The Recovery Storage Group (RSG) feature in Exchange 2003 allows you to mount a second copy of an Exchange mailbox store on any Exchange server in the same Exchange Administrative Group as the original, while the original store is still running and serving clients. This allows you to recover data from an older backup copy of the store without disturbing client access to current data. After the RSG is created and one or more stores are added to it, you can restore online backup sets to it. Then use the Exchange Server 2003 version of Microsoft Exchange Mailbox Merge Wizard (Exmerge.exe) to extract mailbox data from the stores into .PST files, and optionally merge the extracted data back into the online stores.
Note: Only Exchange mailbox stores from Exchange 2000 Service Pack 3 (SP3) or later can be restored to the RSG. Restored mailbox stores are upgraded to the store version currently running on the RSG server.
The following are requirements for restoring Microsoft Exchange 2003 data using the Recovery Storage Group (RSG):
- Mailbox stores in the RSG must come from the same storage group. You cannot add mailbox stores from different storage groups to the RSG at the same time.
- The mailbox store that you are adding to the RSG has to be located on the same server that you are restoring to if performing a redirected restore of a Mailbox Store from another server.
- Public folder stores are not supported for restore using the RSG.
- Do not mount mailbox stores in the RSG before the restore. If you do mount the stores before the restore, then you must dismount them and select "This database can be overwritten by a restore" on the database property page in Exchange System Manager prior to restoring them.
- On the server that hosts the RSG, there must be a storage group with the same name as the original storage group for the data you are restoring. If no such storage group exists on the server, then you must create the storage group name as it existed originally during the backup and the mailbox store name that the RSG references must have the same name as the backed up version. (In 11.x and later versions, the RSG can exist on any server in the Forest and there does not have to be a regular SG with the name of the original SG present.)
- The Active Directory topology of the Exchange system must be intact and in the same state it was in when the backup was made. You cannot restore mailbox stores that were deleted and recreated. In addition, you cannot recover mailboxes from stores if the mailboxes were deleted and purged from the system or moved to other servers or mailbox stores.
- When the RSG exists on a server, the mailbox stores that it contains are the only stores that can be restored on that server by default. Symantec recommends that you create the RSG only when you intend to recover data using it, and remove the RSG from the server after the data recovery is complete.
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Refer to your Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 documentation for more information on the requirements and restrictions of recovering Exchange data using the RSG or you may reference Microsoft Knowledge Base Article - 824126.
To create a Recovery Storage Group:
1. Start Exchange System Manager. Expand Administrative Groups (if appropriate), expand the Administrative Group Name (if appropriate), and then expand Servers
2. Right-click ServerName, point to New, and then click Recovery Storage Group.
3. In the Name box, type a name for the Recovery Storage Group. Try to use the same name that you used for the original storage group when you specify a name for the Recovery Storage Group. If you receive an error message that is similar to the following and Figure 1 when you do so, use a different name for the Recovery Storage Group:
The object StorageGroupName already exists.
Figure 1
4. Enter a unique directory name for this object. In the Transaction log location and in the System path location boxes, specify a location for the transaction log files and for the system path. Make sure that the location that you specify for the transaction log files for the Recovery Storage Group is different from the location that is specified for the transaction log for the original storage group. Click OK.
5. Right-click the Recovery Storage Group that you created, and then click Add Database to Recover (Figure 2)
Figure 2
6. In the Select database to recover dialog box, click the mailbox store that you want to add to the Recovery Storage Group, and then click OK. In the Mailbox Store Properties dialog box, review the properties of the mailbox store, and then click OK (Figure 3).
** Important ** Make sure that while reviewing the Mailbox store information, if you have multiple Exchange servers in your configuration, the name and location match the Mailbox store that you intended to attach to the RSG.
Figure 3
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To restore Exchange 2003 databases using the Recovery Storage Group:
1. On the navigation bar in Backup Exec, click Restore. On the Properties pane, under Source, click Selections. In the restore selections list, select the backup sets you want to restore (Figure 4).
Note: make sure you select the mailbox store only. Public Folder stores are not supported for restore using the RSG.
Figure 4
2. On the Properties pane, under Settings, click Exchange. Select the appropriate options.
Note: Do not select the Commit after restore completes checkbox and the Mount database after restore checkbox on the Restore Job Properties dialog box for Exchange unless your selections include the last backup set to be restored. These selections direct the Exchange server to replay transactions, roll back uncommitted transactions, and mount the databases after the restore.
3. If the RSG resides on a different Exchange server than the databases you are restoring, you can redirect the restore by selecting Exchange Redirection (Figure 5)
Figure 5
4. Start the restore job
5. When the restore is complete, use the EXMerge utility in Exchange 2003 to extract the mailbox data you need from the restored mailbox stores and optionally merge the data back into the online stores (Figure 6)
Figure 6
