Troubleshooting mailbox restore errors

If you encounter a mailbox restore error, determine whether the problem is reproducible on other Exchange servers.

About this task

Some of the mailbox restore errors that you might encounter include MAPI connection issues to the mailbox, insufficient role-based access control (RBAC) permissions to complete the restore operation, or issues with the Mailbox Restore Browser feature.

Troubleshooting insufficient RBAC roles and permissions

For the following mailbox restore errors, ensure that the RBAC roles and management role scope are set on the Exchange objects for the Exchange user.

Procedure

  1. If a mailbox fails to open and the error message indicates a missing RBAC permission, ensure that the user who is logged on to the mailbox has the required RBAC roles, and the management scope for those roles includes the database that contains the mailbox. Then, open the mailbox again.
  2. If a mailbox restore operation fails and the error message indicates a missing RBAC permission, ensure that the user who is logged on to the mailbox has the required RBAC roles, and the management scope for those roles includes the source and target databases. Then, restart the restore operation.

Troubleshooting mailbox permissions, authentication methods, and registry key settings in a Microsoft Exchange 2013 environment

To resolve mailbox restore errors in an Exchange Server 2013 environment, ensure that the Exchange Server mailbox permissions, authentication methods, registry key settings, and the Client Access Server (CAS) role are configured correctly.

Procedure

  1. Grant full access permission to the user who is logged on to the target mailbox.
    When the administrator mailbox is used, Exchange Server 2013 usually blocks full access permission for the administrator by default.
  2. To restore an Exchange 2013 public folder mailbox, ensure that the Exchange user has the Public Folders management role.
  3. Log on to an Exchange Server 2013 mailbox as the Exchange Server administrator and ensure that sufficient storage space is available in the administrator mailbox.
  4. Ensure that you can access the mailbox that you logged on to and the target mailbox in either Microsoft Outlook or Outlook Web Access.
  5. Specify an Exchange Server 2013 CAS by setting the CLIENTACCESSServer=servername parameter.
    If you are using a load balancer, set the CLIENTACCESSServer parameter to point to the CAS instead of the load balancer.
  6. Open the administrator mailbox and the target mailbox. On the Actions pane in the Mailbox Restore Browser interface, click Open Exchange Mailbox.
  7. Verify that the MAPI registry key, RpcHttpProxyMap_TSM, is correct to enable Data Protection for Exchange Server to connect to the Exchange Server. Use one of the following methods:
    • Check the registry key that is in the HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\Current Version\Windows Messaging Subsystem directory. Change the registry key values to reflect the correct domain, endpoint, and Remote Procedure Call (RPC) authentication methods for your environment. For example, you might specify HTTPS as the authentication method if RPC-over-HTTPS connections ares enabled for the Exchange Server that is hosting the MAPI profile. Otherwise, you might use HTTP authentication for RPC-over-HTTP connections.
    • Use the MAPI Settings property page in Microsoft Management Console (MMC) to ensure that the MAPI registry key is correct. Change the registry key values to reflect the correct domain, endpoint, and Remote Procedure Call (RPC) authentication methods for your environment.
    By default, the following registry key format is used.
    Domain=Proxy Server,RpcHttpAuthenticationMethod,
    RpcAuthenticationMethod,IgnoreSslCert
    where:
    • Domain value is the domain suffix of the personalized server ID, for example, companyname.local. Specify any domain or a substring of a domain, or the asterisk (*) and question mark (?) wildcard characters, for example, *.companyname.local.
    • Proxy Server value is the RPC proxy server that has the Client Access Server (CAS) role. Specify the fully qualified domain name (FQDN) of the RPC proxy server. Precede the FQDN by http:// for an HTTP connection, or https:// for an HTTPS connection. For example, https://exchange.companyname.com
    • RpcHttpAuthenticationMethod value is the method that is used to authenticate RPC-over-HTTP connections. Specify NTLM, Basic, Negotiate, or WinNT.
    • RpcAuthenticationMethod value is the method that is used to authenticate RPC-over-TCP connections. Specify NTLM, Negotiate, WinNT, Anonymous, or None.
    • IgnoreSslCert value indicates whether the Exchange Server validates SSL certificates. For the Exchange Server to ignore invalid certificates, specify False.
    The default registry key looks like the following example:
    contoso.com=https://mail.contoso.com,ntlm,ntlm,false

Troubleshooting MAPI connection issues

Procedure

To diagnose MAPI-to-mailbox connection issues, enter the TDPMAPI TESTMAPI command with these parameters:
/MAILBOXALIAS
Exchange Server 2013: This parameter is the alias name for the mailbox that you are logged on to. The parameter refers to the email alias for the user and is the portion of the email address before the @ symbol. Run this command for the mailbox to be restored and the mailbox that you are logged on to.
Exchange Server 2016 or later: This parameter is the SMTP address of the mailbox endpoint of the user who is logged on. You can show this value by using Exchange cmdlet Get-Mailbox <mailbox_name> | Select PrimarySmtpAddress
/EXCSERVER

Exchange Server 2013: This parameter is the name of the mailbox endpoint of the user who is logged in. Use the Exchange PowerShell command, whoami | Get-Mailbox | fl ExchangeGUID, to determine the value. You must specify this parameter for Exchange Server 2013.

Exchange Server 2016 or later: This parameter is the alias name for the mailbox that you are logged on to.
/TRACEFILE
This parameter is the file name that is used to store the output from tracing operations. By default, tracing is turned off. You can qualify the file name by specifying a drive and a full directory path. You must have write permissions for the user that runs the command.

Troubleshooting a MAPI error that prevents multiple mailboxes restoring in a Microsoft Exchange 2013 environment

When you restore multiple mailboxes on a server that is running Exchange Server 2013, the mailbox restore operation might partially fail and report a MAPI error.

About this task

In Exchange Server 2013, Client Throttling Policy (the RcaMaxConcurrency parameter), specifies how many concurrent connections you can maintain at one time. If you attempt to make more concurrent requests than the RcaMaxConcurrency parameter allows, the new connection attempt fails. However, the existing connections remain valid.

Procedure

Increase the RcaMaxConcurrency value for the logon user mailbox.
For more information about this setting, see Microsoft documentation: Exchange 2013 Client Throttling

Troubleshooting issues with mailbox restore operations or Mailbox Restore Browser operations on remote systems

If you run complex mailbox restore operations on a remote system and need to query many mailboxes on the remote system, an out-of-memory exception can occur if there is not enough Microsoft Windows PowerShell memory to run the operation. To resolve the out-of-memory exception, increase the default memory value for the remote Microsoft Windows Power Shell session. You must increase both the machine-wide memory setting and the plug-in memory setting. After doing so, restart the WinRM service, and run the operation again.

About this task

You might get an out-of-memory exception when you attempt to run the following tasks:
  • If you restore multiple mailboxes across multiple databases, you might see the following message:

    Specified method is not supported.
  • If you complete a mailbox restore task on the remote system, the list of mailboxes might not be displayed in the Source mailbox navigation tree of the MMC. You might see the following message:

    Error: Processing data for a remote command failed
    with the following error message:
    The WSMan provider host process did not return a proper response.
    A provider in the host process may have behaved improperly.
    For more information, see the about_Remote_Troubleshooting Help topic.
    OperationStopped: (<Machine_Name>:String)[],
    PSRemotingTransportExceptionJobFailure

Procedure

  1. Increase the machine-wide memory setting.
    1. At the Microsoft Windows PowerShell command line, navigate to WSMan:\localhost\Shell\MaxMemoryPerShellMB.
    2. Increase the value of MaxMemoryPerShellMB.
  2. Increase the memory setting for plug-ins.
    1. At the Microsoft Windows PowerShell command line, navigate toWSMan:\localhost\Plugin\Microsoft.PowerShell\Quotas\MaxMemoryPerShellMB.
    2. Increase the value of MaxMemoryPerShellMB.
  3. Restart the WinRM service, and run the operation that you require again.

Example

To increase the maximum of memory that is allocated per shell to 4 GB, enter the following cmdlets at the Microsoft Windows PowerShell command line.

  1. Set-Item WSMan:\localhost\Shell\MaxMemoryPerShellMB 4096
  2. Set-Item WSMan:\localhost\Plugin\Microsoft.PowerShell\Quotas\MaxMemoryPerShellMB 4096
  3. Restart-Service winrm

Troubleshooting an SMTP restore issue that occurs when you restore email with large attachments in the Mailbox Restore Browser interface

If you restore an email with an attachment that is larger than 3 MB to an SMTP server, a Microsoft fix is required.

About this task

You might see the following error message:
QFD: System.Net.Mail - SmtpClient class throws exceptions if file attachment
is over 3 MB

Procedure

Resolve the issue by applying the fix that is available at this web page: Microsoft Connect Visual Studio and .NET Framework Downloads

Troubleshooting a limitation with deleted mailbox history in the Mailbox Restore Browser interface

Data Protection for Exchange Server does not record the time when mailboxes are deleted.

About this task

After a mailbox is deleted, the Available Database Backups list in the Mailbox Restore Browser continues to list database backups that contained the mailbox prior to its deletion.

From the Available Database Backups list, ensure that the backup version that you select, for the restore task, contains a copy of the mailbox. If the database backup is completed after the mailbox was deleted, the mailbox is not available for the restore.