Restoring an Exchange Server database

You can use the restore into function to restore an Exchange Server database backup to a recovery database or alternate database. You can also restore a DAG active or passive database copy to a recovery database or alternate database.

Before you begin

  • Ensure that your system is set up to use the DAG node name (DAGNODE). You can specify the DAG node name in the DAG Node field in the TSM Node Names page of the IBM Spectrum Protect configuration wizard or in the Back up DAG databases to common node field in the General properties page for your Exchange Server workload.
  • You can restore mailboxes with the Mailbox Restore Browser or Mailbox Restore functions. In some rare cases, however, you might want to restore data into a recovery database or alternate database. Ensure that a recovery database or alternate database exists before you attempt the restore operation.

About this task

  • For database backups in the Exchange Server Database Availability Group (DAG) environment, you can restore a database regardless of which DAG member the database was backed up from because all database copies are backed up by using a single DAG node. Local backups must be restored on the node where the backup was completed.
  • Running any type of restore into function automatically disables VSS instant restore capability.

    When you restore a database by using instant restore processing, data that exists in the destination database is overwritten, and is no longer available after restore processing is complete. When you restore a database by using the restore into function, you restore data to an alternate target destination. The data is not restored to the original source destination. For the restore operation to be successful, the alternate target destination must be of equal or greater size as the original source volume.

  • To complete restore operations, backups must be taken on the same version of Exchange Server.
  • You cannot use multiple instances of Data Protection for Microsoft Exchange Server to restore databases into the recovery database simultaneously.

Procedure

  1. From Microsoft Management Console (MMC), create the recovery database if one does not exist. You can also use PowerShell commands (cmdlets) to do this step.
  2. Use Data Protection for Exchange Server to restore the mailbox database.
  3. From MMC, right-click the backup that you want to restore, and click Restore Into, or select the backup and click Restore Into in the Actions pane.
    For example, if Maildb1 is the name of the relocated database that you are restoring, the command-line entry is as follows:
    TDPEXCC RESTore Maildb1 FULL /INTODB=Maildb1
  4. When you restore data to a recovery database, specify the option to replay restored logs only; otherwise the restore can fail.
    1. Issue /recover=applyrestoredlogs at the command prompt.
    2. On the Restore tab, select Replay Restored Logs ONLY.
    Only transaction logs that are contained in the backup are applied to the mailbox database when a recovery database restore operation is processing.