Re: Trashed Server
- From: "Lanwench [MVP - Exchange]" <lanwench@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Tue, 17 Oct 2006 13:10:19 -0400
In addition to Dave's reply.....
In news:eocH3rg8GHA.3960@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx,
SimonR <Simon@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> typed:
Ok, we have a totally trashed server....
No backup - ALL tapes destroyed....
C Drive has been formated!
Client suspect this is a delibrate act.
Well, I would certainly imagine so! I reckon they've learned that they need
to store backups offsite, in addition to physically securing their server in
a locked room/cabinet, and making sure they've got a good firewall between
them & the Internet.
Anyway.
<cough>
What we have managed to do is recover Data folder on drive D
and Exchange MDB files on drive D
Do you have both the .edb and .stm files?
Check out
Now Data is GOLD and is intact.
So, you found all their non-Exchange data as well?
(no public folder etc are used)
All workstations have locally cached emails...
Are the Exchange MDB file any good??
Possibly, but you may not need them if you were using cached mode for all
clients. I'd put them somewhere safe. You might check out Recovery Manager
for Exchange at www.quest.com (it's a per-mailbox license, no minimum
purchase no matter what your reseller thinks) - it's a very good tool. But,
you may not need it.
If I rebuild the Server with same IP, Domain, ServerName and users
accounts / passwords
It will be an entirely new AD domain.
(1) Will the workstations just connect or do I need to re-connect
them??
No. You'll need to reconnect them.
(2) Will cached emails just get uploaded to exchange??
No.
Before you do *anything* else:
-----
While the user is logged into the domain at his/her desk, using cached
credentials, physically disconnect the workstations from the network and
start up Outlook....it should come up disconnected/offline.
Use File | Import/Export, and export everything from the mailbox to
PST....on the local disk, named appropriately (username.pst). Put it
somewhere *not* in each user's local profile folder - create c:\outlook for
it.
[I'd also copy out anything you care about in the user's old profile
directory, somewhere safe on the hard drive - such as 'my documents', if
it's there - and IE favorites, and anything they'd stored on their desktops]
When you want to join the new domain (which is what you will have - even if
the server names match) you'll first need to remove each computer from the
old domain in its network properties - take it out to a workgroup. You can't
run /connectcomputer on a computer that is already joined to any domain.
You might as well just set up Exchange with brand-new/vanilla databases, if
you are sure all clients were using cached mode (without errors) and you did
not use any public folders [1].
When you add the computers to the new domain and configure their Outlook
profiles, accessing the empty mailbox, use:
File | open | Outlook data file
Browse to c:\outlook\username.pst
When the PST file is open, select & copy, then paste, into the appropriate
folders in the mailbox. Do *not* import; this will cause problems.
I don't know how many users/workstations you're dealing with, or how big
their mailboxes were. There is always exmerge - but this may not work if you
have largeish mailboxes, and you'd have to get all the PST files on the
server to run it. I might not bother.
Note that users may not be able to just click 'reply' to mail sent from
other internal users before the crash/rebuild, as the X500 address may not
match the old one ....if so, advise them that they'll need to reset the
addressee's name in the TO field.
Oh, and did I already mention the importance of offline storage for backup
media? I did? Never mind. ;-)
[1] Note that it is possible to cache PFs also, if you add them to the
PF\Favorites and set up Outlook so it inclues PF favorites in its cache.
.
- References:
- Trashed Server
- From: SimonR
- Trashed Server
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