brianwhaley Posted October 4, 2008 Report Share Posted October 4, 2008 (edited) Okay, over the last 24 hours, my information store backup was failing with an ESE error. I tried doing an NT Backup and it failed as well, same thing, ESE error. I ran ESEUTIL and the .stm DB reports an -1206 error. I have double checked, our McAfee antivirus is NOT scanning anything dangerous. I also discovered that the backups of the IS are all now corrupted, so no useable IS backup is available. However, my mailbox backup is fine, and I just ran a manual backup of the entire mailbox store to a RAID drive I normally don't use for backups to have a complete copy of the mailboxes. Even with the backup error, though, the exchange server is running fine, no errors outside of when I try to perform a backup, and no user errors with connectivity. Last but not least, the files are pretty big. The .edb file is ~22GB, and the .stm is ~56GB. Whew! That's a lot of info, sorry. Now, to my question. If I run the ESEUTIL to do a repair then a defrag of the .stm db and it loses some data, or worst case, is not fixable, can I restore the mailboxes regardless? SImply put, can I restore the mailbox backups to either a fixed IS db, or to a rebuilt exchange server after I rebuild all the accounts? I know I could probably export everything to .pst, but I would rather not do that. Thanks to anyone who can help. Edited October 4, 2008 by Guest Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mayoff Posted October 4, 2008 Report Share Posted October 4, 2008 Sorry to hear about your exchange server. Are you using the Retrospect backup software? This is a Retrospect backup software forum Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brianwhaley Posted October 4, 2008 Author Report Share Posted October 4, 2008 Yes, I'm using Retrospect backup software version 7.6.11, driver and hotfix 7.6.1.101. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mayoff Posted October 4, 2008 Report Share Posted October 4, 2008 If you have been backing up each individual mailbox, you can restore each individual mailbox back to a new storage group if needed. You must first create a mailbox for the user so you can pick it as the destination for the data. I have seen strange things when restoring calendar items to a new server but the rest should be okay Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brianwhaley Posted October 4, 2008 Author Report Share Posted October 4, 2008 (edited) That's what I thought, but I wanted to make sure. I'm running a manual backup of the mailboxes right now before I begin the repair of the IS db, so if that fails I'm still fine. One question. Is the idea of backing up the information store AND the mailboxes simply to make things easier (AKA less time consuming) in the case of a failure then? Thanks a million! Edited October 4, 2008 by Guest Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mayoff Posted October 4, 2008 Report Share Posted October 4, 2008 Yes, the more ways you backup the safer you are. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brianwhaley Posted October 4, 2008 Author Report Share Posted October 4, 2008 So backing up both is simply a case of "double redundancy" then? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mayoff Posted October 4, 2008 Report Share Posted October 4, 2008 You can't do a full disaster recovery of an exchange server without a backup of the storage group. Mailbox backup is less common since it limits how you can rebuild a server. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brianwhaley Posted October 4, 2008 Author Report Share Posted October 4, 2008 (edited) If you have been backing up each individual mailbox, you can restore each individual mailbox back to a new storage group if needed. You must first create a mailbox for the user so you can pick it as the destination for the data. I have seen strange things when restoring calendar items to a new server but the rest should be okay You can't do a full disaster recovery of an exchange server without a backup of the storage group. Mailbox backup is less common since it limits how you can rebuild a server. Okay, can you clarify something for me then? You said that I could restore the mailboxes without the backup of the storage group in the previous post, but now you say I can't do a full disaster recovery without the storage group backup. Which is it? Or am I misunderstanding your point? Simply put, if all I have is a backup of the individual mailboxes using the exchange server add-on because my server storage group backup is corrupt, can I restore all the email if my repair of the information store using ESEUTIL doesn't work? Thanks for your help, it is appreciated. EDIT: Sorry I'm a bit slow on the uptake, I've come down with something and my head is moving at about 20% normal speed. What you're saying is, I can't do a full recovery without the storage group (information store) backup, but I can make a new storage group, recreate all the exchange mailboxes and then restore the email using my individual mailbox backups, right? Edited October 5, 2008 by Guest Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mayoff Posted October 5, 2008 Report Share Posted October 5, 2008 Restoring individual mailbox emails is not a true disaster recovery of an exchange server. If you do a restore of the 1st storage group from a backup, you do not need to recreate each individual mailbox or restore each mailbox individually. You don't have to reset any mailbox settings when doing a storage group based restore. Mailbox only restore requires you to first setup every mailbox and every mailbox preference before restoring mailbox messages. each mailbox must be restored using individual restore operations. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brianwhaley Posted October 5, 2008 Author Report Share Posted October 5, 2008 Okay, understood. Last question. If I do have an older storage group backup (~2 weeks old) and I restored that (if the eseutil repair failed) instead of rebuilding the storage group, I could restore the mailboxes individually, avoiding the full setup needed in the other scenario, and then the mail would be up to date, right? Again, thanks for your help. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mayoff Posted October 5, 2008 Report Share Posted October 5, 2008 The mailbox restores do not replace the contents of the mailboxes so the restore will create a new folder inside each mailbox... containing the restored data. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brianwhaley Posted October 5, 2008 Author Report Share Posted October 5, 2008 Right, then I move the restored mail back into its respective places after the restore. All of this may be academic, as the repair of the IS will probably go off without a hitch. But, it always pays to confirm and double check everything! Thanks so much. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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