Using the Recovery Storage Group in Exchange Server 2007
When an administrator wants
to recover a mail message, a calendar appointment, a contact, a folder,
or entire user mailboxes, Exchange Server 2007 has a recovery storage
group function and wizard that provides a recovery mechanism. Prior to
Exchange 2003, if an administrator wanted to recover a mailbox or
information, the administrator would have to build a brand-new Exchange
server with the exact same server name in the lab and then restore a
database to the lab server. After the restore, the administrator could
run the ExMerge utility to export the desired mailbox or information,
and then transfer the information to the production server and ExMerge
the information back into the production server.
The recovery storage group
in Exchange Server 2007 facilitates the restore of any database,
including an Exchange 2000 SP3 or higher database from any server in the
Exchange organization. So, an Exchange database can be restored to the
recovery storage group, and then information can be extracted without
ever having to bring up another server or shut down the production
server. The Disaster Recovery Management (DRM) tool makes this process
even easier by intelligently offering alternate options to the
administrator. DRM even goes as far as to offer to create a dial-tone
recovery storage group for rapid restoration of send and receive
functionality.
Recovering Data with a Recovery Storage Group
A recovery storage group is created on any Exchange Server 2007 system. To create a recovery storage group, do the following:
1. | Launch the Exchange Management Console.
|
2. | Click the Toolbox and double-click Database Recovery Management.
Note
The server that will
host the recovery storage group must have enough disk space to allow for
the full restore of the database that will be hosted on the system.
|
3. | Click Go to Welcome screen.
|
4. | Enter a label to identify your activity. Enter the server and domain controller names, and click Next.
|
5. | Click Gather Database Information from AD.
|
6. | From the Manage Recovery Storage Group options, click Create a Recovery Storage Group.
|
7. | Choose the storage group that contains the database you plan to recover, and click Next.
|
8. | Click Create Recovery Storage Group.
|
9. | When the recovery storage group is created successfully, click Go Back to Task Center.
|
10. | Close the Task Center.
|
11. | From the Run command, run Ntbackup.
|
12. | The Backup or Restore Wizard launches; click Next.
|
13. | Choose restore files and settings, and click Next.
|
14. | Expand
the media and select the Information Store associated with the storage
group you selected when creating the recovery storage group. Click Next.
|
15. | On
the Restore To line, enter the name of the server that is hosting the
recovery storage group. For Temporary Location for Log and Patch Files,
choose a local directory with sufficient space. Check the Last Restore
Set check box. Click Next.
|
16. | Click the Advanced button.
|
17. | Choose to restore files to an alternate location. Browse to the directory created by the recovery storage group, and click Next.
|
18. | Leave the check in place for the Preserving Existing Volume Mount Points check box, and click Next.
|
19. | Click Finish and the restore will begin.
|
20. | When the files restore successfully, click Close and return to the Database Recovery Management tool.
|
21. | Choose Mount or Dismount Databases in the Recovery Storage Group.
|
22. | Check the box for the database you plan to mount, and click Mount Selected Database.
|
23. | Click Go Back to Task Center.
|
24. | Click Merge or Copy Mailbox Contents.
|
25. | Select the source database, and click Gather Merge information.
|
26. | In this scenario, do not check the box for Swap Database Configurations. That is used in dial-tone recovery. Click Next.
|
27. | If you do not need to do custom GUID matching, click Perform Pre-merge Tasks.
|
28. | Check the mailboxes you want to merge with the production mailboxes, and click Perform Merge Actions.
|
29. | When the merge is complete, close the Database Recovery Management tool. |
Recovering Internet Information Services
When Internet
Information Services (IIS) data is erased or the service is not
functioning as desired, restoring the configuration might be necessary.
To restore the IIS metabase data, perform the following steps:
1. | Log on to the desired IIS server using an account with local Administrator privileges.
|
2. | Click Start, Programs, Administrative Tools, Internet Information Services (IIS) to start the IIS Manager.
|
3. | Select the web server in the left pane.
|
4. | Select Action, All Tasks, Backup/Restore Configuration.
|
5. | A
listing of automatic backups that IIS has already performed appears on
the Configuration Backup/Restore page. Select the desired backup and
click the Restore button to perform a manual restore.
|
6. | A
pop-up window opens stating that all Internet services will be stopped
to restore the data and restarted afterward. Click Yes to begin the
restore.
|
7. | When the restore is complete, a confirmation pop-up window is displayed. Click OK to close this window.
|
8. | Click Close on the Configuration Backup/Restore page.
|
9. | Back
in the IIS Manager window, verify that the restore was successful,
close the window, and log off the server when you’re finished.
|
Backups are stored in %systemroot%\system32\Inetsrv\MetaBack, by default.
Recovering IIS Data and Logs
IIS web and FTP folders are stored in the C:\InetPub\ directory. The default location for the IIS logs is C:\Windows\system32\LogFiles. To recover the IIS website, FTP site, or IIS logs, restore the files using either shadow copy data or a backup/restore tool such as Ntbackup.exe.
Recovering the Cluster Service
Cluster nodes require
that special backup and restore procedures be followed to ensure a
successful recovery if a cluster failure is encountered. For detailed
information on backing up and restoring a cluster node, or use the Windows Server 2003 Help and Support tool.
Recovering Windows Server 2003 Domain Controllers
When a Windows Server 2003
domain controller fails, the administrator needs to either recover this
server or understand how to completely and properly remove this domain
controller from the domain. The following are some questions to
consider:
Did this domain controller host any of the domain or forest Flexible Single Master Operations (FSMO) roles?
Was this domain controller a global catalog (GC) server, and, if so, was it the only GC in a single Active Directory site?
If the server failed because of Active Directory corruption, has the corruption been replicated to other domain controllers?
Is this server a replication hub or bridgehead server for Active Directory site replication?
Using the preceding list
of questions, the administrator can decide how best to deal with the
failure. For example, if the failed domain controller hosted the PDC
emulator FSMO role, the server could be restored or the FSMO role could
be manually seized by a separate domain controller. If the domain
controller was the bridgehead server for Active Directory site
replication, recovering this server might make the most sense so that
the desired primary replication topology remains intact. The
administrator should recover a failed domain controller as any other
server would be recovered, restore the OS from an ASR restore, or build a
clean server, restore the System State, and perform subsequent restores
of local drive data as necessary.
