackup). Type Firstbackup in the Type A Name For This Backup box, and then click Next.

7. Click Finish. When backup completes, click Close to close the Backup Progress box.

Exercise 3: Restore a Mailbox Store to the Recovery Storage Group

In this exercise, you restore from the backup of First Storage Group to the recovery group.

To restore a mailbox store to a recovery storage group, perform the following steps:

1. On Server01, from the Start menu, click Run, type ntbackup, and then click OK.

2. The Backup Or Restore Wizard starts. Click Next.

3. Click Restore Files And Settings, and then click Next.

4. In Items To Restore, select Server01\Microsoft Information Store\First Storage Group, and then specify that you want to restore Log Files and Mailbox Store (Server01).

5. Click Next.

6. On the Restore Database Server page, ensure that Server01 is specified in the Restore To box, type D:\Mybackup (or the path to your chosen backup folder) in the Temporary Location For Log And Patch Files box, and then select Last Restore Set.

7. Click Next. Click Finish to close the wizard and start the restore process.

8. If prompted, click OK in the Backup File Location box.

9. When the restore is complete, click Close to close the Restore Progress box.

10. In Exchange System Manager, check that Mailbox Store (Server01) is in the Recovery Storage Group container.

11. Open Event Viewer and check that the restore procedure did not generate any errors in the applications log.

12. In Exchange System Manager, right-click Mailbox Store (Server01) in the recovery storage group, and then click Mount Store. In the warning dialog box, click Yes. Click OK when you are informed that the store was successfully mounted.

Exercise 4: Merge the Recovered Mailbox Data with My Mailbox Store

If the restore completes without errors, you may decide to merge the stored data with the current contents of the appropriate mailbox store. To perform this procedure, you need the Microsoft Exchange Mailbox Merge Wizard (Exmerge.exe). Exmerge.exe is usually installed into the C:\Program Files\Exchsrvr\bin folder. If it is not available on your server, you can download Exmerge.exe from www.microsoft.com/exchange/2003/updates. This exercise assumes that you have downloaded Exmerge.exe and installed it into the C:\Program Files\Exchsrvr\bin folder.

To merge recovered mailbox data with regular user mailboxes, perform the following steps:

1. On Server01, from the Start menu, click Run, type C:\program files \exchsrvr\bin\exmerge\exmerge.exe, and then click OK.

   Tip

   If you have problems running Exmerge.exe, then try copying the file Exchmem.dll from the C:\Program Files\Exchsrvr\bin folder to the C:\Program Files\Exchsrvr\bin\Exmerge folder.

2. The Mailbox Merge Wizard opens. Click Next.

3. Select Extract Or Import (One Step Procedure) and click Next. (If the recovery storage group were on a different server from the original mailbox store, you would use the two step procedure.)

4. Type the names of the source server and the domain controller in the appropriate boxes. (In this exercise, the source server and domain controller are both Server01.) Type 389 in the Port Number For LDAP Queries box. Click Next.

5. Type the names of the destination server and the domain controller in the appropriate boxes. (In this exercise, the destination server and domain controller are both Server01.) Type 389 in the Port Number For LDAP Queries box. Click Next.

6. On the Database Selection page, select Recovery Storage Group/Mailbox Store (Server01), and then click Next.

7. On the Mailbox Selection page, select the mailboxes to restore. You can select individual mailboxes or multiple mailboxes. Click Next.

8. Click Next to specify the default locale.

9. On the Target Directory page, click Change Folder. Browse to D:\Mybackup, and then click OK. Click Next.

10. On the Save Settings page, click Next.

11. Click Finish. If errors were encountered, check the Exmerge.log file in the C:\Program Files\Exchsrvr\bin\Exmerge folder.