Performing Additional Backup and Recovery Tasks | Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 Administrators Pocket Consultant Second Edition

There are several additional backup and recovery tasks that you may want to perform. These include:

Recovering a server using Setup/mode:recoverserver
Cloning Edge Transport server configurations
Troubleshooting database mount problems
Mounting databases on alternate servers

These tasks are discussed in the sections that follow.

Using the Recover Server Mode

You use Setup with the /mode:recoverserver to recover a server that was once fully functional or to move a server to new hardware and maintain the same name. You should not use this as a repair tool, to recover from a failed install, to recover from a failed uninstall, or to reconfigure a server. In addition, this recovery process does not restore customized settings that were stored on the server or in Exchange databases.

When you use the /mode:recoverserver command with Exchange Setup, the new server needs to have the same name as the server that it will be replacing and have a matching drive configuration for drives that had Exchange data on them. With this in mind, you can recover Exchange on a new server by completing the following steps:

Reset the domain computer account for the lost server. In Active Directory Users And Computers, right-click the computer name, and then click Reset Account.
Install the new server, making sure you give it the same name as the old server and a matching drive configuration for drives that had Exchange data on them.
Join the server to the domain, and restart the server if necessary.
Insert the Exchange Server 2007 disc in the CD/DVD-ROM drive. At a command prompt, change to the Exchange source directory on the CD/DVD. (The Exchange source folder is the folder that identifies the processor type, such as ∖amd64.)
At the command prompt, type Setup /mode:recoverserver. This tells Setup to read the configuration information from Active Directory for a server with the same name as the server from which you are running Setup. Setup then installs the Exchange roles and files on the new server using the settings that were stored in Active Directory.

Cloning Edge Transport Server Configurations

Most Edge Transport server settings are set by default, either because they are updated from the Web, such as with antispam data, or because they are replicated from Active Directory through the EdgeSync process. If you haven't modified the settings or created custom settings, no Edge Transport server data needs to be backed up, and you could fully recover Edge Transport services simply by setting up a new Edge Transport server. If you've modified or customized the settings, you can clone the configuration to capture any settings you've changed.

On an Edge Transport server, you'll find two scripts in the C:∖Program Files∖Microsoft ∖Exchange Server∖Scripts directory. If you run the first script, ExportEdgeConfig.msh, Exchange will export all user-configured settings and store the data in an .xml file. If you copy the .xml file or a backup of the .xml file to a new Edge Transport server and run the second script, ImportEdgeConfig.msh, Exchange will import all user-configured settings in the .xml file.

Troubleshooting Database Mount Problems

Sometimes, you may find that a database won't mount. This may be because a required log file is missing or because the database is corrupted. You can diagnose many database mount problems using the Troubleshooting Assistant.

You can use the Troubleshooting Assistant to troubleshoot a database mount problem by completing the following steps:

In Exchange Management Console, select the Toolbox node. Double-click Database Recovery Management.
After the Troubleshooting Assistant checks for updates, click Go To Welcome Screen.
Enter an identifying label for the activity, such as Database Recovery.
In the Server Name text box, enter the name of the server on which you want to create the recovery group and the domain controller you want to query during recovery. Then click Next.
The Troubleshooting Assistant will check connectivity to Active Directory and Exchange Server. Afterward, the troubleshooter will analyze the Exchange database configuration by checking the disks a server is using for messaging to ensure that they are accessible, have free space, and are mounted.
Click Repair Database.
On the Select Repair Options page, select the storage group in which the problem database is located, and then click Next.
Any dismounted databases in the previously selected storage group are listed and can be selected for troubleshooting.
When you've selected the database or databases for troubleshooting, click Analyze Selected Database. The database status is provided, along with a possible solution for resolving the problem.

Mounting Mailbox Databases on Alternate Servers

Thanks to the database portability feature in Exchange Server 2007, you can mount a mailbox database on a server other than the server on which you created the database. Database portability is not supported for public folder databases. Public folder databases are replicated automatically. If you create a public folder database on a server, all public folder data will be replicated to other public folder servers as part of the normal replication process.

You can move a mailbox database to a new server by completing the following steps:

Your first step in moving a database to a new server is to commit any uncommitted transaction log files to the database by running the following command at a command prompt:

eseutil /r ENN

where ENN specifies the log file prefix of the transaction logs you intend to replay into the database. Generally, the name of the log file for the first storage group is E00.log, the name of the log file for the second storage group is E01.log, and so on.

Note
If there are no transaction logs to commit, you can skip step 1.
Your next step is to create a new Mailbox database on the new server, as discussed in the "Creating Mailbox Databases" section of Chapter 12, "Mailbox and Public Folder Database Administration." Do not mount the database. The new database must have the same name as the name configured on the previous Exchange server. You can use the Get-StorageGroup cmdlet to obtain the required database name. Set the Identity parameter to the identity of the original storage group, such as:
```
 get-StorageGroup -Identity 'CORPSVR127\Third Storage Group' 
```
After you create the database, you must enable the database to be overwritten by a restore operation. You can do this by setting the AllowFileRestore parameter of the Set-MailboxDatabase cmdlet to $true, as shown in the following example:
```
Set-MailboxDatabase -Identity 'CORPSVR84\First Storage Group\Accounting DB' -AllowFileRestore $true
```
Move the database files (.edb files, log files, and content indexing catalog) to the appropriate location on the new server. You must put the files in the exact locations the new server expects these files to be in. You set these locations when you created the database.
Mount the database using the Mount-Database cmdlet, as shown in the following example:
```
Mount-Database -Identity 'CORPSVR84\First Storage Group\Accounting DB'
```
After you mount the database, you must modify the user account settings with Move-Mailbox -ConfigurationOnly so that the accounts point to the mailbox on the new mailbox server. To use Move-Mailbox -ConfigurationOnly to move all of the users from the old database to the new database, run the following command:
```
Get-MailboxStatistics -Database 'NewDatabaseIdenity'  | Move-Mailbox -ConfigurationOnly -TargetDatabase 'NewDatabaseIdentity'
```

where NewDatabaseIdentity is the name of the new database in both instances, such as:

Get-MailboxStatistics -Database 'CORPSVR84\First Storage Group\Accounting DB'  | Move-Mailbox -ConfigurationOnly -TargetDatabase 'CORPSVR84\First Storage Group\Accounting DB'

Note

Only mailboxes that have been opened or that have mail are moved with this command. If there are new mailboxes that have no mail or that have not been opened, these mailboxes will not be created.

Mailbox users will be redirected to the new mailbox location automatically once Active Directory replication has completed.