Restoring mailbox data

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Data Protection for Exchange ServerIBM Storage Protect™ Snapshot backs up mailbox data at the database level, and also restores individual mailbox items from the database backup.

Before you begin

You must have role-based access control (RBAC) permissions to complete individual mailbox restore operations.

If you plan to restore mail or folders by using a Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) server, ensure that you configure the SMTP server before you start a restore operation. To set the configuration in the Management Console, right-click Dashboard in the tree view and select Properties. From the E-mail property page, enter the SMTP server and port.

About this task

You can restore an entire mailbox or selected mailbox items to the original mailbox, another online mailbox on the same server, or to a .pst file. When you restore a mailbox to the mailbox restore destination, Data Protection for Exchange Server automatically restores the mail items in the Recoverable Items folder.
- You cannot restore the Recoverable Items folder and subfolder hierarchy to a mailbox restore destination. You can restore only the mail items in the folders.
- The mail items that you can restore depends on whether the mailbox is enabled for mailbox restore operations.
- You can restore the Recoverable Items content for a public folder mailbox but not for each public folder in the public folder mailbox.
- You can exclude the mail items in the Recoverable Items folder in mailbox restore operations.
- You cannot create a subfolder in the Recoverable Items folder in a mailbox.
In Exchange Server 2013 or later, you can restore a public folder mailbox database, a public folder mailbox, or only a part of the mailbox, for example, a specific public folder.
- To restore an Exchange 2013 or later public folder mailbox, the Exchange user must have the Public Folders management role.
- You can restore a public folder mailbox only to an existing public folder mailbox that is on the Exchange Server.
- You can restore a public folder only to an existing public folder. The public folder on the Exchange Server must have the same folder path as the public folder to be restored. If the public folder is deleted from the public folder mailbox on the Exchange Server, you must re-create the public folder with the same folder path as the public folder to be restored, before you start the restore operation.
- As a best practice, restore public folder mailboxes separately from user mailboxes. Select only one public folder mailbox to restore at a time if you want to restore a specific public folder in the mailbox, or if you want to restore to a different public folder mailbox than the original mailbox.
  If you restore multiple mailboxes in a single restore operation, and at least one of the mailboxes is a public folder mailbox, the mailboxes are restored only to their original mailbox locations. You cannot specify a filter or an alternate mailbox destination.
- You might restore to a different public folder mailbox than the original mailbox if, for example, the public folder is relocated after the time of the backup. Before you complete the public folder restore operation, ensure that the public folder exists with the same folder path in the alternate mailbox location.
In Exchange Server 2013 or later, you can restore an archive mailbox or a part of the mailbox, for example, a specific folder. You can restore archive mailbox messages to a mailbox that is on the Exchange Server, to an archive mailbox, or to an Exchange Server .pst file.
If you enable a user mailbox to be archived, ensure that the user is logged on to that mailbox at least once before you complete a backup and restore operation on the mailbox.
If you restore multiple mailboxes, and you want to retain the recovery database after the restore operation is complete, ensure that all the mailboxes are in the same recovery database.
By default, Data Protection for Exchange Server restores the latest backup that is available for the specified mailbox.

The amount of time that it takes to complete the restore process depends on the size of the mailbox databases, the network speed, and the number of mailboxes to process.

Procedure

Start Microsoft™ Management Console (MMC) and select Exchange Server in the navigation tree.
On the Recover tab for the Exchange Server instance, select the Mailbox Restore view.
Select one or more mailboxes to restore.

Restriction:
A list of all available user mailboxes in the domain is displayed, including those mailboxes that were not backed up. Mailboxes that are not backed up cannot be selected for a restore operation. Only mailboxes that were backed up can be restored.

If you restore mail to a personal folder (.pst) file, or you restore a mailbox that is deleted or re-created after the time of the backup, Data Protection for Exchange Server requires a temporary mailbox to store the mailbox messages. Create a temporary mailbox by setting the Alias of temporary mailbox option on the Properties page, under the General tab.
Tip: Ensure that the temporary mailbox that you create is on a database with enough disk storage capacity to accommodate all of the mailbox items that you are restoring.
Optional: By default, the entire mailbox is restored. You can use the Item-Level Mailbox Filters to identify individual messages to restore:
1. Click Show Filter Options and Add Row.
2. In the Column Name field, click the down arrow and select an item to filter.
  - You can filter public mailbox folders only by the Folder Name column.
  - You can filter .pst files only by Backup Date, Folder Name, and All Content filters.
  - You can filter by backup date, and click the default date and time to edit the table cell. To change the date, click the arrow at the end of the cell. The calendar date selection tool is displayed. After you select a date, to display the date in the field, press Enter. To edit the time, enter the time by using the 12-hour clock time convention such as 2 p.m.
    When you specify a backup date, Data Protection for Exchange Server searches for a backup that corresponds to that exact date. If a backup with that exact date is not found, Data Protection for Exchange Server selects the first backup after that date.
3. In the Operator field, select an operator.
4. In the Value field, specify a filter value.
5. If you want to filter on more items, click Add Row.

Specify the restore options by clicking Show Restore Options.

Table 1. Database restore options
Task	Action
Keep Recovery Database After Restore	Use this option to retain a recovery database after a mailbox restore operation is complete. The default value is No. If you set the value to Yes, Data Protection for Exchange Server automatically retains the recovery database after mailbox restore processing.
Mailbox	If the alias of the mailbox to restore is not displayed in the list of mailboxes, specify the alias. This option overrides any selected mailboxes.
Mailbox Original Location	Use this option only if the mailbox was deleted or re-created since the time of the selected backup, and mailbox history is disabled. Specify the Exchange Server and the database where the mailbox was at the time of the backup. Use the following format: `server-name,db-name`, for example, `serv1,db1`.
Mark Restored Messages As Unread	Use this option to automatically mark the mailbox messages as unread after the restore operation is completed. The default value is Yes.
Use Existing Recovery Database	Use this option to restore the mailbox from an existing recovery database. The default value is Yes. If you set the value to No and a recovery database is mounted on the server before you restore the mailbox, Data Protection for Exchange Server automatically removes the recovery database during mailbox restore processing.
Enter Mount Point or Directory for MountRW Mailbox Restore	Select this option to specify either a directory path or a mount point for a read/write mount of a local VSS snapshot backup, that you want to use for a mailbox restore. If you do not use read/write mounts, no entry is necessary. Ensure that Use Existing Recovery Database value is set to No.

To complete the restore operation, click one of the following Restore options.

Table 2. Restore options
Task	Action
Restore Mail to Original Location	Select this action to restore mail items to their location at the time of the backup operation.
Restore Mail to Alternate Location	Select this action to restore the mail items to a different mailbox. Note: If deleted mail items or tasks are flagged in the Recoverable Items folder of a mailbox, the items are restored with the flag attribute to the Flagged Items and Tasks view in the target mailbox.
Restore Mail to non-Unicode PST file (Exchange Server 2013 only)	Select this action to restore the mail items to a non-Unicode personal folders (.pst) file. When you restore mail items to a .pst file with one selected mailbox, you are prompted for a file name. When you restore mail items to a .pst file with more than one selected mailbox, you are prompted for a directory location. Each mailbox is restored to a separate .pst file that reflects the name of the mailbox at the specified directory. If the .pst file exists, the file is used. Otherwise, the file is created. Restriction: The contents of each folder cannot exceed 16,383 mail items.
Restore Mail to Unicode PST file	Select this action to restore the mail items to a Unicode .pst file. When you restore mail items to a .pst file with one selected mailbox, you are prompted for a file name. When you restore mail items to a .pst file with more than one selected mailbox, you are prompted for a directory location. You can enter a standard path name (for example, c:\PST\mailbox.pst) or a UNC path (for example, \\server\c$\PST\mailbox.pst). When you enter a standard path, the path is converted to a UNC path. If the UNC is a non-default UNC path, enter the UNC path directly. Each mailbox is restored to a separate .pst file that reflects the name of the mailbox at the specified directory. If the .pst file exists, the file is used. Otherwise, the file is created.
Restore Public Folder Mailbox	Select this action to restore a public folder mailbox to an existing online public folder mailbox. You can filter the mailbox and restore a specific public folder to an existing online public folder. In the Folder to be restored field, enter the name of the public folder that you want to restore. If you are restoring a subfolder in a parent folder, specify the full folder path in this format: `parent_folder_name`/`sub_folder_name`. To restore all subfolders in a parent folder, use `parent_folder_name`/*. If the full folder path includes spaces, enclose the folder path in double quotation marks, and do not append a backslash character (\) at the end of the folder path. You can also restore all or part of a public folder mailbox to a different public folder mailbox than the original mailbox. In the Target public folder mailbox field, specify the destination public folder mailbox that you want to restore to.
Restore Mail to Archive Mailbox	This action applies to a primary mailbox or an archive mailbox. Select this action to restore all or part of either type of mailbox to the original archive mailbox or to an alternate archive mailbox. You can filter the archive mailbox and restore a specific mailbox folder. In the Folder to be restored field, enter the name of the folder in the archive mailbox that you want to restore. If you are restoring a subfolder in a parent folder, specify the full folder path in this format: `parent_folder_name`/`sub_folder_name`. To restore all subfolders in a parent folder, use `parent_folder_name`/*. If the full folder path includes spaces, enclose the folder path in double quotation marks, and do not append a backslash character (\) at the end of the folder path. In the Target archive mailbox field, specify the archive mailbox destination that you want to restore to.
Exclude recoverable mail items while restoring the mailbox	Apply this action if you are restoring an online, public folder, or archive mailbox to an original mailbox, alternate mailbox, or to a Unicode .pst file. Specify a value of Yes to exclude the mail items in the Recoverable Items folder in mailbox restore operations. No is the default value.