In the previous article we explored the options for backing up Exchange server with Windows Server Backup just leveraging the VSS framework in order to take crash consistent snapshot of our Application.
It was an easy one and the same applies when re-utilising the same Windows Server Backup when restoring objects from the Backup and in this article we explore the ability to restore Exchange Mailboxes.
This can be also a good exercise to prove the Backups are “actually” working. Too often I see Backup strategies which do not include any extensive Recovery test scenarios and never to say all the oddities are found when in need of restoring something and of course of critical importance!
So here we go
Firstly what we can do is to issue a quick PowerShell command to list all available Exchange Mailbox Databases along with specific info
“Get-MailboxDatabase | select name,server,guid”
Will produce something like the following
Let’s take a note of the GUIDs associated with Mailbox Databases. Next is to fire the WBAdmin.msc and select Recover to start the wizard
From here we can select the desired point-in-time restore
Let’s select Applications and let the wizard to automatically pick up the available ones based on VSS writers information at the backup time
Let’s select exchange and the details will show info relative to our Mailbox Databases
Once we click on Recover the wizard will start the Recovery procedure
After the job is completed with another simple PowerShell command we can determine the status of the recovery operations
“Get-MailboxDatabaseCopyStatus | select name,status,contentindexstate”
Will look something similar to this
And that’s it! A very simple scenario along with quick steps on how to restore Exchange Mailbox Databases
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