asked on

Error when trying to recover single mailbox from RSG in Exchange 2003

Hi, I accidentally purged a disconnected mailbox out of my exchange mail store for a particlular user and can't get it back. I'm running a single exchange 2003 server with SP2 and have tried several different things to recover mailbox but can't.
1. Setup Recovery Storage Group and restored Exchange DB into RSG.
2. Created new mailbox for user in my mailstore that matches old mailbox as seen in RSG.
3. run recover "recover mailbox data" from RSG and use merge data option on selected user and receive error message.
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="unicode" ?>
- <taskWizardRun taskName="Recover Mailbox Data" dcName="MAIL" buildNumber="7638" runningAs="administrator@RSD15.REGION15.ORG">
<timespan startTime="2006-06-06 23:07:50.156" milliseconds="203" />
- <recoverMailbox>
- <destination>
<database>/dc=org/dc=region15/dc=rsd15/cn=Configuration/cn=Services/cn=Microsoft Exchange/cn=Region15/cn=Administrative Groups/cn=First Administrative Group/cn=Servers/cn=MAIL/cn=InformationStore/cn=First Storage Group/cn=Mailbox Store (MAIL)</database>
</destination>
</recoverMailbox>
<taskSummary errorCount="1" completedCount="0" warningCount="0" errorCode="0x00000000" />
- <items>
- <item adsPath="Caroline Quinn-Alger" class="user">
<progress code="0" milliseconds="203">Connecting to source server.</progress>
<summary isWarning="false" errorCode="0xc1050000">The attempt to log on to the Microsoft Exchange Server computer has failed. The MAPI provider failed. Microsoft Exchange Server Information Store ID no: 8004011d-0512-00000000</summary>
</item>
</items>
</taskWizardRun>

Also, ran exmerge against RSG data base and the user I'm looking for does not show in the list of boxes and receive error:

"Microsoft Exchange Mailbox Merge Program, v6.5.7529.0
Start Logging:June 06, 2006 23:33:32
****************************************************************
[23:33:32] Logging Level: None
[23:33:32] Reading settings from file 'D:\Program Files\Exchsrvr\bin\EXMERGE.INI'.
[23:33:32] Accessing Domain Controller 'MAIL'
[23:33:32] 'MAIL' is running Exchange Server 2000 or later
[23:33:32] Source server read from settings file is 'MAIL'.
[23:33:32] Reading list of subjects for messages to be selected from file ''
[23:33:32] Reading list of attachment names for messages to be selected from file ''
[23:33:32] List of folders to be ignored has been read. 0 folders in the list.
[23:33:32] Current machine locale ID is 0x409
[23:33:32] Operating System Version 5.2 (Build 3790)
[23:33:36] Accessing Domain Controller 'MAIL'
[23:33:36] 'MAIL' is running Exchange Server 2000 or later
[23:33:41] Mailbox '/O=REGION15/OU=FIRST ADMINISTRATIVE GROUP/CN=CONFIGURATION/CN=CONNECTIONS/CN=SMTP (MAIL)/CN={D530D19D-416C-440E-A838-8C4E9330CF9D}' will be ignored as its DN contains strings in the ignore list
[23:33:43] Mailbox '/o=Region15/ou=First Administrative Group/cn=Recipients/cn=SystemMailbox{D530D19D-416C-440E-A838-8C4E9330CF9D}' will be ignored as its DN contains strings in the ignore list
[23:33:44] Error! Cannot identify the user with the msExchMailboxGuid xP\2Bt\C0\7ERB\AE\B5\98\A7H\95\C7\2C. The legacyExchangeDN is /O=REGION15/OU=FIRST ADMINISTRATIVE GROUP/CN=RECIPIENTS/CN=CQUINN-ALGER.
[23:33:46] Mailbox '/O=REGION15/OU=FIRST ADMINISTRATIVE GROUP/CN=CONFIGURATION/CN=SERVERS/CN=MAIL/CN=MICROSOFT SYSTEM ATTENDANT' will be ignored as its DN contains strings in the ignore list
[23:33:49] Found 731 mailbox(es) homed on database 'RECOVERY STORAGE GROUP/MAILBOX STORE (MAIL)'.
[23:33:49] Skipped 1 mailbox(es) homed on database 'RECOVERY STORAGE GROUP/MAILBOX STORE (MAIL)' because of errors.
[23:33:49] Ignored 3 mailbox(es) homed on database 'RECOVERY STORAGE GROUP/MAILBOX STORE (MAIL)'.
[23:33:49] Found 731 mailbox(es) homed on the specified databases.
[23:33:49] Skipped 1 mailbox(es) homed on the specified databases because of errors.
[23:33:49] Ignored 3 mailbox(es) homed on the specified databases.

where the very user I need is stamped above with this error.
"[23:33:44] Error! Cannot identify the user with the msExchMailboxGuid xP\2Bt\C0\7ERB\AE\B5\98\A7H\95\C7\2C. The legacyExchangeDN is /O=REGION15/OU=FIRST ADMINISTRATIVE GROUP/CN=RECIPIENTS/CN=CQUINN-ALGER."

I've checked the send as receive as permissions for my admin account and enabled permission.

Nothing is working and I need to retreive this mailbox.

aa230002

Following is an extract from Microsoft Kb824126

"To use a Recovery Storage Group, the Active Directory topology of the Exchange Server 2003 computer must be intact and must be in the same state as when the copy of the database was made. This means that the mailbox or the mailboxes that you want to recover must not be deleted or purged from the system, or moved to a different database or to a different server
The first test that a mailbox must pass before you can recover data from the mailbox by using a Recovery Storage Group is that the mailbox GUID must correspond to a user in Active Directory.
The mailbox GUID is a unique value that distinguishes a mailbox from all others. The mailbox GUID is created in the mailbox store when the mailbox is created, and the value remains the same for the lifetime of the mailbox. The msExchMailboxGUID attribute uses the mailbox GUID value from the mailbox store. The msExchMailboxGUID attribute is set on the user who owns the mailbox when you link a mailbox to a user account in Active Directory. The Exmerge.exe tool uses the msExchMailboxGUID attribute to match the mailbox in the Recovery Storage Group with the original mailbox.
When you delete a mailbox, mailbox attributes are removed from the user object in Active Directory that previously owned the mailbox. As a result, you cannot use a Recovery Storage Group to recover a deleted mailbox"

How to use Recovery Storage Groups in Exchange Server 2003
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/824126/

How to recover or to restore a single mailbox in Exchange Server 2003
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/823176/en-us

The second article might help you..

RussSage

ASKER

Thanks for the articles. I've read both already and can;t see why users do not have the option of simply pulling mailbox data out of the recovery storage group into a pst. This to me is not an answer as it appears my only option is to install Exchange on another server, restore the database and get the data out of the mailbox on the second server. This is a tremendous amount of time and I can't see why Microsoft doesn't have an easier way for users to recover data for mailboxes that have been purged by accident or on purpose.
I was hoping that the second server intall to be my last resort.

aa230002

I am sorry to say, but yes you are right, you will have to go with the recovery server in this case and Recovery Storage Group wont help you. In case, you have the Active Directory backup and can restore that particular user back in AD with its msExchMailboxGUID, you can use Recovery Storage group.

Thanks,
Amit Aggarwal.

RussSage

ASKER

How do you restore just one user with an AD backup?

aa230002

When you deleted that user? is it within 2 months? if yes.
Please have a look at the section "How to manually undelete objects in a deleted object's container" in the below KB->

How to restore deleted user accounts and their group memberships in Active Directory
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/840001/en-us

There is one more KB ->
Viewing deleted objects in Active Directory
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=258310

Thanks,
Amit Aggarwal.

ppuro

What Amit said is perfectly right..

We can use one workaround as well which is actually not recommended from Microsoft...

By changing some attribute of RSG we can connect the particular mailbox to the user and then extract the data to PST using exmerge utility.

Here is the action plan :

If you have windows 2003 support tools installed, Go to ADSIEDIT.MSC

Configuration Container--Services--Exchange--Exchange Organization--Administrative Group--First Administrative Group--Servers--Server Name--Information Store--Right click Recovery Storage Group properties-- Look for the attribute msExchRestore.

Set this attribute to FALSE.Also go to the mailbox store properties under Recovery storage group and set the same attribute value to FALSE.

Mount the mailbox store in RSG.

Right click the required mailbox and reconnect it to the user if that user exists or you can connect it to any other user as well who did not have any mailbox.

Once the mailbox is connected use Exmerge to get the data in PST.

You can then merge this PST in newly created mailbox on production store.

Do let me know for any further clarifications...

ppuro

Make sure once you done with all this procedure ,Revert back the changes we made on RSG.

Regards,

Prasad

RussSage

ASKER

OK, tried these things too and the end result is that I got an error on the attempt to reconnect mailbox to a test user that says the mailbox is already connected to CN "old user". Thought I was good because I never deleted original user account anyway, just simply migrated the user to a different domain. So again, attempted to reconnect to original user and browse to new domain and OU of original user but on "check name" receive error that user is not found or name is misspelled. I've already tried migrating user back to original domain and OU but no luck there either.
Incidentally, I loaded new test server as second server in forest and organization. Could I restore original mail store with intact user mailbox to test server? How is this done? I'm using veritas 9.1 with exchange mod but unfortunately at the time of my last good backup for this user, I was only backing up entire store and not individual mailboxes because of storage room on tape. Just my luck.

ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION

ppuro

membership

This solution is only available to members.

To access this solution, you must be a member of Experts Exchange.

Start Free Trial

RussSage

ASKER

OK, this sort of worked. I removed ex attribs from user account, then I was able to connect that users box in RSG to my test user. I tried exmerge to extract PST against test user but it failed with error and it only extracted about 7 MB out of a 36MB box. So instead, I used the move mailbox feature to move mailbox out of RSG to production store. From here, I was able to login as test user to outlook. Then I was able to do full pst export. After I had PST, i removed exch attribs of test user and reconnected live user to their old mailbox. THen logged in with live user to outlook and imported PST!!! I spent about 30 hours on this! Lesson learned!
Thanks for your help.