Re: Disaster recovery - Big Time!!

From: David Sengupta [MVP] (sengupta_at_*N0*ncf*SPAM*.ca)
Date: 05/05/04 

Date: Tue, 4 May 2004 23:46:02 -0400

This can actually be way easier.

FYI Aelita Recovery Manager for Exchange 2.0 (being released May 5th) will
be able to point to your unmounted and inconsistent priv.edb and pub.edb
files and can extract all items and either place them in a .pst file or
directly into mailboxes in a production Exchange environment (in case you've
built a new enviroment). If you have the appropriate transaction logfiles
on disk for the respective priv.edb or pub.edb files Recovery Manager for
Exchange will actually emulate Exchange and replay these logs to create a
consistent .edb file for you prior to allowing you to extract data.

If you're having to find specific data Recovery Manager for Exchange also
lets you search all mailboxes in store (prior to actually recovering any
items) both for message body/subject line content or even for specific
phrases within attachments.

Product info is at: http://www.aelita.com/products/recoverymanagerexchange/.
You can download the eval code from that site.

If you need any more info ping me offline at david dot sengupta at quest
NOSPAM dot PLEASE com.

D. 

-- 
David Sengupta  M.T.S., B.Sc., MVP, MCSE, MCSE 2000, CCA  Ottawa, Canada
Exchange Reporting & Analysis: http://www.quest.com/messagestats/
Exchange FAQ - http://www.swinc.com/resource/exch_faq.htm
"Dave Howe [MSFT]" <daveh@online.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:c21f90d2srmbphnf1ec1ouu3g4mffcsbae@4ax.com...
> 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.
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