Exchange 2007 Restore
Hi All. I need to know what steps to follow exactly if my Exchange 2007 Server had to fail but I have a snap / bare metal / image os the Server's OS (C: drive). Lets say the image was 3 weeks ago and server crashed today. OS corrupt or hardware failed. If I have another hardware and the image, what steps do I need to follow after retoring it so that my Exchange 2007 server works perfect without any issues...............
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Hi. We also use Symantec Backup Exec System Restore. The OS is windows server 2003. Can you confirm if I restore this image that was made 1 week earlier for the OS of Exchange 2007 with its mailbox DB, would it simply start working after the restore............
Restore from an image *might* work...but it's not for sure. With BackupExcec you should use the Exchange-Agent to get a definitely working backup!
Yes, I have tested BESR with a working exchange backup and restoring the image to a completely new hardware ;
As long as everything required for exchange and OS is imaged properly - it will work
You can always do a test restore on a test machine to your satisfaction
if you are using BESR ; don't forget to create your SRD disc (Symantec recovery disc with the storage drivers for your server)
As long as everything required for exchange and OS is imaged properly - it will work
You can always do a test restore on a test machine to your satisfaction
if you are using BESR ; don't forget to create your SRD disc (Symantec recovery disc with the storage drivers for your server)
Does the Exchange Database and Logs on the same drive ??
Always preferably have the users in Outlook cache mode !! - Good because even if the server crashes and tape is bad or you dont get the entire data we have the .OST file in outlook that can be converted to .PST file and can get the entire data for a user till the last time he Syncronised his Outlook with the Mailbox.
The best way to work is to get a VM Lab environment and get it restored and find how it would work, rather then some assumption.
Good if you have another DC and the AD information is alive you can just Install OS with the same Machine Name & IP address as before.
Join it to the domain and run the command
Setup /m:recoverserver with the same or higher version of Exchange (for e.g, you had Exchange 2007 SP1 so recover with SP1 or SP2 buut RTM would not work) - This would be very benificial as you would get most of your Old configuration back without going all over it again and again.
Always preferably have the users in Outlook cache mode !! - Good because even if the server crashes and tape is bad or you dont get the entire data we have the .OST file in outlook that can be converted to .PST file and can get the entire data for a user till the last time he Syncronised his Outlook with the Mailbox.
The best way to work is to get a VM Lab environment and get it restored and find how it would work, rather then some assumption.
Good if you have another DC and the AD information is alive you can just Install OS with the same Machine Name & IP address as before.
Join it to the domain and run the command
Setup /m:recoverserver with the same or higher version of Exchange (for e.g, you had Exchange 2007 SP1 so recover with SP1 or SP2 buut RTM would not work) - This would be very benificial as you would get most of your Old configuration back without going all over it again and again.
Are you also backing up Exchange with an Exchange-aware backup tool, so that the log files get flushed?
You shouldn't be doing just Image based backups ideally, you should also perform a backup so the log files are deleted once the data is commited to the Exchange database.
You could turn on circular logging to purge the log files in a loop, but this is NOT best practice in my opinion because it does not provide you with the maximum options when it comes to Exchange disaster recovery.
BESR is fine, but as an additional aid, not as a solitary backup.
Shaun
You shouldn't be doing just Image based backups ideally, you should also perform a backup so the log files are deleted once the data is commited to the Exchange database.
You could turn on circular logging to purge the log files in a loop, but this is NOT best practice in my opinion because it does not provide you with the maximum options when it comes to Exchange disaster recovery.
BESR is fine, but as an additional aid, not as a solitary backup.
Shaun
As i mentioned in my first post that we do besr for imaging and backup exec for data backup including exchange dbs etc which flushes the transaction logs as well for us and allows us to restore granular.
You can mount besr images as well but a proper backup (file backup) is always recommended.
You can mount besr images as well but a proper backup (file backup) is always recommended.
on win2k8 its really easy to make a bare-metal restore