Recovering from a Disaster in an Exchange Server 2010 Environment : Recovering Exchange Server Application and Exchange Server Data

To recover an Exchange server, there are several different ways of rebuilding the core Exchange server and restoring the Exchange Server data. The restoration of Exchange Server databases must be done to a server with the exact same server name as the original server from which the databases were backed up.

After the Active Directory and base Windows servers have been installed, the first process is installing or restoring the Exchange Server application software; the second process is installing the data files for Exchange Server.

Recovering Using Windows Server Backup in Windows 2008

When program and data files are corrupt or missing, or a previously backed-up copy is needed, the information can be restored using Windows Server Backup if a previous backup were performed using this utility. The following process should be followed:

1.	Log on to the server using an account that has at least the privileges to restore files and folders. Backup Operators and Local Administrator groups have this right, by default.
2.	Click Start, All Programs, Administrative Tools, Windows Server Backup.
3.	In the right pane, click Recovery Wizard.
4.	Choose the server for which to recover files and click Next.
5.	Select the backup from which you want to recover and click Next.
6.	When prompted to select a recovery type, choose Applications and click Next.
7.	Select Exchange as your application and click Next.
8.	When prompted to specify recovery options, choose to recover to another location. Click Browse to pick a location for the restored files. Click Next.
9.	Review the restore information and click Recover.
10.	When the restore is completed, click Close.

To recover items from the restored database, you need to create a recovery database. This process is a bit different from Exchange Server 2007 and is best performed via the Exchange Management Shell:

1.	Launch Exchange Management Shell.
2.	Create a recovery database by typing new-mailboxdatabase –Recovery <databaseIdParameter> -Server <StoreMailboxIdParameter>.
3.	To extract the data, use Restore-mailbox –Identity <MailboxIdParameter> -RecoveryDatabase <DatabaseIdParameter> -Recoverymailbox <StoraMailboxIdParameter>. The restore-mailbox commandlet can be used with switches to be more specific about the data being extracted. For example: Restore-Mailbox –Identity Andrew –RSGDatabase RecoveredDB –SubjectKeywords "Take over world" –IncludeFolders \Inbox, \Calendar, \SecretPlans Or for a bulk extraction, you could use the following: Get-Mailbox –Database AccountingDB | Restore-mailbox –RSGDatabase RecoveredAccountingDB This would allow you to extract information for all users in the AccountingDB from the restored copy of the Accounting DB.

Performing a Restore of Only Exchange Server Database Files

For environments that are not utilizing Database Availability Groups, situations might occur in which Exchange Server 2010 is still running properly but one or more databases might have become corrupted and cannot be fixed via the utilities. In these situations, you might need to restore from a backup and overwrite the existing database. To perform this task, follow these steps:

1.	Launch Exchange Management Console.
2.	Expand the Organization Configuration and click Mailbox.
3.	From the Database Management tab, right-click the database you want to restore and click Properties.
4.	On the Maintenance tab, check the box for This Database Can Be Overwritten by a Restore.
5.	Click OK.
6.	Click Start, All Programs, Administrative Tools, Windows Server Backup.
7.	In the right pane, click Recovery Wizard.
8.	Choose the server for which to recover files and click Next.
9.	Select the backup from which you want to recover and click Next.
10.	When prompted to select a recovery type, choose Applications and click Next.
11.	Select Exchange as your application and click Next.
12.	When prompted to specify recovery options, choose to recover to the original location. Click Next.
13.	Review the restore information and click Recover.
14.	When the restore is completed, click Close.