Backing up Exchange 2000 using Windows 2000 Backup

Backing Up Exchange 2000 Using the Windows 2000 Backup Utility

It is very important for any administrator to know how to backup and restore Exchange correctly.  Backing up your Exchange server using the correct steps not only secures your data but also purges the transaction log files that Exchange uses.

In this article we are going to walk through the steps you would need to take to successfully backup your Exchange databases.  We shall look at how to restore the information from a backup in a separate article.

Microsoft Windows 2000 comes with a utility that enables you to backup data and System State* information on that server.  When you install Exchange 2000 onto the server, the Windows 2000 Backup utility is updated to support backing up and restoring Exchange data.  The backup program now becomes “Exchange aware”.

Before we look at the way in which we backup Exchange, let’s quickly refresh on the architecture.  Within Exchange we have: Storage Groups, inside the Storage Group we have Stores.  Inside the Stores we then have either mailboxes or Public Folders.

Exchange 2000 Standard only has the ability to support one (1) Storage Group which can contain one (1) mailbox store and one (1) Public Folder store.

Exchange 2000 Enterprise can have up to four (4) Storage Groups and each Storage Group can support up to five (5) stores (either mailbox or Public Folder).

For each Storage Group in Exchange we have a corresponding set of Transaction Log files, these log files are extremely important and should never be deleted manually.  The log files are 5Mb in size and your server can generate a large number of log files based on how many transactions it processes.  The log files are used in the event that we need to perform a restore of the databases.

Backing Up Exchange 2000

As I mentioned earlier your server will have the Windows 2000 Backup utility already installed and because you have installed Exchange on the server the backup utility will now be “Exchange aware” and capable of purging the log files and backing up the databases whilst they are in use.  You don’t have to stop any of the Exchange services when you are performing a backup.  If you do stop the services you will be performing an “Offline” backup and this is not recommended because the services need to be running to purge the log files correctly.

1.   Open the Windows 2000 Backup utility, Start > Programs > Accessories > System Tools and select Backup

2.   Select the Backup tab

3.   Open the Microsoft Exchange Server list and expand the server that you want to backup.

If you want to backup the whole of the Information Store on the selected server you can simply check the box next to “Microsoft Information Store” or you can expand the “Microsoft Information Store” and select a particular Storage Group.

It is recommended that you backup a complete Storage Group, rather than the individual Stores, that way all the committed transaction log files will be purged.  In the event that you need to backup an individual store you can simply click on the Storage Group name and select the Store you would like to backup from the right-hand pane.

 4.    Once you have made your selection of what you want to backup the next step is to configure where we want to backup the selection to.  This could be to tape, to another hard disk, to a CD-RW or even to floppy disks if you have about 600 hanging around.  To select the backup location using the “Backup media or file name” option at the bottom of the page.  For this example I have selected to backup to my G: and use a filename of backup.bkf.

5.    When you are ready to start the backup, click on the Start Backup button.  The “Backup Job Information” dialogue box will now be displayed, click on the Advanced button and ensure the Backup type is set to “Normal”.

6.   If we now proceed and click on the Start Backup button, the backup will launch and the information we selected will be backed-up to the location we specified.  Once the backup is complete you will receive the “Backup Progress” dialogue box.

7.   When your backup is complete, it is very important to review the backup report to ensure that everything went through OK - what’s the point of doing a backup only to find its no use when you need it!  To review the backup report, click on the Report button in the “Backup Progress” dialogue box.

The above procedure discusses the way in which you should be backing up your Exchange Information Store using the built-in Windows 2000 Backup program on your Exchange server, but you also need to ensure you backup other critical information as well, backing up the System State and the IIS Metabase is as important as backing up the Information Store data.

You should ensure that you backup the System State on all of your Domain Controllers and your Exchange server regularly, I back mine up nightly as part of my normal backup routine.

Exchange Server 2003 Mailbox Recovery

Recover deleted mailboxes that are tombstoned in the database

If an administrator has deleted a user and with that its mailbox and within 30 days (by default) he discovers that this mailbox should not have been deleted, there is an easy way to reconnect the orphaned mailbox to a new user. The timeline for not deleting an unconnected mailbox from the storage is 30 days by default and can be increased using a private storage system policy.

The administrator can have a look into the private storage of the private storage where he will find all orphaned mailboxes with a red cross. The cleanup agent is the piece of software that regularly scans all mailboxes and checks, if there is a connection between a user object in Active Directory and a mailbox in the private information store. If there is not, it marks the mailbox for deletion. The retention time for the tombstoned mailbox now begins to run. If the cleanup agent has not run yet, you can start him manually by triggering it.

Figure 1: How to manually run the Cleanup Agent

If the administrator has now found the orphaned mailbox he only has to click right on it and choose “Reconnect” to connect it to a new user in Active Directory.

Figure 2: Reconnect a mailbox

With Exchange Server 2003 we have a newly created Mailbox Recovery Center, which makes it easier to reconnect a mailbox. You just have to mount the private store, then you will see only the reconnectable mailboxes and a right click solves your problem.

Figure 3: Reconnect a mailbox using Mailbox Recovery Center

These two methods are easy ways to reconnect an orphaned mailbox that is still available in the storage to a newly created Active Directory User. If the 30 days retention time is not enough, there is an easy way to increase this using system policy. A good feature provided by a private storage system policy is to only delete tombstoned mailbox stores after a backup of the storage was made.

Restoring Mailboxes from the Recovery Databases by Using Exmerge.exe

Exchange Server 2003 provides quite a flexible and easy way to mount storage databases using the new Recovery Storage Group feature. After having started to restore the database from a tape you configure the Recovery Storage Group that can be created by right clicking the server object in Exchange System Manager and choosing to create a Recovery Database Storage Group. Within this group you can now mount your restored database and use the Exmerge utility to move the recovered mailbox data from the Recovery Storage Group to the regular storage group. Using this method, you can recover a whole database or just a single mailbox. Every mailbox that is connected to the Recovery Storage Group is disconnected and therefore not accessible to users with mail clients.

Before you can run Exmerge.exe successfully you have to grant the appropriate user permission to be able to open the store. In general nobody is able to open storage than his own. Microsoft recommends creating a new security group for it, adding the logon account to this group and then granting this group permission on the database object in Exchange System Manager. Another “quick and dirty” way to grant permissions to the appropriate group is to put them into the security group “Exchange Domain Server”. This will grant the account the permission, too.

Figure 4: Using the Recovery Storage Group

If you have successfully created the Recovery Storage Group you’ll have to complete some final steps before starting the recovery procedure. These steps are defining the path for transaction logs and system files and then adding the database to be recovered to the Recovery Storage Group by using the context menu.

Afterwards you can start your backup and restore application and choose the database to be restored. After the restore is complete, you can hopefully mount this store successfully. With this procedure you are prepared to start the Microsoft Exchange Mailbox Merge Wizard (better known as Exmerge).

After having started Exmerge.exe from command prompt just follow the instructions within the wizard to specify the export method, source and destination server. If the Recovery Storage Group is on the same Exchange server as the online database, this might be a single server. You should then choose the appropriate mailbox to be recovered and choose a temporary folder for log files. The wizard then copies the data from the mailbox into the recovery database and merges it with the corresponding mailboxes in the original storage. After this procedure is completed you can successfully use the recovered mailbox within your MAPI application.

Final conclusion

With the Exchange Server 2003 newly created Mailbox Recovery Center and the possibility to create your own Recovery Storage Group every Exchange administrator will have two more great features to easily recover lost or orphaned mailboxes within your organization. The Recovery Storage Group can successfully connect to Exchange 2000 databases, if SP3 is being applied to the Exchange 2000 Server. That means you can use these tools within a mixed environment, too.

In general these features provide a way to choose the Microsoft provided ways and tools to provide a successful plan for disaster recovery without having to buy 3^rd party tools for “brick-level” backups which would enlarge the backup schedules during the night enormously.

Disaster Recovery

Utopia, Utopia, Where art thou?

Try as hard as we may, we will never be able to achieve the Utopian ideal of never having a disaster come our way. Since we are firmly entrenched in the real world, it makes good sense then to understand the disaster recovery process as it applies to Exchange 2000 Server and what needs to be done before the disaster strikes—the most important part of disaster recovery planning. A good plan for Exchange 200 Server disaster recovery revolves around and is intertwined with a good plan for disaster recovery for your Windows 2000 servers. We will explore the process and the relative levels of disaster recovery in the following sections.

The Rule of the Seven P’s

It some circles, the rule of the seven P’s rules supreme. For those of you who don’t know what the rule says…it goes like this: Proper Prior Planning Prevents Piss Poor Performance. I think the early coders had their own take on this rule when they came up with GIGO: Garbage In = Garbage Out. Either way you want to look at, the same moral holds true. In order to prevent disaster from becoming a truly disastrous event, planning and preparation must be done ahead of time. Little good does it do to try to recover after a disaster with an ill prepared plan.

The first part of disaster recovery preparation is putting a solid backup plan into place for your network. This actually goes beyond preparing for Exchange 2000 Server disaster recovery—if the entire Windows 2000 network is up in flames, the Exchange 2000 Server portion of it will matter little. You will find, however, that it is a lot easier and well documented how to recover the Widows 2000 implementation, especially if you still have at least one Domain Controller on the line functioning normally.

Your backup plan should include a well documented and easily implemented solution that produces routine backups (something such as Normal, Differential, Differential, Differential, Differential). Unfortunately, simply making the backups as planned will not provide you much in the way of disaster recovery if your entire building goes up in flames over night (I know you were wishing for that….). You should take steps to get the media stored off site in a secure fire-proof, water-proof storage location. Many companies exist solely for this purpose and will schedule media pickup and delivery, which will also keep you squared away in regards to media rotation.

Forty Days and Forty Nights

Should disaster strike, you should be well prepared for the recovery process if you have taken the steps required ahead of time. Of course, when it comes time to play magic man and get the network up and running again, you will need more than just your backup media. The following is a short (very short) list of things I would recommend to keep on hand in the event this sort of catastrophic disaster should find its way into your world:

• Replacement hardware that is identical to the original hardware.
• Software setup CD-ROMs; for Windows 2000 Server and Exchange 2000 Server plus any other applications your network requires.
• New routers, firewalls, WAN circuits and other network hardware devices as required for reconnecting your network.
• Good Internet connectivity if you plan on restoring the capability for sending mail across your firewall.
• Time, lots and lots and lots and lots of time—get the picture?

You have a couple of different levels of disaster recovery that are supported in Exchange 2000 Server. You can perform the following:

• Recovering an entire Exchange 2000 Server implementation
• Recovering a single Exchange 2000 Server
• Recovering individual Exchange 2000 Server databases
• Recovering mailboxes of deleted users

Now, let me clarify a little bit here…the first two items in the list above are truly disaster recovery situations that will require the full disaster recovery process as we will discuss in the next situation. The last two items in the list above are much simpler recovery actions, will require only minutes of your time and will not be discussed in this article.

The Heat Is On

When the day comes that you have to put your disaster recovery plan into action, you will find that the process is fairly simple conceptually, but can be much more difficult when it comes to actually executing it. Exchange 2000 Server provides a means within itself to help restore a system or server, but this must be done after rebuilding the Windows 2000 server itself. The basic process to perform a disaster recovery is outlined in the following steps:

1. Reinstall Windows 2000 Server on the computer, taking care to ensure that the following items are observed:
   
   1. Install the same version of Windows 2000 that you had installed on the server previously: Server, Advanced Server or Datacenter Server.
   2. Install Windows 2000 to the same volume and path as it was installed during the previous installation.
   3. Configure the server with the same name as during the previous installation.
   4. Configure the installation to have all of the components installed in the previous installation.
   5. Install Windows 2000 as a stand-alone server; do not join the server to a domain during Windows 2000 installation or thereafter.
2. Restore the system volume to the new server using NTBACKUP as follows:
   
   1. Launch the Backup utility by clicking Start > Programs > Accessories > System Tools >Backup.
   2. Click the Restore Wizard icon to start the restoration.
   3. Click Next on the Welcome to the Restore Wizard window to continue.
   4. From on the What to Restore window, choose the media and the backup set from within that group that you want to restore. If you do not see the media you want to restore from, click Import Mediato open a new window enabling you to browse to the media you wish to work with. Select the files within the group to be restored. Click Next to continue after making all of your selections.
   5. On the Completing the Restore Wizard screen, you can review the settings that you have supplied. If all settings are acceptable, click Next to continue. If the settings are not acceptable, click Advancedto configure advanced restoration options.
   6. On the Where to Restore window, you will need to decide the location to which the restored files will be copied. In this case (assuming that all volumes and paths have been created properly), you need to choose Original Location and click Next.
   7. On the How to Restore screen you will need to specify what to do if the restore process detects a file in the restore location that is the same as a file trying to be restored. In this situation, I prefer to select Always replace the file on disk, but you can make your selection according to your preferences. When you have made your selection, click Next to continue.
   8. On the Advanced Restore Options window, select which special options you want applied to your restoration and click Next to continue. If you want additional information on the advanced options, search Windows 2000 Server online help for “To set advanced backup options”.
   9. Click Finish on the Completing the Restore Wizard window to begin restoring the selected files.
   10. Click Close to finish the process when the restore completes.
3. Restore the system state to the new server using NTBACKUP by following the same procedure as for the system volume, but this time selecting the System State data to be restored.
4. Run Exchange 2000 Server setup in Disaster Recovery mode as follows:
   
   1. From a command prompt, launch the Exchange 2000 Server Installation Wizard in Disaster Recovery mode by entering X:\Setup\I386\Setup.exe /DisasterRecovery, where X is the location of the Exchange 2000 Server setup CD-ROM. 
   2. The window as shown in Figure 1 will open and you can then proceed to install Exchange 2000 Server as you normally would. Remember that you must select every component that was originally installed on the computer to the action Disaster Recovery. If originally installed components are not selected for Disaster Recovery, then you must manually select them.

Figure 1 – The Exchange 2000 Server Installation Wizard in Disaster Recovery mode.

3. An important note if you are trying to accomplish this procedure by using the Exchange 2000 Server online help files—The directions provided are wrong in that you are directed to use the following command to perform the Disaster Recovery installation: X:\Setup\I386\Setup\DisasterRecovery. As you can obviously see, this will not provide the desired result.
5. Restore the your Exchange 2000 Server databases using NTBACKUP by following the same procedure as for the system volume, but this time selecting the media and group that contains your Exchange 2000 Server databases. The following amplifying instructions apply to restoring databases. For more information, see the “Prepare to Restore Information” topic in the Exchange 2000 Server online help.
   
   1. Verify that the Exchange Server services are running on the server in question (a departure from previous versions of Exchange Server). See the “Monitor Services Used by Exchange” topic in the Exchange 2000 Server online help for more information on this.
   2. Dismount the databases to be restored. See the “Dismount an Information Store” topic in the Exchange 2000 Server online help for more information on this action.
   3. Select the media and databases to be restored. Click Start Restore to continue. Figure 2 shows this step of the process.

Figure 2 – Preparing to restore the Exchange 2000 Server databases.

4. On the Restoring Database Store window (shown in Figure 3), specify a directory to store the log and patch files during the restore in the Temporary location for log and patch files. Be careful to ensure that the specified location has enough disk space to store the files. DO NOT specify the Temporary location directory to be same as the original location of the database of log files, or the restore process will not work.

Figure 3 – Selecting a temporary location for the log and patch files.

5. If you are restoring a full backup without any incremental backups, select Last Backup Set to start log file replay after restoring the database. If you are restoring a backup with incremental backups, do not select this option until you are restoring the last incremental backup.
6. If you want the database to be mounted as soon as the restoration process is complete, select the Mount Database After Restore option.
7. To begin restoring the database, click OK.
6. You’re done—finally! Time to test and deploy your newly restored Exchange 2000 Server implementation. However, if you are running the Key Management Server, the Site Replication Service or participating in an Exchange 2000 Server cluster you will have additional work left to complete. I will discuss these scenarios in a separate article.

The process to restore a single server is the same as the aforementioned procedure for restoring an entire Exchange 2000 Server system. The only difference is that you will only be working with one specific server, and thus you will choose your restoration options accordingly.

Wrap-up

You may have noticed that you have to go through three restoration steps in this process: restoring the System Volume, restoring the System State and restoring the Exchange 2000 Server databases. If you try to restore system data and Exchange data, you will receive the warning dialog box as shown in Figure 4.

Figure 4 – Error when attempting to restore system data and Exchange data at the same time.

The NTBACKUP utility that ships with Windows 2000 is replaced by an updated version during the installation of Exchange 2000 Server. This updated version allows for online backups of the Exchange 2000 Server files.

Although no amount of preparation can prevent disaster from striking, you can take steps to minimize the impact of such a disaster when one occurs. Even though the process to get your network up and running again smoothly could take days or even a week or two, it’s still a better solution than having nothing at all to fall back on. Always remember the rule of the seven P’s and you will be in a much better position when the dreaded day comes to be.

Recovering a Failed Exchange 2003 Member Server Using the Disaster Recovery Switch

What could be worse than facing a seriously corrupted mailbox store? Yes you guessed right – facing a completely dead Exchange Server. In this article I’ll shine some light on the steps necessary in order to restore an Exchange 2003 Member Server, that has experienced a major hardware failure causing a complete loss of data.

Introduction

In order to restore a failed Exchange 2003 Server, you can install a “new” one using the /DisasterRecovery switch, but there are several steps to it, and they need to be performed in the correct order. As I haven’t seen an easily digestive article covering this subject, I thought it was about time to write one.

NoteIf you’re the type of Exchange Admin who wants all the details, I suggest you start reading some of the splendid disaster recovery guides available at the Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 Technical Documentation Library. There are also some good guides in the Microsoft Exchange Server 2000 Technical Documentation Library where much of the content also applies to Exchange Server 2003, so that’s definitely worth checking out too.

Making a Copy of the Database and Log files

Depending on the seriousness of the hardware crash and the time available for the restore, I highly recommend you try to make a copy of any accessible database and transaction log files from the server (these are good to have in hand should the databases we restore from backup later on fail), but of course this is only possible if the hard disks containing these files are in a useable state.

NoteBefore you can bring the Exchange Server to the state it was in just before the disaster occurred, you would need a copy of the most recent log files.

Installing the New Exchange Server

Server HardwareWhen you have received a replacement server or replacements for the failed hardware components, it’s important you configure and partition the disks in the new server, so they are identical to the way they were configured in the old one.

Operating SystemWe can now install the operating system from the Windows 2003 Server media, also remember to install the Windows Components required by Exchange Server 2003 that is ASP.NET, NNTP, SMTP and the World Wide Web Service. After installing the Windows components we’re ready to apply any Windows 2003 Server Service Pack(s) and post-service pack HotFixes that were installed on the old server.

It’s perfectly fine to give the new server the old server’s NetBIOS name and IP address etc. during the installation, but don’t make the server a member of the domain just yet, instead install it into a workgroup. As the Exchange Server 2003 computer account still exists in Active Directory, we need to reset it before we can make the new Server a member of the domain. This is done by logging on to one of your Domain Controllers (or from any other server or workstation that’s got the Windows 2003 Server Adminpak installed) and opening the Active Directory Users and Computers (ADUC) MMC snap-in, here you drill down and select the Computers container where you right-click the Exchange Server object in the right pane and select Reset Account as shown in Figure 1 below.

Figure 1: Resetting the Computer Account in Active Directory

Click Yes as in Figure 2, then click OK.

Figure 2: Accepting Resetting the Computer Account

When the Computer Account has been reset you can add the “new” Exchange Server to the Active Directory domain by right-clicking My Computer and selecting Properties then clicking Computer Name > Change and specify the Active Directory domain as shown in Figure 3.

Figure 3: Adding the new Exchange Server to the AD domain using the same name

Click OK and specify an account with the permissions necessary to add the computer to the domain, then click OKtwice and let the computer reboot. When the computer has rebooted you should logon using an account with the permissions required in order to install Exchange.

Installing Exchange Using the Disaster Recovery Switch

Now that Windows 2003 Server has been configured and prepared, we can move on and start installing Exchange Server 2003 using the /DisasterRecovery switch.

NoteThe reason why we install Exchange 2003 Server using the /DisasterRecovery switch is because the configuration information for the Exchange Server still lives in Active Directory. Installing Exchange 2003 Server using the/DisasterRecovery switch will add all necessary Exchange binaries to the server, as well as restore the default Exchange registry settings and re-register the necessary DLL files etc. without touching the configuration information still held in Active Directory.

To get going, insert the Exchange Server 2003 media then click Start > Run and type:

:\Setup\I386\Setup.exe /DisasterRecovery

Where drive is the CD-ROM drive or a mapped drive to a share containing the Exchange 2003 Server binaries. SeeFigure 4 below.

Figure 4: Running Exchange Server 2003 Setup with the Disaster Recovery Switch

Click Next > Accept the License Agreement then click Next one more time. We will now be presented with the Exchange Components screen shown in Figure 5 below.

Figure 5: Exchange Server 2003 Component Selection

It’s important you specify the same Install Path as the Exchange binaries was installed in on the old server, when you have done so click Next. The Exchange Server 2003 Installation Wizard will now install Exchange in Disaster Recovery mode, see Figure 6 below.

Figure 6: Exchange Server 2003 Installation Wizard Running in Disaster Recovery Mode

Just before the Post-installation kicks off you will get the dialog box shown in Figure 7, it reminds you that the Exchange databases need to be restored from backup after the installation of Exchange Server 2003 in Disaster Recovery mode has completed. Click OK and let the installation finish.

Figure 7: Information Box Reminding You to Restore the databases from Backup

Click Finish.

Figure 8: Completing the Microsoft Exchange Wizard

We now have to install any Exchange 2003 Service Packs that had been applied to the old server, and it’s important that the Service Pack is applied using the /DisasterRecovery switch just like the case with the Exchange Server installation. Similar to the installation of Exchange server this is done by clicking Start > Run and typing:

:\E2K3SP1\Setup\Update.exe /DisasterRecovery

Where drive is the CD-ROM drive or drive mapped to the share containing the Exchange Server 2003 Service Pack 1 binaries.

NoteIf installing Exchange Server 2003 Service Pack 1 on a Windows 2003 Server without Service Pack 1 applied, you should apply the HotFix mentioned in MS KB article: 831464 - FIX: IIS 6.0 compression corruption causes access violations prior to installing Exchange Server 2003 Service Pack 1.

Figure 9: Applying Exchange Server 2003 Service Pack 1 using the Disaster Recovery Switch

Click OK then Next. Accept the Agreement and click Next. Verify the Install Path (Figure 10) then click Next.

Figure 10: Exchange Server 2003 Service Pack 1 Component Selection

NoteWe will again be reminded that we have to restore the databases from backup after the Installation Wizard finishes off.

Click OK and Finish when the installation has completed, but don’t reboot the server just yet.

Restoring the Exchange Databases

We can now begin restoring the Mailbox and Public Folder Stores from backup, in this article we use NT Backup, you should of course use the backup solution implemented in your Exchange messaging environment.

Before we do anything else let’s open the Exchange System Manager and drill down and expand the Mailbox and Public Folder Stores. Because we installed Exchange Server 2003 using the /DisasterRecovery switch, they should be in a dismounted state, which is also the case in Figure 11 below.

Figure 11: Dismounted Stores in the Exchange System Manager

NoteIf you managed to take a copy of the Exchange databases and log files from the old server, now is the time to bring them back to their respective location(s) on the new server and have them mounted. Depending on the state of the stores, you may have to repair them before they can be mounted.

Now start NT Backup by clicking Start > Run and type NTBackup then click the Restore and Manage Media tab. In order to restore the databases from backup right-click File in the left pane and select Catalog, then click Browseand locate the .BKF file or media containing the data that is to be restored. When it has been opened expand theCatalog then select the respective Mailbox and Public folder stores as shown in Figure 12.

Figure 12: Selecting the Mailbox and Public Folder Stores that are to be Restored

Click Start Restore. The box shown in Figure 13 will appear, here the server should already be specified in theRestore To: field, if not do so now. In the Temporary location for log and patch files: specify a temp folder such as the one in Figure 13. Make sure to enable the Last Restore Set (Log file reply will start after this restore completes.) checkbox if there are no additional log files to restore. Select the Mount Database After Restorecheckbox depending on whether you want the stores to mount automatically after the restore.

NoteThere’s one important thing to have in mind when restoring one or more Mailbox Store(s) from backup after installing a new Exchange Server using the /DisasterRecovery switch, and that is if an Exchange Recovery Storage Group exists when doing the restore, all stores will be redirected to the Recovery Storage Group. This will make the restore job fail and an Event ID Error 9635 will be thrown to the Application log. In order to resolve this problem delete the Recovery Storage Group prior to doing the restore. If you for some reason don’t want to delete the Recovery Storage Group, you can add a DWORD value named Recovery SG Override under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \System\CurrentControlSet\Services\MSExchangeIS\ParametersSystem. Make sure you enable it by specifying 1 in the Value Data box.

Click OK and let the restore job complete.

Figure 13: Specifying the Server and Temp location of the Log files

Click Close.

Figure 14: The Restore is Complete

Now open the Exchange System Manager one more time and verify all Mailbox and Public Folder Stores have been mounted, if not mount them manually. When all the Stores have been mounted make sure you can see the mailboxes in the Mailboxes container under each Mailbox Store. Also verify all Public Folders are listed under in the Public Folder tree. If things show up as expected try to logon to a Mailbox and verify Mail flow, if successful we can call the restore a success – congratulations

About Henrik Walther

Henrik Walther is a Microsoft Exchange MVP, MCA: Messaging (Exchange Ranger) Apprentice, MCITP: Exchange 2007, MCTS: Windows 2008, and MCSE: M+S that works as a Technology Architect forTimengo Consulting A/S, a Microsoft Gold Partner based in Denmark. You can visit his website at: www.exchange-faq.dk (danish).

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