How to Recover an Exchange 2007 Mailbox

To recover a Microsoft Exchange 2007 mailbox, the recovered .edb and .log files need to be attached to the Recovery Storage Group in Exchange and you must use Exchange-supported tools, such as Exmerge.exe, to extract a .pst file.

The procedure you use depends on whether there is an existing mailbox to which you want to recover a previous version or the mailbox no longer exists and you want to recover it.

Caution

DPM needs to restore the entire Exchange database before you can recover an individual mailbox. Please make sure you have sufficient space on the server to which you are restoring the database.

How to recover an Exchange 2007 mailbox for an existing mailbox

1. If you do not have an existing Recovery Storage Group, create one by using the new-storagegroup cmdlet in Exchange Management Shell.
2. Create a recovery database in the Recovery Storage Group by using the new-mailboxdatabase cmdlet in Exchange Management Shell.
3. Configure the recovery database to allow it to be overwritten by using the set-mailboxdatabase cmdlet in Exchange Management Shell.
4. In DPM Administrator Console, click the Search tab and select a date range to locate the mailbox you want to recover.
5. Select a recovery point that contains the mailbox to be restored, and then click Recover.

DPM recovers the database that contains the selected mailbox.

6. On the Review Recovery Selection page, click Next.
7. On the Select Recovery Type page, select Recover mailbox to an Exchange server database.
8. On the Specify Destination page, enter the full names of the Exchange server, including the domain, the name of the Recovery Storage Group that you created in step 1, and the name of the recovery database that you created in step 2.
9. Complete the Recovery Wizard. DPM recovers the database.
10. Configure the destination database to allow it to be overwritten by using the set-mailboxdatabase cmdlet in Exchange Management Shell.
11. Merge the mailbox data in the recovery database to the production mailbox database, using the restore-mailbox cmdlet in Exchange Management Shell.

Example

You need to retrieve some items from a mailbox for an employee who has left the organization. The following is the identification of the mailbox:

• Exchange Server: exchangeserver1
• Storage group: SG1
• Database: DB11
• Mailbox: John

Storage group SG1 is protected by DPM. You decide to recover the mailbox John to the manager's mailbox so that he can retrieve the necessary items. The following is the identification of the manager's mailbox:

• Exchange Server: exchangeserver1
• Storage group: SG2
• Database: DB21
• Mailbox: Simon

To recover the mailbox John to the mailbox Simon, you perform the following steps:

1. Create a Recovery Storage Group (RSG) by running the following Exchange Management Shell cmdlet:
   
   new-storagegroup -Server exchangeserver1 -LogFolderPath C:\RSG\ -Name RSG -SystemFolderPath C:\RSG\ -Recovery
   
   This creates a storage group named RSG on exchangeserver1.
2. Add a recovery database to the RSG by running the following Exchange Management Shell cmdlet:
   
   new-mailboxdatabase -mailboxdatabasetorecover exchangeserver1\SG1\DB11 -storagegroup exchangeserver1\RSG -edbfilepath C:\RSG\DB11.edb
   
   This creates a mailbox on exchangeserver1\RSG\DB11. The .edb file name must be the same as the .edb file name for the mailbox you are recovering.
3. Set the recovery database to allow overwrites by running the following Exchange Management Shell cmdlet:
   
   set-mailboxdatabase -identity exchangeserver1\RSG\DB11 -AllowFileRestore 1
4. Open DPM Administrator Console and click Recovery on the navigation bar.
5. Expand the tree and select SG1.
6. Double-click database DB11.
7. Select John, and click Recover.
8. In the Recovery Wizard, on the Review Recovery Selection page, click Next.
9. On the Select Recovery Type page, select Recover mailbox to an Exchange server database.
10. On the Specify Destination page, enter the following information:
• For Exchange server: exchangeserver1
• For storage group: RSG
• For database: DB11
11. Specify your recovery options, and then click Recover.
12. Set the destination database to allow overwrites by running the following Exchange Management Shell cmdlet:
    
    set-mailboxdatabase -identity exchangeserver1\SG2\DB21 -AllowFileRestore 1
    
    The destination database is the database that contains the mailbox to which we want to recover the e-mail from the John mailbox.
13. When the recovery is complete, run the following Exchange Management Shell cmdlet:
    
    Restore-Mailbox -RSGMailbox 'John' -RSGDatabase 'RSG\DB11' -id 'Simon' -TargetFolder 'John E-mail'
    
    The manager opens his mailbox and finds a new folder named John E-mail, which contains the e-mail items from the recovered mailbox.