Single Mailbox Recovery

Data recovery for a single mailbox might be necessary in the event of an accidental mailbox or mailbox data deletion. The procedures in this section enable single mailbox recovery for any server in your organization, regardless of the server name. In a centrally supported organization, affiliate offices can mail tapes to an internal recovery center.

A single mailbox recovery server can be maintained online with production servers because the recovery server name does not need to be the same as the production server running Microsoft Exchange Server. This recovery server, however, should not perform directory service replication with the production servers.

To recover individual mailboxes, you must restore the entire information store and then retrieve data from the desired mailbox.

Caution   This procedure should not be performed on a server that is in production. As noted below, this procedure requires restoring data to a server that is not part of your production Microsoft Exchange Server site. The dedicated recovery server is installed using the same site and organization name as the production site; however, it is installed by selecting Create New Site.

The following items are required to recover a single mailbox:

The overall process for recovering a single mailbox is as follows:

  1. Prepare a server running Windows NT Server, Microsoft Exchange Server and the Microsoft Outlook client on the recovery server.
  2. From a backup tape, restore only the information store.
  3. Log on with Microsoft Exchange Administrator permissions.
  4. Assign the Windows NT Administrator ID access to the desired mailbox.
  5. Restore mailbox data to a .pst file.
  6. Attach the .pst file to the desired user profile.

Use the procedures that follow to implement recovery.

Note   In these recovery procedures, it is assumed that you are using a tape from an online backup. If you are using an offline tape, do not start the services after the restore.

    To prepare the nonproduction recovery computer
For the fastest recovery, the nonproduction computer should be running and available for recovery at all times. If you do not already have a dedicated recovery server, prepare one using the following procedure.

  1. Run Microsoft Exchange Server Setup, and select Complete Installation. Use the same site and organization names as those of the mailbox you are restoring. The server name of the restore computer does not matter because for this procedure, you are only restoring the information store, not the directory.
  2. Do not join the existing production site. The recovery computer should be a stand-alone computer.
  3. Make sure there is enough disk space for restoring the entire information store from your backup tape.

    To restore the information store from tape

  1. Insert the backup tape, and then log on to the recovery domain as an administrator.
  2. From the Administrative Tools program group, run Ntbackup.exe.
  3. From the Operations menu, choose Microsoft Exchange.
  4. Select the Tapes icon, and then double-click the tape name.
  5. On the right side of the Tapes window, choose Org, and then Site, Server, and Information Store.
  6. In the Backup dialog box, choose Restore.
  7. In the Restore Information window, type the name of the destination server in the Destination Server box.
  8. Select Erase All Existing Data, and then Private, Public, Verify After Restore, and Start Service After Restore. Then choose OK.

    The following message appears:

    You are about to restore Microsoft Exchange components. The Microsoft Exchange services on the destination server will be stopped.

  9. Choose OK.
  10. In the Verify Status dialog box, choose OK.

    If you are restoring from a full backup, you can skip step 11 and go directly to step 12.

  11. At the command prompt, switch to the Exchsrvr\Bin directory, and then type isinteg -patch. This runs the ISINTEG troubleshooting utility in patch mode. After you run ISINTEG, a message appears stating that the databases have been successfully updated. Now you can start the Microsoft Exchange Server information store and the other services.
  12. In Control Panel, double-click the Services icon, and then verify that the relevant Microsoft Exchange Server services are running.

    To recover a user's mailbox

  1. Log on to the recovery server as an Administrator.
  2. In the Microsoft Exchange Administrator window, choose Servers; then select the server on which the user's mailbox is located.
  3. From the File menu, choose Properties.
  4. Select the Advanced tab, and then choose Consistency Adjuster.
  5. Select All Inconsistencies.
  6. Choose OK. Choose OK again for each message that appears. Then choose OK to close the properties page.
  7. In the Microsoft Exchange Administrator window, choose Recipients. On the right side of the window, double-click the user's mailbox name.
  8. Select the General tab, and then choose Primary Windows NT Account.
  9. Select Select an existing Windows NT account, and then choose OK.
  10. Under Names in the Add User or Group dialog box, select Administrators, and then choose Add. Choose OK. Choose OK again for each message that appears.
  11. In the mailbox's General properties page, choose OK.
  12. In Microsoft Outlook, start the Microsoft Exchange Server services.
  13. Configure a profile for the appropriate user.
  14. Add a .pst file to the profile.
  15. Restart Microsoft Outlook.
  16. In the left side of the window, select Mailbox - Username.
  17. In the right side of the window, select the first folder or item in the list.
  18. From the Edit menu, choose Select All.
  19. From the File menu, choose Copy.
  20. In the Copy dialog box, select the appropriate .pst file.
  21. Choose OK. All data will be copied to this .pst file.
  22. Copy the .pst file to the destination location.
  23. Add this .pst file to the user's profile on the production server or send the .pst file to the user with instructions. If you have network access, you can copy the recovered .pst file to the appropriate server.