Re: Disaster recovery - Big Time!!

From: Dave Howe [MSFT] (daveh_at_online.microsoft.com)
Date: 05/04/04 

Date: Tue, 04 May 2004 08:17:22 -0400

On Mon, 3 May 2004 23:01:01 -1000, "Marcus Smaby" <mrsmaby@@@msn.com>
wrote:

>Issues:
>
> Original drives that were recovered were SCSI, data was returned on IDE
>drives.
> Exch5.5 was not shut down
> NO BACKUPS - destroyed (both on-site and off-site)
> How can I move this to Ex2003
>
>My thoughts:
> Image the drives for safety
> Mount the drives in my old server
> Attempt to boot (the HAL won't match - but can that be worked around?)
> ExMove off all the mailboxes.
> Copy the ExMoved mailboxes to the new server
> ExMove them back in.
>
>I need to keep this simple.

Simple? Oh boy...

If this were my project, I'd first make sure that Windows NT or
Windows 2000/Active Directory was in place. Since you want to move to
Exchange 2003, I'd go ahead and get Active Directory/DNS up and
running.

I'd then install Exchange 5.5 on a member server that has the same
drive letter configuration as the original server (doesn't matter if
the drives are IDE or SCSI) using the same Org Name, same Site Name
(server name won't matter). Apply the same Service Pack/hotfixes that
were installed on the original Exchange 5.5 server. After
installation finishes, use Performance Optimizer to move the databases
and log files into the same disk locations as the original
configuration.

Next, stop the Information Store service, rename all instances of
MDBDATA folders, and create new/empty MDBDATA folders in their place.
Copy the recovered databases into the locations you specified in
Performance Optimizer. Open a command prompt and navigate to the
Exchsrvr\BIN folder and run the command ESEUTIL /MH <path to database>
for both the private and public information stores. This will produce
a report which contains the word STATE: which will either be
CONSISTENT or INCONSISTENT. If the state is inconsistent, you will
need to run ESEUTIL /P <path to database>. Next, you will need to
defragment the database(s) by running ESEUTIL /D <path to database>.
After that completes, run ISINTEG (-pri or -pub) -fix until there are
0 fixes remaining.

259851 XADM: Ramifications of Running the ESEUTIL /P or EDBUTIL /D /R
Command
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=259851

Now, attempt to start the Information Store service. If you get an
error -1011, don't sweat it. This database belonged to a different
Exchange server, so you need to patch it, which can be done by running
ISINTEG -patch. Do not do this unless you're prompted to do it. You
should now be able to start the Information Store service. Open the
Exchange 5.5 admin program and drill down and open the properties of
the Server object. Click on the Advanced tab, then click the
Consistency Adjuster button. I would then place checkmarks in the
first, second, and fourth boxes (not the third - never the third
(which can reset the home server value on all of your public folders)
unless instructed by Microsoft PSS). Then choose to filter on all
inconsistencies. After this runs, it *should* create all new Active
Directory accounts for each of your mailboxes. You should also be able
to log into each mailbox now with the Administrator account.

Which brings us to a crossroads:

Do you now install Exchange 2003 into this site and do a migration of
mailboxes?

Or do you simply ExMerge all the mail data from this Exchange 5.5
server to PST files, install Exchange 2003 clean and new in a new
forest, and ExMerge the data in?

For me, it would depend on just how big my Information Store is. If
it's 60 gigabytes, with a thousand users? Maybe I'd do the migration
path. If the store is 6 gigabytes with 30 users, then maybe I'd
ExMerge.

Installing Exchange 2003 into a Exchange 5.5 site and performing a
migration preserves one little thing - single instance storage. In
Exchange if I send a message with a four meg attachment to 10 users on
the same mailbox store, then only one copy of the attachment is saved
to the database and a pointer to the message is sent to all 10 users.
If I ExMerge, I will be taking 10 copies of that attachment to PST
files, then putting 10 copies of it into the new database when I
ExMerge the data in. If I move the mailboxes as part of a migration,
I should retain single instance storage without inflating the size of
my database.

Either way, there are plenty of migration white papers out there, and
the Exchange 2003 green books can help you through the installation
should you choose to install it clean and go with the ExMerge process.

Again, this is how << I >> would recover. You, however, may want to
consider downloading the Exchange 5.5 Disaster Recovery white paper
found here:

http://www.microsoft.com/exchange/techinfo/administration/55/backuprestore.asp 

---
Dave Howe
Microsoft PSS
This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.