How To Restore Exchange 2010 Database To Recovery Database

In this tutorial, we’ll have look at how to restore Exchange 2010 database to recovery database with DPM (System Center Data Protection Manager). Microsoft System Center Data Protection Manager (DPM) was structured to provide specific protection for Windows environments and products, including Exchange Server. DPM shields the data for Exchange Server through disk-to-disk, disk-to-tape and disk-to-disk-to-tape data protection strategies.

For Exchange Server 2010, DPM supports the below mentioned types of recovery of mailbox databases:

• Recover The Database To Its Original Location: This includes process of overwriting the existing copy of the database.
• Recover The Database To An Alternate Database: Restoration is done on another database on Exchange Server.
• Recover To An Exchange Recovery Database: Create a Recovery Database and recover mailbox to this Exchange Recovery database and not to regular mailbox database.
• Recover To Network Location: Database will be copied to Network Folder.
• Copy To Tape: Database will be copied to Tape.

The most common and effective restore strategy used in DPM is to a recovery database. The section below will elaborate step-wise procedure to perform it. Let’s do a basic step-by-step process here.

Recover To An Exchange Recovery Database:

RDB also known as Exchange Recovery Database is created with a completely different purpose and hence it is different from other mailboxes. It is special database which allows you to mount restored mailbox database extracting data from it as a recovery operation. So, basic function of this Recovery Database is “Recovery”. When it comes to RDB, there are some restrictions over its usage. For example;

• RDB is strictly created using Exchange Management Shell otherwise it will not serve its purpose.
• Mails cannot be sent or from RDB as all client protocol access to it are blocked.
• Exchange Server 2010 will support only single RDB mounted at a time.
• RDB is only for recovery of Mailbox data and cannot be used for Public Folder data recovery.
• Copies of RDB cannot be created.
• RDB can be utilized as target for restoring but not for backup operations.

#Stage 1: Create an Exchange RDB for Restore

Creation of Exchange RDB is first stage of Exchange database recovery which can be done using Exchange PowerShell Management. You cannot use Exchange Management Console to restore data using this RDB. Follow the below mentioned steps to create RDB.

• Open Exchange Management Shell in Exchange Server 2010 server.
• When you have connected to it, run below mentioned command;

Where,

RDBName – Name of Recovery Database

ExchangeServerName – Name of Exchange Server where RCB will be created

• Location of RDB can be set using below mentioned command;

Note: Exchange Server on which you are creating RDB must have protection agent installed from the Data Protection Manager server from where you will be doing the restore. This is because, recovery can be done only to the servers with this agent installed.

How to Check Whether Mailbox Database is Created or Not?

In case of any confusions, you can check whether the database was created or not by running the below mentioned command to list all the mailbox databases available in Exchange organization.

You can see that RDB1 has been created. Let us check what appears on the Exchange Server side;

• If it is already open, click Refresh.
• Or, Open Exchange Management Console.
• Go to Organization Configuration.
• Mailbox
• By default RDB will appear as first item. It is dismounted and set to be overwritten.

• Select this RDB and right-click on it.
• Select “Properties” option. Its status will be shown as “Dismounted”.

• Go to Maintenance tab, it will show “This database can be overwritten by a restore” option checked.

#Stage 2: Restore Operation Using DPM Console

• Once you have checked the RDB, and its creation is confirmed, open Data Protection Manager Console and navigate to Recovery tab.
• Mailbox databases will be listed, choose the user’s mailbox you want to recover and find “User” and provide point of time as “Recovery Date & Time” to which you want to recover.
• With the User highlighted in Actions menu, right-click and select Recover.
• Recover Wizard will open where you have to confirm the details you provided to restore. Confirm details like; Time/Date Stamp and User Mailbox and click Next.

1. Recover Mailbox to an Exchange Server Database: Choose this option to restore to Exchange Server where RDB mailbox was created. It will let Exchange administrator to recover data from it.
2. Copy to a Network Folder: It will let Exchange administrator perform advance recovery options if required as the database and its log files are made available to network.
3. Copy to Tape: This option will copy files to tape which in turn can be moved to different location for recovery. In case of absence of any tape drive/libraries, this option is disabled.

For this method, choose first option i.e. “Recover Mailbox to an Exchange Server Database” and click Next.

Now you will get screen of Specify Destination which will ask for server and database name. Provide the server name which has DPM agent installed from DPM this server. Then, click Next.

• For Summary Page, check selections you made.
• As the restore procedure has been done on the DPM server, Exchange administrators can perform restore of mailbox from Exchange Management Shell.
• For restoration,use below mentioned command;

Where,

Username – Email Username of the User Mailbox Being Recovered

RDBName – Name of the Recovery Database

Now when you view the Exchange RDB, its status will appear to be mounted and will show “This database can be overwritten by a restore” option as un-checked.

Chances of Errors and Reasons Behind it:

Single RBD can be mounted at a time and to implement restoration overwrite flag should be set.Following error can generate in case one tries to perform recovery to the same RDB.

In case one tries to recover to another RDB2 while RDB1 was still mounted, following error will generate;

Once failed, Exchange RDB2 will go to dismounted state. To get back to square right-click and select dismount for all RDBs and make sure that the “This database can be overwritten by a restore” option is checked.

Conclusion:

Exchange Server database recovery is a challenge for every network administrator. Maintenance Exchange database and recovery of inaccessible databases using apt methods is necessary for smooth emailing experience. The above mentioned method describes how to create Exchange Recovery database and also illustrates the method of restoration using Data Protection Manager. It also highlights the restrictions of RDB usage and errors and reasons for these errors occurred while performing restoration. In case if user gets any type of problem while restoring database using RDB then question is put-up how to restore Exchange 2010 database in this circumstances I would suggest choose third party Exchange Recovery Software which helps to recover mailbox data from any version of Exchange server and restore it into Active Exchange server EDB or Outlook PST file format.

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Robin Thomas

Robin Thomas is a technical writer. He wrote plenty of articles or blogs regarding Exchange server mailbox corruption problem and share its precise solution on Google Plus, Twitter and Facebook.

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