Back in Part 2 of this series I demonstrated how to backup the Exchange Server 2007 Mailbox Server role, and then how to use that backup to restore an entire mailbox database in the event of a disaster.  In this part of the series I will demonstrate how to use that same backup to recover individual mailbox items.

Mailbox Item Recovery for Exchange Server 2007

The backup utility that is provided with Windows Server 2003 is capable of backing up and restoring entire mailbox databases for Exchange Server 2007.  However it is not natively capable of restoring an individual mailbox item (such as a single email) should the need arise.

Some third party Exchange backup products do provide this functionality however this comes at a cost.  Fortunately all they are doing is providing a simple interface for a built-in feature of Exchange Server 2007 to perform the restore.

For businesses on a budget or anyone who simply chooses to use the built-in backup utility for backing up their Exchange servers you can still recover individual items thanks to Recovery Storage Groups.

What is a Recovery Storage Group?

A Recovery Storage Group is an Exchange Server 2007 feature that allows the administrator to create an “invisible” storage group that can be used to restore a mailbox database and extract data from it without affecting the production database that is being accessed by end users.

The Recovery Storage Group is only used for restore and recovery operations.  It is never connected to by an end user using Outlook or other mail protocols, and the mailboxes contained within it are not associated with any Active Directory user accounts.

Restoring Mailbox Items using the Recovery Storage Group

In this example the user “John Smith” has deleted an email from the inbox that was received last week.  The Mailbox server is backed up every night and so the email administrator knows that the item is likely contained within one of the previous nights’ backups. Continue reading Exchange Server 2007 Backup and Recovery Part 5 – Recovering Individual Mailbox Items

In Part 1 of this series I discussed backup and recovery for each of the Exchange Server 2007 server roles and associated systems such as Active Directory.  In Part 2 I then described the process of backing up and recovering a Mailbox Server from the loss of a mailbox database.  In this part of the series I will demonstrate backup and recovery of the Hub Transport Server and Edge Transport Server roles.

Backing up Transport Servers

Unlike Mailbox Servers, the Hub Transport and Edge Transport roles do not require any special Exchange-aware backup software.  All of the necessary data for recovering a Transport server is contained within:

• Active Directory (for Hub Transport servers, but not Edge Transport servers)
• The Active Directory Application Mode (ADAM) database (for Edge Transport servers)
• The server’s file system
• The server’s System State

Hub Transport servers can be backed up using the built in Backup utility in Windows Server.  At the very least the backup should include the System State and the C:\Program Files\Microsoft\Exchange Server\TransportRoles location of the file system (and all sub directories).

Edge Transport servers are backed up in the same way as Hub Transport servers except for the Exchange Server configuration.  Because this is stored in ADAM it must first be cloned using the Export-EdgeConfig.ps1 script located in C:\Program Files\Microsoft\Exchange Server\Scripts.  Execute the script with the name of the file you wish to export to. Note this is a single command run on one line in the Exchange Management Shell.

export-edgeconfig.ps1 c:\edgeconfig.xml
 -key "abcdefghijklmnop"

It is recommended to either include this config file in your Edge Transport backups or use a path that is a shared folder on a remote server.

Recovering Hub Transport Servers

In this scenario the EXCHHUB server has been lost due to hardware failure.  Spare server hardware has been used to reinstall Windows Server 2003 along with the Exchange Server 2007 pre-requisites.  The newly built server has the same name and IP address of EXCHHUB.  Now we can begin the recovery of the Hub Transport server.
Continue reading Exchange Server 2007 Backup and Recovery Part 3 – Transport Servers

In Part 1 of this series I explored what needs to be backed up for each of the different Exchange Server 2007 server roles.  In this post I will demonstrate a Mailbox Server failure and the recovery of the mailbox database from backup.

Backing up the Databases

The first thing we’ll need is a backup of the databases on the Mailbox Server.  For this demonstration I am using the built in NTBackup program for Windows Server 2003 to back up both of the storage groups for the server.

Mailbox Server Failure

The next step is to cause a server failure.  In the real world a potential point of failure for Mailbox Servers is the storage.  Typically databases will be located on SAN volumes, and a storage failure will cause the database to go offline.  To simulate this I simply remove the database file from its path on the test server.

Restoring the Database

Before beginning the database restore operation we must first prepare the database for recovery.  Continue reading Exchange Server 2007 Backup and Recovery Part 2 – Mailbox Servers

Backup and archive. What’s the difference? Even people inside of IT sometimes see these two things as being the same, to the detriment of their organization. An article on Shortinfosec.net explains the difference well, and highlights the importance of including both backup and archiving in your IT infrastructure. Failing to make the distinction could cause you to choose an incorrect media, or have inadequate restore time relative to what your users need to do.

Right off the bat, the article gives an excellent example of a company undergoing an audit. After showing their backup system, they were asked about their archive, after which they pointed to their backup tapes–but the backup tapes were rotated every six months. Therefore, although the company had backup, they really had no archive. So what’s the difference? Backup is meant to create a copy of the current state, which can be used to restore a system, or a previously saved copy of a document, very quickly with a minimum of search requirement. An archive, on the other hand, is generally considered a historical reference that would be accessed less frequently. Backup and archive serve different purposes, and therefore may require different media. Continue reading The difference between backup and archive