Backup Exec 11d does not allow me to pick mailboxes!

You're not screwed - Brick Level backups are not a good thing to be doing.  As I recall, you need to have Outlook installed on the backup system or the Exchange server in order to do a brick level backup - but again, you shouldn't be doing this.  Learn how to use the recovery storage group in Exchange and this won't be an issue.

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa998782.aspx

Well since we paid for the application I would like to keep backup exec as my main backup source. I have noticed that on version 10 I was able to pick the mailboxes separately, so on version 11d it does not let me choose?

Thanks
jdff

I never said to NOT use Backup Exec - it will still backup the information store - just don't bother with the brick level - it's SLOW compared to the information and causes significant resource usage on Exchange when you do it.

Great, but now the question, what about if I have to restore just one mailbox? how can I pick the users mailbox?

Thanks
jdff

Did you even look at the link I provided?  If you downloaded the MS Word document, page 11 has the same type of summary information that this link does:
https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb123631.aspx

Excerpt from the above link:
---------------------------------------------------------
When You Can Use a Recovery Storage Group

Recovery storage groups were designed to aid in database recovery under the following conditions:

    * The logical information about the storage group and its mailboxes remains intact and unchanged in Microsoft® Active Directory® directory service.
    * In addition, you need to recover a single mailbox, a single database, or a group of databases in a single storage group. Recovery scenarios include:
          * Recovering deleted items that a user mistakenly purged from their mailbox.
---------------------------------------------------------

Just to be super clear...
if you have exchange 2003 sp1 or later, then the recovery group is a great and reliable way to mount a restore of your exchange database, and then work with a single or many mailboxes.  It is great because it relies on the single exchange info store backup.  So, your backup runs clean and easy.
The old brick-level method was actually a "hack" of sorts in which the various backup providers used MAPI to get at the mailboxes one at a time and sync/export the mailboxes.  It was slow, prone to failure and corruption, and complicated.  The Recovery Storage group is a great evolution to this whole process.  If you hit those links up and learn more so you are comfortable with it (and try it before you need to, so you know what to do when the need does aride) then you will find it to be great!
-tim

you have to make sure you have "restore individual mailboxes" ticked in the exchange settings of backup exec then you should be able to drill down the mailboxes and restore what ever you like.

Do as Network_Data_Support suggests - in the job, under the Exchange settings, check "Enable the restore of individual files and folders from Information Store backups". The next time the backup runs, you will be able to restore mailboxes by expanding the Information Store in the restore view.

Just some warnings. If you back up directly to tape, Backup Exec will restore the complete Information Store to a temporary path on the Backup Exec media server. Then it will extract and restore the message you wanted to restore from this file. So make sure you have a enough space on your media server.
When you back up directly to tape you will also not be able to restore individual public folder items.

Backup Exec 11d does not allow me to pick mailboxes!

I gave up using BE10d, it just kept crapping-out despite constant intervention! So recently I decided to try BE11d to regain the individual mailbox/item restore function (WHICH WE PAID FOR IN THE FIRST PLACE!!!).

Now BE11d wont even run a simple backup, hangs on 'Snapshot Processing'.

So my resolution, not to use BE11d (or any other Symantec products as they are all utter crap and 'support' is negligible or simply unintelligible).

Incidentally, BE11d has now just 'hung' on the SBS server despite being fully updated (it took three attempts to run Liveupdate!).

We dont care that 'Brick Level' is slow or clunky because we can understand it and use it quite easily when it is required (presuming the little fcuker actually works!)

So if anyone has any idea how we can 'brick level' backup/restore of exchange mailboxes without having to become an MVP in Exchange Server or have to battle with Symantec Support, us mere mortals would be interested to know?

It's called ExMerge - look into it.  But why are people always so hesitant to understand the proper way of doing things?  You think you're going to do a brick level backup with a 70 GB information store over night?  No... that's when you'll start doing it on the weekends only and end up losing valuable e-mail on Friday that you have no backup for because you didn't want to take the time and learn to do it right.

Best of luck to you - you're going to need it.

i have used 10 and 11d and have had no problems with it. you do realise that when you upgrade backup exec with patches you need to re push the agent!!

yes 11d had some issues at first like not restoring attachments properly on a brick level backup but that is all fixed now. i still have issues when restoring a whole database to a redundant server for disaster recovery purpose but have overcome that by running a non brick level backup that restores fine.

my only gripe with the brick level is it dont like to overwrite the IMG folders but i have been told this is a feature lol but can sort it out by making your backup to disk folder just a little size over the backup size but i dont think that is a good idea so i just delete manually.

I totally agree with wlewis123, the brick level is so easy to operate and restore individual mailboxes once needed.
So leew, you are saying that if you have to restore an individual mailbox we should do it using exchange recovery storage group and use Backupexec in case of a server disaster, right?

Leew, correct me if I'm wrong but the link below describes on how to restore a single mailbox?

http://www.msexchange.org/tutorials/ExMerge-Recover-Mailbox.html

Thanks
jdff

Yes, that's correct.  And it DOES NOT use a SLOW, resource intensive Brick Level Backup.

Great I got the idea, but the question is: how far back can i restore, I did not see a option for me to pick dates?

Thanks
jdff

Well thanks for that guys, I have read the aforementioned article and downloaded Exmerge.

All I have to now is read the 110 page "Using Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 Recovery Storage Groups", modify my Exchange server to add the Recovery Storage Group, retrieve 40Gb of Priv1.EDB & Priv1.STM from tape (good job we have plenty of space on the server disks!), THEN I can use the handy Exmerge utility to recover a users mailbox - so quick & simple really!

I think you will find my point and that of JDFF is we purchased Backup Exec to accomplish this task which for one reason or another does not work (with Backup Exec there are plenty of 'others').

Now I cannot actually remove BE from my server as the removal failed, ask me if I am surprised?

Again, how should I proceed if I want to go back a month ago and recovery a user's mailbox? do I have to restore the entire information store and them use Exmerge?

Thanks
jdff

Once I restore the store from the tape wont that overwrite my current RSG? Is there a way that I can restore as a duplicate or something like that? I never done it, thats why I'm asking!

Thanks
jdff

yes you are only allowed one RSG but why are you wanting to keep your old one?

I was confused but I think I got now, I'll try that out.

Not to call up a totally dead thread, but does the recovery storage group exist for a Windows 2003 Small Business Server?  I haven't been able to get a recovery store working in an SBS environment and wonder if it's because of the licensing restrictions placed on SBS.

If that's the case, and a recovery store is not available on the version of exchange included with SBS, what's a good way of ensuring easy restoration of a single mailbox without using the resource-hogging brick-level backup?

SBS 2003 supports the recovery storage group.
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=DF144AF6-BEE5-4B35-866A-557E25FE2BA1&displaylang=en

Thanks a lot, i'll be playing with that for a little while now...