Exchange mailbox restore operations

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By using IBM Storage Protect Snapshot, you can restore an entire mailbox or selected mailbox items to the original mailbox, another online mailbox on the same server, or to a Unicode or non-Unicode .pst file.

Restriction:

In the Mailbox Restore view of Microsoft Management Console (MMC), you can restore mail items to Unicode and non-Unicode .pst files. In the Mailbox Restore Browser view, however, you can restore mail items to only non-Unicode .pst files.

The Recoverable Items folder is a storage area in a mailbox that contains operational data about the mailbox. Depending on the Exchange Server functions that you enabled for the mailbox, you can recover and restore the following types of mail items in the Recoverable Items folder:
  • Deleted item retention
  • Single item recovery
  • In-place hold
  • Litigation hold
  • Mailbox audit-logging
  • Calendar logging
Typically, a mailbox is set up to protect mail items from being accidentally or maliciously deleted, or to retrieve mail items during litigation or investigations.
Mailbox-enabled functions
You can verify whether a mailbox is enabled for mailbox restore operations by running the following Exchange Powershell cmdlets. In the examples, the mailbox is for George Clark:
Deleted item retention
Get-Mailbox "george clark" | FL RetentionHoldEnabled,
 RetainDeletedItemsFor, RetainDeletedItemsUntilBackup
Single item recovery
Get-Mailbox "george clark" | FL SingleItemRecoveryEnabled
In-place hold
Get-Mailbox "george clark" | FL InPlaceHolds
Litigation hold
Get-Mailbox "george clark" | FL LitigationHoldEnabled
Mailbox audit-logging
Get-Mailbox "george clark" | FL AuditEnabled,
 AuditLogAgeLimit
Calendar logging
Get-Mailbox "george clark" | FL CalendarVersionStoreDisabled
Mail items in the Recoverable Items folder
In the mailbox restore views in Microsoft Management Console (MMC), you can recover and restore mail items from the subfolders within the Recoverable Items folder. You can also complete this task by issuing the restoremailbox command. The following table lists the subfolders that are included in the Recoverable Items folder.
Table 1. Table 1. Exchange Server Recoverable Items folder contents
Recoverable Items subfolderMailbox-enabled functionsSubfolder contents
DeletionsDeleted item retentionContains mail items that a user deleted from the Deleted Items folder in their mailbox
Versions
  • In-place hold
  • Litigation hold
  • Single item recovery
Contains the original and modified copies of the deleted mail items
Purges
  • Litigation hold
  • Single item recovery
Contains all mail items that a user hard deleted, that is, purged from their mailbox
AuditsMailbox audit-loggingContains audit log entries
Discovery HoldsIn-place holdContains mail items that are to be protected from deletion and match hold query parameters
Calendar LoggingCalendar loggingContains calendar changes that occur within a mailbox
Restriction:
  • You cannot restore the Recoverable Items folder and subfolder hierarchy to a mailbox restore destination. You can restore only the contents of the email folders.
  • You cannot create a subfolder in the Recoverable Items folder in a mailbox.
  • You can restore the Recoverable Items content for a public folder mailbox but not for each public folder in the public folder mailbox.
Related tasks
Related reference
Related information