Exchange Server 2007: Design and Deploy Disaster Recovery Settings - Implement Database Portability

Problem : If you need to restore a database, can you restore it to another server? What is database portability and how can you use it? Do you have to use a backup/recovery solution?

Solution : You can restore any mailbox database to any server within the same organization. This is a new aspect to database recovery, which only allowed a database to be restored to a recovery storage group or a server with the same name as the original server or from another server within the same administrative group.

How does it work? You might have a situation where a database is up and running just fine on a server and you simply want to move the database, or you need to perform an upgrade maintenance on the server and decide to move the database to another server. This can be handled without using backup/recovery software.

If you have a system crash and you don’t want to wait until the server is up and running again to restore your backup of the database, you can restore it to another server in your organization. In that case, you need backup/recovery software.

Let’s review both.

Relocate a Database

To relocate a database, we dismount the database we want to move and then, on the relocation server, we configure the storage group and database for the move.

Note

Before you begin this procedure you will want to make sure your database is in a Clean Shutdown state. You can type ESEUTIL /R <Enn> to commit uncommitted log files and ensure a clean starting point. Note: Enn is the log prefix for the storage group you are performing the clean shutdown on. If you are unsure what that is, you can type Get-StorageGroup ServerName\StorageGroupName | fl LogFilePrefix in the EMS.

To relocate a database, perform the following steps:

1.	Open the EMC.
2.	From the Navigation Tree, expand the Server Configuration work center and click Mailbox.
3.	Locate the server from the Results pane and select it.
4.	From the Work pane, select the Storage Group and the Database you want to move.
5.	From the Actions pane, select Dismount Database. PS Note A much easier and faster way to dismount a database is with the EMS by typing dismount-database “ServerName\StorageGroupName\DatabaseName”.
6.	Now, select the server where you want to move the database.
7.	Create a new storage group that has the same name as the source storage group.
8.	Create a new database with the same name as the source database. (Note: Do not mount the database.)
9.	Select the new database and then Properties from the Actions pane.
10.	On the General tab, select the option This Database Can Be Overwritten by a Restore.
11.	Move over all the database files (.edb, log, and catalog files) to the new database folder location.
12.	Now you can mount the database through the EMC. Although through the EMS, you simply type mount-database DatabaseName.
13.	You need to modify the mailbox configuration to know that the accounts point to a new server. To move these in the EMS, type the following: Get-Mailbox -Database <SourceDatabase> |where {$_.ObjectClass -NotMatch '(SystemAttendantMailbox|ExOleDbSystemMailbox)'}| Move-Mailbox -ConfigurationOnly - TargetDatabase <TargetDatabase>

Modifying the user account settings through the Move-Mailbox cmdlet should work for your Outlook 2007 and OWA clients, who will be redirected through the Autodiscover service.

Restore a Database to a New Server

Keep in mind that this requires backup/recovery software (either NTBackup in Server 2003 or some other third-party solution, or a third-party solution in Server 2008).

If you need to perform a restoration from backup to a new server, perform the following:

1.	Open the EMC.
2.	From the Navigation Tree, expand the Server Configuration work center and click Mailbox.
3.	Select the server where you want to restore the database to from the Results pane.
4.	From the Work pane, create a new storage group with the same name as the source (original) storage group.
5.	Next, create a new database with the same name as the source (original) database. Do not mount the new database.
6.	Select the new database and from the Actions pane, select Properties.
7.	On the General tab, select the option This Database Can Be Overwritten by a Restore.
8.	At this point, on the physical server where you are attempting to restore the database, click Start, Run, and then type ntbackup.exe.
9.	Choose Advanced Mode.
10.	Select the Restore and Manage Media tab.
11.	Select the Storage Group or database you want to restore.
12.	Click Start Restore.
13.	The Restoring Database Store dialog displays, as shown in Figure 1. Figure 1. Restoring a database to a different server.
14.	Make sure the Restore To field has the target server’s name. If it doesn’t, you can type it or click Browse to locate the server.
15.	Type a path for the temporary location for log and patch files.
16.	Select the checkbox Last Restore Set (Log File Replay Will Start After This Restore Completes). You can also select the Mount Database After Restore checkbox if you like, or you can mount afterward.
17.	Select OK.