My current scenario consist of :
i) Exchange 2K7SP1 Mailbox and Hub role on single box.( Windows 2K8 ).
ii) CAS role on Different Box.( Windows 2K8 ).
iii) I use Symantec Backup Exec 12.5 for Exchange backups.
A little description about my backups using Symantec BE12.5 is, i use Disk based backups as backups on tapes consume time and during restore of a single item backup server should have space equivalent to Information store size for staging.
I used a virtual platform ( VMWare ESX 3.5 ) to stage this test of D&R.I took images of my exisiting Domain controllers and deployed on this virtual platform.
When my DC is up and running i considered as if my Exchange is failed and i have to restore it from my existing backups.
Thus, i installed a new instance of Windows 2008 and run all pre-requisites needed to be applied prior running Exchange 2K7 SP1 setup, which are as follows.
Pre-Requisites for Exchange 2K7SP1 ( Mailbox and Hub Role ) on windows 2K8.
Installing Exchange 2007SP1 on Windows 2008 server.
Pre-requisites like Power shell is included by default on WS 2008 but not installed, DotNetFramework is installed by default.
Run the following command from the command line to install PowerShell
ServerMangerCmd -i PowerShell
Pre-requisites to run on WS 2008 prior Installing Exchange Roles ( In My scenario all roles are on single server )
If you are deploying a new Exchange organization, and you are preparing your Active Directory schema and domain(s) by using a computer running Windows Server 2008, you must first install the Active Directory Domain Services remote management tools on Windows Server 2008 prior to preparing the schema or a domain by using the following command:
ServerManagerCmd -i RSAT-ADDS
This command is a must prior installing any IIS web components for Server Roles
Note:You may need to restart the computer after installing the Active Directory Domain Services remote management tools. You will be notified at the end of the installation process if a system restart is required.
Open a Command Prompt window.
Install Windows PowerShell, which is included in Windows Server 2008 (but not installed by default) by running the following command:
ServerManagerCmd -i PowerShell
Install the necessary IIS prerequisites by running the following commands in the order in which they are listed:
ServerManagerCmd -i Web-Server
ServerManagerCmd -i Web-ISAPI-Ext
ServerManagerCmd -i Web-Metabase
ServerManagerCmd -i Web-Lgcy-Mgmt-Console
ServerManagerCmd -i Web-Basic-Auth
ServerManagerCmd -i Web-Windows-Auth
Note: Prior running the setup you need to keep in mind that :
i)It’s important you configure and partition the disk sets in the new server, so they are identical to the way they were configured in the failed server.
ii)Also make sure you name the new server with the same server name as the crased server.
Add your New server to domain but prior adding reset the computer name in the Computer container of Active Directory Users and Computer console as in fig. below.
Now insert the Exchange 2K7SP1 CD and run the setup from Command propmt using Server recovery switch as follows :
Setup.com /M:RecoverServer
Fig.2
Exchange 2007 Setup will now prepare Exchange 2007 setup then perform the critical prerequisite checks and finally begin copying the Exchange files and then configure each Exchange 2007 Server role by reading the required configuration information from Active Directory as in figure 2.
Now logon to the Exchange server and open the Exchange management console, you can see the storage groups and databases.
Right click the database and open the properies box of the mailbox database as shown in figure below.
Fig.3
Check the box "This Database can be overwritten by restore".
Now go your backups and restore your complete Information store backed up recently.
Figures below shows restore from Symantec Backup Exec 12.5 .
Select First Storage Group
Select Second Storage Group.
After the restore Logon with any user and check if all mails were retrieved.
