Mastering Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 SP1

One of the nicest additions to Exchange 2003 was the recovery storage group feature; this feature allows an administrator to create the recovery storage group (RSG) and add existing mailbox databases the list of mailbox databases that can be restored to the RSG. When an Exchange-aware backup utility attempts to restore one of the databases in the RSG, the database is restored to the RSG rather than to the production location. This feature is also supported on Exchange 2007 Mailbox servers, but there is not a graphical user interface for creating the RSG and adding mailbox databases to it.

RSG management in the release-to-manufacturing version of Exchange 2007 is handled from within the EMS or from within the Exchange Database Recovery Management Wizard in the Toolbox work center. Here are some important points about RSGs to keep in mind:

• Restoring an RSG does not interfere with normal Exchange operations.

• An RSG can be restored to any Exchange 2007 Mailbox server, not just the server on which it originally existed.

• RSGs can be used to restore a mailbox from a previous backup so that a mailbox, folder, or item can be recovered.

• RSGs can be used to verify the integrity of backups without building a recovery system.

Preparing to Use a Recovery Storage Group

Before you use an RSG, there are a few things that you should consider or prepare. This includes ensuring that you have sufficient disk space and that you understand the limitations of the RSG.

You can create only one RSG on an Exchange 2007 Mailbox server. This RSG can contain Exchange 2007 mailbox databases from any storage group on any server in the entire organization, but at any one time an RSG can contain only mailbox databases from one original storage group. Exchange 2003 mailbox databases are not supported.

The Exchange 2007 Mailbox server on which you create the RSG must have a disk volume with sufficient disk space to support the database(s) to be restored and the transaction logs and to allow creation of temporary files that might be necessary during the restore. When you create the RSG, you must specify the path for the transaction logs and system files; these cannot be changed later.

A mailbox database that is restored to the RSG cannot be accessed by end users, from Outlook, or from Outlook Web Access. The mailbox data can be retrieved only by using the Restore-Mailbox cmdlet.

Databases in an RSG cannot be mounted automatically, they do not have online maintenance performed on them, message records management policies do not apply, neither LCR nor CCR applies to them, and they cannot be backed up.

Restoring a Mailbox Database to a Recovery Storage Group

Let's go through a sample recovery of a mailbox database using an RSG and the Exchange Database Recovery Management tool. In this example, a user has deleted something really important from their mailbox and they did so at 10:00 Tuesday morning. For whatever reason, we are unable to undelete the item. For this restore, we will use the previous night's (Monday's) full backup. We don't need the noon incremental backup since by that time the user had deleted the message. The LCR or CCR copies of the database would not do any good either because they are up-to-date copies of the production database. So we need to restore the Monday night backup to a recovery storage group.

The first step now is to create an RSG and put the mailbox database into it. While this can be done from the EMS, it is much simpler from the Exchange Database Recovery Management tool. From the Toolbox work center, we launch the Exchange Database Recovery Management tool and it will start through the Troubleshooting Assistant. Like most tools based on the Troubleshooting Assistant, we need to first go to the Welcome screen and provide a label to identify our activity, the Exchange server name, and a domain controller name.

The first screen that really tells us we are managing databases is the Select One of the following Tasks screen. Here we want to click on the Create a Recovery Storage Group link. From the Select the Storage Group to Link with the Recovery Storage Group, select the storage group that holds the database we want to restore. In this case, it will be the First Storage Group.

When we click Next, we are taken to the Create the Recovery Storage Group screen where we provide the name for the RSG as well as paths for the transaction logs, system path, and checkpoint file. We must click the Browse buttons to select a new location for the files, but for some reason, this screen does not show our intended paths When we're finished filling out this screen, we want to click the Create the Recovery Storage Group link.

On the Create the Recovery Storage Group Result screen, we can verify that the RSG has been created and the database named Mailbox Database has been assigned to this RSG.

From the Tasks Center screen of the Troubleshooting Assistant, we can manage the RSG and the databases we have restored. Figure 16.15 shows the Select One of the Following Tasks screen.

Figure 16.15: Recovery storage group management tasks

Before we can do anything else, though, we need to restore the database to the RSG. The good news now is that the procedure is exactly the same for restoring to the RSG as it is if you are restoring to the production location of the database. The backup software does not have to be told anything new. We select the database we want to restore, and since there is an RSG that holds that database, the Exchange information store service will automatically put the database in the RSG. This means that we do not need to interfere with the production database at all.

We could have accomplished all of these tasks from the EMS. First we would need to create a storage group whose type is an RSG. Here is a sample:

New-StorageGroup -Name "Recovery Storage Group" -Server HNLEX03 -LogFolderPath C:\RSG -SystemFolderPath C:\RSG -Recovery

Next we need to assign the mailbox store to the RSG we have just created. We use the database name of the production database that we are restoring:

New-MailboxDatabase -MailboxDatabaseToRecover "Mailbox Database" -StorageGroup "HNLEX03\Recovery Storage Group" -EDBFilePath C:\RSG

Next, we need to set this database so that we can allow the file to be restored. We would use this cmdlet:

Set-MailboxDatabase "HNLEX03\Recovery Storage Group\Mailbox Database" -AllowFileRestore

Finally, after we restore the mailbox database, we will need to mount it. The command to do that would be as follows:

Mount-Database "HNLEX03\Recovery Storage Group\Mailbox Database"

Recovering Information from a Recovery Storage Group

As we mentioned earlier, you cannot accesses an RSG from either Outlook or Outlook Web Access, so you need to use either the Recover-Mailbox EMS cmdlet or the Disaster Recovery Management tool. We restored the appropriate backup to the Exchange server and now we can use the Mount or Dismount Databases in the Recovery Storage Group selection shown previously in Figure 16.15.

Once the database is mounted, we can copy or merge data back into the user's mailbox. From the Select One of the Following Tasks screen, we choose the Merge or Copy Mailbox Contents link and on the next page click the Gather Merge Information link. On the Select Merge Options page, we click the Show Advanced Options link so that we can see more detailed information about mailbox matching, date range filters, subject filter, and the start and end filter dates. An example is shown in Figure 16.16.

Figure 16.16: Selecting merge options

Notice that if we select the Match All Source Mailboxes to a Destination Mailbox check box, we can specify the alias of a mailbox to which we want all of the data copied. This is useful if we don't want to merge the data back into the original mailbox. When we have made our selections on the Select Merge Options screen, the next step is to click the Perform Pre-Merge Tasks link.

The next screen is the Select Mailboxes to Copy or Merge screen. From here, we can select the mailboxes that were found in the recovery storage group whose data we want copied or merged in to the target mailbox. In this example, we will select the user that deleted the important message and absolutely has to get it back.

After selecting the mailboxes to merge or copy, we click the Perform Merge Actions link to start the merge.

We could also have accomplished the same thing with the Restore-Mailbox EMS cmdlet. Here is an example in which we are restoring a single mailbox and only items between 1/25/07 and 1/28/07. In this instance, we are restoring the data to a folder in the user's own mailbox, called Recovered Data:

[PS] D:\>Restore-Mailbox "Russ Kaufmann" -RSGDatabase "Recovery Storage Group\Mailbox Database" -StartDate "01/25/07" -EndDate "01/28/07" -TargetFolder "Recovered Data" -RSGMailbox "russ kaufmann" Confirm Are you sure you want to perform this action? Recovering mailbox content from the mailbox 'Russ Kaufmann' in the recovery database 'HNLEX03\Recovery Storage Group\Mailbox Database' into the mailbox for 'Russ Kaufmann (Russ.Kaufmann\commatsomorita.com)'. The operation can take a long time. [Y] Yes [A] Yes to All [N] No [L] No to All [S] Suspend [?] Help (default is "Y"):y Identity : volcanosurfboards.com/VolcanoSurfboards/ Russ Kaufmann DistinguishedName : CN=Russ Kaufmann, OU=VolcanoSurfboards,DC=volcanosurfboards,DC=com DisplayName : Russ Kaufmann Alias : Russ.Kaufmann LegacyExchangeDN : /o=Volcano Surfboards/ou=Exchange Administrative Group (FYDIBOHF23SPDLT)/cn=Recipients/cn=Russ.Kaufmann PrimarySmtpAddress : Russ.Kaufmann\commatsomorita.com SourceServer : HNLEX03.volcanosurfboards.com SourceDatabase : HNLEX03\Recovery Storage Group\Mailbox Database SourceGlobalCatalog : HNLDC01 SourceDomainController : TargetGlobalCatalog : HNLDC01 TargetDomainController : TargetMailbox : volcanosurfboards.com/VolcanoSurfboards/ Russ Kaufmann TargetServer : HNLEX03.volcanosurfboards.com TargetDatabase : HNLEX03\First Storage Group\Mailbox Database MailboxSize : 9868B IsResourceMailbox : False SIDUsedInMatch : SMTPProxies : SourceManager : SourceDirectReports : SourcePublicDelegates : SourcePublicDelegatesBL : SourceAltRecipient : SourceAltRecipientBL : SourceDeliverAndRedirect : MatchedTargetNTAccountDN : IsMatchedNTAccountMailboxEnabled : MatchedContactsDNList : TargetNTAccountDNToCreate : TargetManager : TargetDirectReports : TargetPublicDelegates : TargetPublicDelegatesBL : TargetAltRecipient : TargetAltRecipientBL : TargetDeliverAndRedirect : Options : Default SourceForestCredential : TargetForestCredential : TargetFolder : \Recovered Data\Recovered Data - Russ Kaufmann - 1/28/2007 10:02:34 PM RsgMailboxGuid : RsgMailboxLegacyExchangeDN : /0=VOLCANO SURFBOARDS/OU=EXCHANGE ADMINISTRATIVE GROUP (FYDIBOHF23SPDLT)/CN=RECIPIENTS/CN=RUSS.KAUFMANN RsgMailboxDisplayName : Russ Kaufmann RsgDatabaseGuid : MoveType : Restore MoveStage : Completed StartTime : 1/28/2007 10:02:39 PM EndTime : 1/28/2007 10:02:42 PM StatusCode : 0 StatusMessage : This mailbox in the recovery storage group database has been restored to the target usermailbox.

The result of this is that a folder is created in user Russ Kaufmann's mailbox that has everything from 1/25/07 through 1/28/07. This is shown in Figure 16.17. At this point, the help desk can now assist the user in copying back into the correct folder the very important message that got deleted.

Figure 16.17: The Recovered Data folder structure is created.