Restoring mailbox data

Data Protection for Microsoft Exchange Server backs up mailbox data at the database level, and also restores individual mailbox items from the database backup.

1. Start Microsoft Management Console (MMC) and select Exchange Server in the navigation tree.
2. On the Recover tab for the Exchange Server instance, select the Mailbox Restore view.
3. Select one or more mailboxes to restore. A list of mailboxes that are backed up is displayed.
   If you restore mail to a Unicode personal folder (.pst) file, or you restore a mailbox that is deleted or re-created after the time of the backup, Data Protection for Microsoft 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.

   Attention: 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.
4. Optional: Optional: To restore individual messages instead of the entire mailbox, select Item-Level Mailbox Filters.
   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 Unicode .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 Microsoft 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 Microsoft 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.
5. 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 Microsoft 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.

6. 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.
   Restore Mail to non-Unicode PST file	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 Universal Naming Convention (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 path 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.

   Tip: Because a status indicator does not appear in MMC during the restore operation, you might assume that the operation has stopped because it is taking a long time to complete. However, depending on the amount of data, a restore operation can take several hours.