Backing Up and Restoring Exchange Server 2010 : Performing Additional Backup and Recovery Tasks

Reset the domain computer account for the lost server. In Active Directory Users And Computers, right-click the computer name, and then click Reset Account.

Install the new server, making sure you give it the same name as the old server and a matching drive configuration for drives that had Exchange data on them.

Join the server to the domain, and restart the server if necessary.

If you are using installation media, insert the Exchange Server 2010 disc in the DVD-ROM drive. At a command prompt, change to the Exchange source directory containing the Exchange Setup program.

At the command prompt, type Setup /mode:recoverserver. This tells Setup to read the configuration information from Active Directory for a server with the same name as the server from which you are running Setup. Setup then installs the Exchange roles and files on the new server using the settings that were stored in Active Directory.

Reset the domain computer account for the lost server. In Active Directory Users And Computers, right-click the computer name, and then click Reset Account.

Install the new server, making sure you give it the same name as the old server and a matching drive configuration for drives that had Exchange data on them.

Join the server to the domain.

Remove any mailbox database copies that exist on the server being recovered by using the Remove-MailboxDatabaseCopy cmdlet. Here is an example:

Remove-MailboxDatabaseCopy -Identity EngDB1\MailServer48

Tip:

Before removing copies, you should capture any lag settings for the copies so that when you add the copies again, you use the same lag settings. You can use the Get-MailboxDatabase and Set-MailboxDatabaseCopy cmdlets in the Exchange Management Shell to view and configure replay lag time, truncation lag time, and activation preference order (as well as other settings).

Remove the failed server's configuration from the database availability group by using the Remove-DatabaseAvailabilityGroupServer cmdlet. Here is an example:

Remove-DatabaseAvailabilityGroupServer -Identity EastCampusDag1
-MailboxServer MailServer48

If you are using installation media, insert the Exchange Server 2010 disc in the DVD-ROM drive. At a command prompt, change to the Exchange source directory containing the Exchange Setup program.

At the command prompt, type Setup /mode:recoverserver. This tells Setup to read the configuration information from Active Directory for a server with the same name as the server from which you are running Setup. Setup then installs the Exchange roles and files on the new server using the settings that were stored in Active Directory.

When the Setup recovery process is finished, add the server being recovered to the database availability group by using the Add-DatabaseAvailabilityGroupServer cmdlet. Here is an example:

Add-DatabaseAvailabilityGroupServer -Identity EastCampusDag1
-MailboxServer MailServer48

Once the server has been added back to the database availability group, you can add the appropriate database copies to the server by using the Add-MailboxDatabaseCopy cmdlet. Here is an example:

Add-MailboxDatabaseCopy -Identity EngDb1
-MailboxServer MailServer48

Your first step in moving a database to a new server is to commit any uncommitted transaction log files to the database by running the following command at a command prompt:

eseutil /r ENN

where ENN specifies the log file prefix for the database into which you intend to replay into the database.

Note:

If there are no transaction logs to commit, you can skip step 1.

Your next step is to create a new Mailbox database on the new server. Do not mount the database. The new database must have the same name as the name configured on the previous Exchange server. You can use the Get-MailboxDatabase cmdlet to obtain the required database name. Set the –Identity parameter to the identity of the original server, such as:

get-mailboxdatabase -Identity 'CORPSVR127'

After you create the database, you must enable the database to be overwritten by a restore operation. You can do this by setting the –AllowFileRestore parameter of the Set-MailboxDatabase cmdlet to $true, as shown in the following example:

Set-MailboxDatabase -Identity 'Accounting DB'
 -AllowFileRestore $true

Move the database files (.edb files, log files, and content indexing catalog) to the appropriate location on the new server. You must put the files in the exact locations the new server expects these files to be in. You set these locations when you created the database.

Mount the database using the Mount-Database cmdlet, as shown in the following example:

Mount-Database -Identity 'Accounting DB'

After you mount the database, you must modify the user account settings with Set-Mailbox so that the accounts point to the mailbox on the new mailbox server. To use Set-Mailbox to move all of the users from the old database to the new database, run the following command:

Get-Mailbox -Database 'OldDatabaseIdentity' | where {$_.ObjectClass
-NotMatch '(SystemAttendantMailbox|ExOleDbSystemMailbox)'}|
Set-Mailbox -Database 'NewDatabaseIdentity'

where OldDatabaseIdentity is the name of the source database and NewDatabaseIdentity is the name of the target database, such as:

Get-Mailbox -Database 'Mailbox DB 1105' | where {$_.ObjectClass
-NotMatch '(SystemAttendantMailbox|ExOleDbSystemMailbox)'}|
Set-Mailbox -Database 'Accounting DB'