XADM: Recover Mailboxes When Windows NT Accounts Database Lost

• Microsoft Exchange Server, version 4.0

SUMMARY

Microsoft Exchange depends on the Windows NT security accounts manager (SAM) to securely identify the Microsoft Exchange service account and to identify what users have access to any given mailbox.

If the Windows NT accounts database is damaged and cannot be restored from backup, the Microsoft Exchange services will be non-functional and there access to mailboxes and Microsoft Exchange Server Administrator program will not be possible.

Fortunately this problem is not as catastrophic as it sounds because Microsoft Exchange provides a mechanism to recover an information store even though the original directory is not accessible.

MORE INFORMATION

Briefly, the procedure involves three stages:

1. Installing Microsoft Exchange Server on a new server with the same organization and site names as before

2. Restoring the old Information Store

3. Running the Microsoft Exchange DS/IS Consistency Checker to create the mailboxes in the directory

The complete steps are:

1. Install Microsoft Exchange Server on a new server, using the exact same organization and site names as the previous installation.

   NOTE: The Windows NT domain name and service accounts can be different than the prior ones used with the original install.

2. Once Setup has finished, stop the Microsoft Exchange Information Store service and restore a copy of the original Private and public Information Stores. This can be from an offline or online backup. When restoring from an offline backup you must run ISINTEG -PATCH to update the store with the directory (see Q149238).

   For additional information on running ISINTEG -PATCH, please see the following article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

         ARTICLE-ID: Q149238
         TITLE     : XADM: Information Store Fails to Start with -1011 Error
   
   

3. Restart the Microsoft Exchange Information Store service and load the Microsoft Exchange Server Administrator program.

4. From the Microsoft Exchange Server Administrator program, go to the Server Object properties. On the Advanced tab, go to the "DS/IS consistency adjustment" section and click "All inconsistencies." Click the Adjust button.

   Once this process is finished, all mailboxes will be available in the directory.

5. Go back to each mailbox and assign Windows NT account permissions again.