Restore Exchange Server Data

Restore and Recover Virtual Machines › Application Level Restores › Restore Exchange Server Data

Restore Exchange Server Data

You can perform application level restores of Microsoft Exchange Server data with the following:

Exchange Server 2003: Single Server Environment. Cluster Environment is not supported.
Exchange Server 2007: Single Server Environment, Local Continuous Replication (LCR), and Cluster Continuous Replication (CCR) environment. For Exchange Server 2007 CCR, install CA ARCserve D2D locally on both the active and passive nodes. You can perform backup operations from either the active or passive node, but you can perform restore operations only on the active node. Single Copy Cluster (SCC) is not supported.
Exchange Server 2010: Single Server Environment and Database Availability Group (DAG) environment. For a DAG environment, verify CA ARCserve D2D is installed on all servers in the DAG. You can perform backup operations from any server for both active and passive database copies, but restore operations can only be performed to an active database copy.

You can restore Microsoft Exchange Server data to the following levels:

Microsoft Exchange Writer Level: Restores all Exchange Server data.
Storage Group Level: Restores a specific Storage Group (does not apply to Microsoft Exchange Server 2010).
Mailbox Store Level: Restores a specific mailbox store (applies only to Microsoft Exchange Server 2003).
Mailbox Database Level: Restores a specific mailbox database (applies to Exchange Server 2007 and 2010).

Note: Before you begin, perform the necessary prerequisites in Application Level Restores.

Important! Microsoft Exchange Server granular restore is not supported from CA ARCserve Central Host-Based VM Backup backup sessions. To restore Microsoft Exchange Server data at a granular level, back up the Exchange Server data using CA ARCserve Central Protection Manager or CA ARCserve D2D.

To restore Exchange Server data

Verify that CA ARCserve D2D is installed on the guest operating system.
Log in to the guest operating system on the virtual machine where you want to restore Exchange Server data.
Start CA ARCserve D2D and then click Restore on the CA ARCserve D2D Navigation panel to open the Restore dialog.
Click Browse Recovery Points to open the Browse Recovery Points dialog.
In the Select backup location field on the Browse Recovery Points dialog, specify the path to the backup session on the Host-Based VM Backup virtual machine that you want to restore Exchange Server data from. The following path is an example of the path to the backup session on the Host-Based VM Backup virtual machine:
```
https://<server name>/<share name>/vm@<host name or IP address of the ESX Server system>
```
On the calendar, click a recovery point date and time.
Click Next to open the Restore Options dialog.
Select the destination for the restore.
The available options are to restore to the original location of the backup, restore the dump file only, or restore to a Recovery Storage Group/Recovery Mailbox Database.
Restore to original location

Restores to the original location from where the backup image was captured.

Dump file only

Restores the dump files only.

For this option, CA ARCserve D2D will restore the Microsoft Exchange database file to a specified folder, and will not bring it online after recovery. You can then move this file to a different server and mount it to exchange server manually to view data contained in it.

Note: When a Recovery Mailbox Database exists, restore with ‘Dump file only’ option will fail.

Replay log on database

Specifies that when the database files are dumped to the destination folder, you can replay and apply all Microsoft Exchange transaction log files and commit them to the database file. When the database next starts, and transaction log files that were not yet written to the database files are then applied before the database is again made available to you.

Note: This option is not applicable for Microsoft Exchange Server 2003

Restore to Recovery Storage Group (Exchange 2007)
Restores the database to a Recovery Storage Group (RSG).

An RSG is a storage group that can be used for recovery purposes. You can restore a Microsoft Exchange Mailbox Database from a backup in a Recovery Storage Group and then recover and extract data from it, without affecting the production database that is being accessed by end users.
- If single storage group or database (except a public folder database) from the same storage group are selected to restore, the default restore destination is "Restore to Recovery Storage Group" (or "Restore to Recovery Database").
- If multiple storage groups or databases from multiple storage groups are selected to restore, Exchange can only be restored to the original location or restore with "Dump file only" option. The default restore destination is "Restore to original location."
Before restoring an Exchange 2007 database to a Recovery Storage Group, you must create a Recovery Storage Group and Mailbox Database with the same name.

For example, if you want to restore MailboxDatabase1 from the First Storage Group to a Recovery Storage Group, you must create a Recovery Storage Group and add the database "MailboxDatabase1" to the Recovery Storage Group.

Note: This option is not applicable for Microsoft Exchange Server 2003
Dismount the database before restore and mount the database after restore
Typically before a restore, Microsoft Exchange will perform some checks to help ensure the following:
- The database to be restored is in "Dismounted" status.
- The database is not restored unexpectedly.
  To protect a Microsoft Exchange production database from being restored unexpectedly, a switch is added to allow the database to be overwritten during the restore process. Microsoft Exchange will refuse to restore a database if this switch is not set.
For CA ARCserve D2D, these two options are controlled by this "Dismount the database before restore and mount the database after restore" option. With this option, CA ARCserve D2D lets you launch the restore process automatically without any manual operations. (You can also specify to dismount/mount database manually).
- If checked, specifies that the recovery process will automatically dismount the Exchange database before the restore process and then mount the database after the restore process is completed. In addition, if checked, this option will also allow the Exchange database to be overwritten during the restore.
- If unchecked, specifies that the recovery process will not automatically dismount the Exchange database before recovery and mount the database after recovery.
  The Exchange administrator would have to perform some manual operations such as dismount the Exchange database, set the Allow Overwrite flag on the database, and mount the Exchange database. (The recovery procedure is performed by Exchange during the mounting of the database).
  
  In addition, if unchecked, this option does not allow the Exchange database to be overwritten during restore.
Restore to Recovery Database (Exchange 2010)

Restores the database to a Recovery Database. A Recovery Database is a database that can be used for recovery purposes. You can restore a Microsoft Exchange Mailbox Database from a backup to a Recovery Database and then recover and extract data from it, without affecting the production database that is being accessed by end users.

Before restoring an Exchange 2010 database to a Recovery Database, you must first create a Recovery Database.

Note: This option is not applicable for Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 and 2007.
Click Next to open the Restore Summary dialog.
Review the displayed information to verify that all the restore options and settings are correct.
- If the summary information is not correct, click Previous and go back to the applicable dialog to change the incorrect setting.
- If the summary information is correct, click Finish to launch the restore process.