XADM: Restoring an Exchange Directory

 Last reviewed: October 15, 1997
Article ID: Q162353

The information in this article applies to:

  • Microsoft Exchange Server, version 4.0

SUMMARY

If you need to restore an Exchange Server computer and you are unable to recover the Directory, you can still recover the information in the Private and Public Stores. Typical methods to recover the Directory include running EDBUTIL /D /R or first recovering the Windows NT security accounts manager (SAM) database.

MORE INFORMATION

To recover the information in the Private and Public Stores:

  1. If possible, from the Exchange Administrator Program, on the Tools menu, click Directory Export and export all Recipient containers on this server. If this server cannot be brought up long enough to get to this point, you can perform the Directory Export from another server, in the same or other site, that contains the Directory information for the users from this server.

  2. In Control Panel Services, stop the Microsoft Exchange System Attendant. When prompted, click OK to stop all of the other Microsoft Exchange Server services.

  3. Copy the Pub.edb, Priv.edb, all Edb*.log files, all Res*.log files and the Edb.chk file to another directory or another server as a backup.

  4. Run Setup.exe from the Exchange Server CD, and click Remove All when prompted. Verify and remove all Exchange directories (across all drives if Optimization was run).

  5. Run Setup.exe again, and reinstall the server with the same Organization Name and Site Name as before. Be careful to make sure each name is typed exactly as it was before, because both the Organization Name and Site Name are case-sensitive.

NOTE: Remember to reapply any Service Packs applied in the previous install.

  1. In Control Panel Services, stop the Microsoft Exchange System Attendant. When prompted, click OK to stop all of the other Microsoft Exchange Server services.

  2. Move all the files out of the Exchsrvr\Mdbdata directory (across all drives if Optimization was run). Copy to this directory the all files that were copied to another directory or server in step 1 (Pub.edb, Priv.edb, all Edb*.log files, all Res*.log files and the Edb.chk file).

  3. Start the Microsoft Exchange System Attendant and Microsoft Exchange Directory services in Control Panel Services.

  4. From a command prompt, change directories to Exchsrvr\Bin, and carry out the following command: 

          Isinteg -patch

  5. Start the remaining Microsoft Exchange Server services in Control Panel Services.

  6. Run the Microsoft Exchange Server Administrator Program against the server you are recovering.

  7. If there were any other Recipients container aside from the default Recipients container, re-create them all. It is important that these containers have the same name and are nested (Recipient containers within Recipient containers) under the same containers as they were before the restore.

NOTE: The users in nested containers will not be recovered if step 1 was not performed. For additional information, please see the following article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: 

   ARTICLE-ID: Q154491
   TITLE     : XADM: DS/IS Fails to Re-create Mailboxes in Subcontainers
If step 1 was successful, perform only step 13 below. If step 1 was not successful, (no CSV file could be created), skip step 13 below and perform steps 14 through 16 below.

  1. Using the CSV file created in Step 1, on the Tools menu, click Directory Import and import the Directory entries into the Directory.

  2. Highlight the Server Object (Organization, Site, Configuration, Servers, <servername>), choose File Properties (Alt+Enter), and click the Advanced tab.

  3. Under DS/IS Consistency adjustment, click All Inconsistencies and click Adjust.

At this point, all Users should show up in their respective containers except those users who are in nested containers.

  1. Go to the properties of each individual mailbox on the server. At the bottom of the property sheet, click Primary Windows NT Account, and then click Select an existing Windows NT account, and then select the corresponding Windows NT account from the Add User or Group list.

After these procedures are done, the users should be able to log into the server without having lost their mail messages and the public folders should have been restored as well.

For additional information on running the EDBUTIL program, please see the following article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: 

   ARTICLE-ID: Q143233
   TITLE     : XADM: Command-Line Parameters for Edbutil.exe

Keywords          : XADM kbtool kbusage
Version           : winnt:4.0
Platform          : winnt

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Last reviewed: October 15, 1997
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