Published: November 2003

In this article I will describe how you recover mailbox data from a backed up mailbox store using the new Recovery Storage Group feature (RSG) introduced in Exchange 2003 Server. Seen from an Exchange Admins point of view, Recovery Storage Groups (RSG) are probably among the most interesting new features in Exchange 2003 Server.

With RSG, you can quickly restore Exchange data, and thereby reduce downtime, RSG eliminate the need for Exchange Recovery servers plus those, way too often, annoying brick-level backups. In a simple sentence Recovery Storage Groups are for recovering mailbox stores, mailboxes and/or items in a single or multiple mailbox(es).

You can’t use RSG for recovering public folders, though its possible to restore multiple mailbox stores at a time, the only requirement is they need to belong to the same Storage Group. Its also worth noting users can’t access mailboxes in a RSG, the group is strictly for recovery purposes.

Even though RSG isn’t part of Exchange 2000, its possible to recover data from mailbox stores placed on an Exchange 2000 server as well, only requirement is it needs to be running service pack 3 or later.

Alright enough talk, I know you can’t wait any longer so lets move on to the fun stuff right away.

RSG are not part of a default Exchange 2003 installation, so first we need to create it in the Exchange System Manager (ESM), so we will start by opening ESM.



In ESM:

- Expand Administrative Groups | First Administrative Group | Servers |
- Righclick the Server object
- Choose New | Recovery Storage Group…



Now click OK

The Recovery Storage Group (RSG) are now present under the server object, and we can start to add the mailbox store, from where we need to recover data.

To add the database we should:

- Righclick on the Recovery Storage Group object
- Choose Add Databases to Recover…
- Highlight the Mailbox Store (the one to be restored)



Click OK then the Databases tab

Its time to specify where the restored database should be placed, be sure to choose a location with plenty of storage space (default is C:\Program Files\Exchsrvr\Recovery Storage Group).

- Now put a checkmark in This Database can be overwritten by a restore
- Click OK

We are ready to start the restore of the mailbox store, from which the data should be recovered, in this article I use Windows 2003 native backup program NT Backup, so lets move on and open NTBackup.

What we going to do now is we will do a restore of the mailbox store, which were specified under the RSG in the Exchange System Manager (ESM). Don’t worry the existing production mailbox store won’t be overwritten, as the restoration per default will be placed into the mailbox store that has been added to the RSG.



When the mailbox store has been selected, click Start Restore, then enter the name of Exchange server plus a temporary location for log and patch files (remember default is C:\Program Files\Exchsrvr\Recovery Storage Group) and click OK.

After the mailbox store has been restored, we’re ready to move the recovered data to the production mailbox store,we do this with the help of the Microsoft Exchange Mailbox Merge Wizard also known as ExMerge. You can grab the lastest version of ExMerge on the Microsoft Exchange Tools and Updates site.

In order to get full access to the mailbox store (which we must have when using ExMerge), the logged in user account needs to have full access to all mailboxes, see MS KB 262054 for further details.

When the restored mailbox store under the RSG has been mounted (you rather want to check this under RSG in the Exchange System Manager), we are ready to use ExMerge, so we will fire up Exmerge and:

Click Next and choose Extract or Import (Two Step Procedure)



Pick Step 1: Extract data from an Exchange server mailbox and click Next



Now we should type the name of our Exchange server plus Domain Controller in the respective fields, then click Next



Choose the Recovery Storage Groups/Mailbox Store and click Next



Here we will select the mailboxes which needs to be restored, then click Next twice. Now specify where the .PST files should be restored to and click Next





Wait for Exmerge to finish the copying, then click Finish

When the data has been recovered to .PST files, it needs to be merged into the mailboxes in our production mailbox store.

So once again we:

- Start ExMerge clicks Next
- Choose Extract or Import (Two Step Procedure)
- Pick Step 2: Import data into an Exchange Server Mailbox
- Again type the name of your Exchange server and Domain Controller in respective fields, then click Next
- Mark the mailboxes you want to merge, click Next twice
- Specify where the .PST files should be merged from and click Next



When all data has been merged, we should remember to delete the mounted mailbox store under RSG in the ESM, as well as manually delete the content under the temporary location specified earlier on.

Final words

Gone are the days where you had to play with separate Exchange Recovery Servers or those, way too often, annoying brick-level backups, with Exchange 2003 Server, the word disaster recovery has got a totally new meaning.

With RSG, you can quickly restore Exchange data, and thereby reduce downtime.

Further reading

What's New in Exchange 2003 (Chapter 7)

Should you have any questions or comments, send them to: henrik@outlookexchange.com

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