BACKING UP, RESTORING, AND REPAIRING EXCHANGE

1. Chapter 10 BACKING UP, RESTORING, AND REPAIRING EXCHANGE

2. Chapter 10: BACKING UP, RESTORING, AND REPAIRING EXCHANGE LESSON SKILL MATRIX

3. Chapter 10: BACKING UP, RESTORING, AND REPAIRING EXCHANGE PROTECT THE DATA • In any IT administration job role, one of the most critical and common tasks is protecting end-user data. • This data includes emails and public folder items that are used within your organization. • To protect this data, you must understand Exchange database structure, select the appropriate backup media and procedures, as well as know how to restore this data when necessary.

4. Chapter 10: BACKING UP, RESTORING, AND REPAIRING EXCHANGE EXCHANGE DATA • Exchange Server 2007 stores email and public folder items within databases on the Mailbox role servers within your organization. • Databases consist of several organized tables of information. • Each mailbox within a mailbox database is represented by several tables of information that contain emails organized by folder (e.g., Inbox, Sent Items), and each public folder within a public folder database is represented by a table in the public folder database that contains the appropriate public folder items. • Data is managed by the Extensible Storage Engine (ESE).

5. Chapter 10: BACKING UP, RESTORING, AND REPAIRING EXCHANGE EXCHANGE TRANSACTIONS • Microsoft Exchange Information Store service first writes new email and public folder items to a transaction log. • Transaction logs are small files to which programs can quickly append information. • The information in these transaction logs is then written (or committed) to the appropriate mailbox or public folder database a few moments later when the system load permits. • Because it is faster to write to smaller files compared to larger ones, transaction logs are limited to 1 MB in size in Exchange Server 2007. • In addition, transaction logs are not overwritten by default. Instead, when a transaction log reaches 1 MB in size, a new one is created.

6. Chapter 10: BACKING UP, RESTORING, AND REPAIRING EXCHANGE EXCHANGE TRANSACTIONS • Checkpoint files indicates the email and public folder items that were successfully written from the transaction log to the database. • Allows for point-in-time restore operations because the checkpoint file can be used to locate specific email and public folder items within existing log files that should be recommitted to the mailbox or public folder database.

7. Chapter 10: BACKING UP, RESTORING, AND REPAIRING EXCHANGE CIRCULAR LOGGING • New log files are not created when the E00.chk file reaches 1 MB in size. • The E00.chk is overwritten to save disk space. • Prevents you from performing transaction log backups and does not allow for point-in-time restore operations. • Should only use if your Exchange server is low on disk space and additional hard drives are unavailable.

8. Chapter 10: BACKING UP, RESTORING, AND REPAIRING EXCHANGE ESE STRUCTURE

9. Chapter 10: BACKING UP, RESTORING, AND REPAIRING EXCHANGE BACKUP MEDIA • In the past, magnetic tape media was commonly used to back up data because tapes could store large amounts of information for a low cost. • Because hard disk space is relatively inexpensive today and has a very fast transfer speed, most organizations use hard disk media to perform data backups.

10. Chapter 10: BACKING UP, RESTORING, AND REPAIRING EXCHANGE BACKUP SOFTWARE • Windows Backup ships with Windows Server 2003 and can be used to back up Exchange Server databases. • Provides an easy graphical interface that allows you to quickly locate and back up an entire storage group or individual mailbox and public folder databases. • Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS) in Windows Server 2003 can be used alongside the Windows Backup utility to make point-in-time backups from files that are open, locked, or in use. • Windows Backup utility is not able to use VSS when backing up Exchange Server 2007 databases. • Windows Backup on a Exchange Server 2007 database is done with a streaming backup. • Exchange Server 2007 is a VSS-aware application • You can choose to use a third-party VSS-aware program

11. Chapter 10: BACKING UP, RESTORING, AND REPAIRING EXCHANGE BACKUP TYPES • The backup type that you select in your backup program determines which components of your databases will be backed up. • Full (Normal) • Copy • Incremental • Differential

12. Chapter 10: BACKING UP, RESTORING, AND REPAIRING EXCHANGE FULL BACKUP • A full backup (also called a normal backup) backs up the databases that you select as well as the related transaction log files in the storage group. • The original transaction log files are deleted to reduce disk space usage on your Exchange server. • When you restore a full backup, you can choose to restore the database only or to restore the database and transaction logs. • If you choose to restore the database and transaction logs, Windows Backup can replay the transaction logs to ensure that any uncommitted email or public folder items that were stored in the transaction logs at the time the backup was created are written to the database following the restore operation.

13. Chapter 10: BACKING UP, RESTORING, AND REPAIRING EXCHANGE INCREMENTAL BACKUPS • Backs up the transaction logs that were created since the last full or incremental backup and then deletes those original transaction logs to save disk space. • During a restore operation, you must select all incremental backups that you have created. • Windows Backup then replays the restored transaction logs to ensure that the email and public folder items are committed to the appropriate databases.

14. Chapter 10: BACKING UP, RESTORING, AND REPAIRING EXCHANGE DIFFERENTIAL BACKUP • Backs up only the transaction logs that were created since the last full backup and does not remove any transaction logs. • Successive differential backups will take longer to perform as time progresses. • During a restore operation, you only need to select the last differential backup that you created because it includes the same information stored in previous differential backups. • After restoring a differential backup, Windows Backup replays the restored transaction logs to ensure that the email and public folder items are committed to the appropriate databases.

15. Chapter 10: BACKING UP, RESTORING, AND REPAIRING EXCHANGE COPY BACKUP • Backs up the databases you select as well as the related log files, but does not remove the original transaction log files. • Does not intefer with normal backup procedures • Often used before making changes to system or performing maintenance tasks.

16. Chapter 10: BACKING UP, RESTORING, AND REPAIRING EXCHANGE WINDOWS BACKUP • Windows Backup allows you to schedule a backup to run at a later time or repetitively. • Each mailbox or public folder database that will be backed up by Windows Backup must be mounted prior to running the Windows Backup program or the backup will fail. • To backup up a database, you must dismount the database • You must be a member of the Exchange Server Administrator role as well as a member of the local Administrators group on the Mailbox role server.

17. Chapter 10: BACKING UP, RESTORING, AND REPAIRING EXCHANGE SELECTING STORAGE GROUPS AND DATABASES

18. Chapter 10: BACKING UP, RESTORING, AND REPAIRING EXCHANGE SPECIFYING THE BACKUP TYPE

19. Chapter 10: BACKING UP, RESTORING, AND REPAIRING EXCHANGE RESTORING EXCHANGE DATABASES • Windows Backup can be used to restore a backup of mailbox or public folder databases that was created earlier using the same program. • When restoring a database backup that includes the associated log files using Windows Backup, you can select the Last Restore Set option to ensure that Windows Backup replays the log files after the restore operation. • If you are restoring multiple incremental backups following the restoration of a full backup, you only need to select the Last Restore Set option for the last incremental backup to replay all the log files in all incremental backups.

20. Chapter 10: BACKING UP, RESTORING, AND REPAIRING EXCHANGE RESTORING EXCHANGE DATABASES • Before performing a restore operation, you must dismount each mailbox or public folder database that will be restored by Windows Backup. • Exchange Management Console • The Dismount-Database cmdlet

21. Chapter 10: BACKING UP, RESTORING, AND REPAIRING EXCHANGE RESTORING EXCHANGE DATABASES

22. Chapter 10: BACKING UP, RESTORING, AND REPAIRING EXCHANGE RESTORING EXCHANGE DATABASES

23. Chapter 10: BACKING UP, RESTORING, AND REPAIRING EXCHANGE FULL-TEXT INDEXES • Created during normal operation by the Microsoft Exchange Search Service to speed searching for email and public folder items. • Stored in full-text index catalog directories within the same directory that holds the database file. • After restoring a database and replaying the associated log files, these fulltext index catalogs will not be synchronized to the content in the database and should be rebuilt.

24. Chapter 10: BACKING UP, RESTORING, AND REPAIRING EXCHANGE RE-CREATING THE SEARCH INDEX • Execute the net stop MSExchangeSearch command. • Delete the full-text index files. • Execute the net start MSExchangeSearch command.

25. Chapter 10: BACKING UP, RESTORING, AND REPAIRING EXCHANGE RECOVERY STORAGE GROUP (RSG) • Used during a database restore procedure to obtain a working copy of a mailbox database from a backup. • Used to test the successful creation of a backup as well as restore information to a mounted database. • Can only be used for mailbox database restore operations and cannot be accessed by email clients or participate in policies, replication, or clustering. • Configured to impersonate an existing storage group that contains mailbox databases. • The restore operation will restore the mailbox databases to the RSG instead of the original storage group. • The mailbox databases within the original storage group do not need to be dismounted and can still be available to email clients while the backup is being restored to the RSG. • After the restore operation has completed, you will have the original mounted mailbox databases as well as the backup copy of the mailbox databases in the RSG.

26. Chapter 10: BACKING UP, RESTORING, AND REPAIRING EXCHANGE CREATING A RECOVERY STORAGE GROUP

27. Chapter 10: BACKING UP, RESTORING, AND REPAIRING EXCHANGE CREATING A RECOVERY STORAGE GROUP

28. Chapter 10: BACKING UP, RESTORING, AND REPAIRING EXCHANGE DIAL-TONE RECOVERY • Used to minimize email interruption to users during a restore operation that must be performed during working hours. • If you create an RSG, you can ensure that these users lose access to their email for only a few seconds • The backup of the corrupted mailbox database is restored to the RSG while the corrupted mailbox database is still used by users. • The physical paths for the mailbox database configured in the original storage group and in the RSG are switched so that users are immediately redirected to the mailbox database in the RSG.

29. Chapter 10: BACKING UP, RESTORING, AND REPAIRING EXCHANGE DIAL-TONE RECOVERY

30. Chapter 10: BACKING UP, RESTORING, AND REPAIRING EXCHANGE MAILBOX AND DELETED ITEMS • When you delete an email using a MAPI client program such as Outlook 2007 or Entourage 2008, that email is moved to the Deleted Items folder within your mailbox, where it can still be accessed or moved to other folders. • Periodically, MAPI client users should empty the items in their Deleted Items folder to conserve space on their Mailbox role server. • When these users empty their Deleted Items folder, the items within are not immediately removed. • They are moved to the message dumpster portion of their mailbox for a specific period of time and removed by the Exchange cleanup agent on a periodic basis. • When you delete the mailbox for a mailbox user, the mailbox is moved to the message dumpster for a specific period of time before the cleanup agent removes it.

31. Chapter 10: BACKING UP, RESTORING, AND REPAIRING EXCHANGE MAILBOX AND DELETED ITEMS • You can configure the amount of time that items will be retained in the message dumpster on the Limits tab of mailbox database properties

32. Chapter 10: BACKING UP, RESTORING, AND REPAIRING EXCHANGE MAILBOX AND DELETED ITEMS • You can override deleted email limits shown on a user-by-user basis by specifying the appropriate settings in the Storage Quotas properties for the user. • You can access these properties by navigating to the Mailbox Settings tab of mailbox user properties and double clicking Storage Quotas.

33. Chapter 10: BACKING UP, RESTORING, AND REPAIRING EXCHANGE RESTORING MAILBOXES AND DELETING ITEMS • Restoring disconnected mailboxes and deleted items within the mailbox and deleted item limit can easily be performed without restoring a backup. • If you remove the mailbox for a user, you can easily reconnect the deleted mailbox to another user account within the deleted mailbox limit (30 days by default).

34. Chapter 10: BACKING UP, RESTORING, AND REPAIRING EXCHANGE RESTORING MAILBOXES AND DELETING ITEMS • You can easily recover deleted email items provided that you do so within the deleted item limit (14 days by default). If you are using a newer MAPI client (Outlook 2003, Entourage 2004, or newer), highlight the Deleted Items folder in the left pane and click Tools >Recover Deleted Items. • In the Recover Deleted Items window that appears, you can select the emails that you would like to recover and click on the Recover Selected Items icon.

35. Chapter 10: BACKING UP, RESTORING, AND REPAIRING EXCHANGE RESTORE MAILBOXES AND EMAILS FROM RSG • If you wish to restore mailboxes after the deleted mailbox limit, or restore specific emails after the deleted item limit, you will need to restore them from a backup. • You can easily restore the appropriate mailbox database to an RSG and copy/merge the entire mailbox or individual email items from the RSG to the original database.

36. Chapter 10: BACKING UP, RESTORING, AND REPAIRING EXCHANGE RESTORE MAILBOXES AND EMAILS FROM RSG

37. Chapter 10: BACKING UP, RESTORING, AND REPAIRING EXCHANGE RESTORE MAILBOXES AND EMAILS FROM RSG

38. Chapter 10: BACKING UP, RESTORING, AND REPAIRING EXCHANGE BACKING UP EXCHANGE SERVER ROLES • Although it is vital to protect the email and public folder data stored on the Mailbox role servers within your organization, you should also protect against the failure of a server role to ensure that your email infrastructure is available to the users who use it. • To protect the server roles within your Exchange infrastructure, you must understand the files and settings that should be backed up as well as procedures and practices used to restore a failed server role.

39. Chapter 10: BACKING UP, RESTORING, AND REPAIRING EXCHANGE ACTIVE DIRECTORY BACKUPS • Most Exchange configuration is stored within AD. • Deploying multiple DCs within the domains in your AD forest provides good protection against the failure of a single DC. • Regularly backing up AD is always a good practice to ensure that DCs can be restored quickly after a failure as well as to guarantee that AD corruption that is replicated to other DCs can be remedied with a restore operation. • To back up AD, you can back up the system state on your DCs. • A system state backup backs up the AD database and Group Policy (if the computer is a DC), the Windows registry, the system boot files, and several other key system files.

40. Chapter 10: BACKING UP, RESTORING, AND REPAIRING EXCHANGE SYSTEM STATE BACKUPS • You can also perform system state backups on each Exchange server regardless of whether the Exchange server is a DC or not. • These system state backups can be used to restore operating system problems on Exchange servers such as a corrupted registry or missing boot files. • To back up the system state, you can use Windows Backup and select the System State option on the Backup tab.

41. Chapter 10: BACKING UP, RESTORING, AND REPAIRING EXCHANGE EXCHANGE CONFIGURATION BACKUPS • Because system state backups could take a long time to restore, you should also back up the Windows registry keys that store Exchange configuration information in case you need to quickly restore Exchange configuration information only. • To back up the Exchange configuration within the Windows registry, you can open the Windows Registry Editor by typing regedit.exe (16-bit version) or regedt32.exe (32-bit version) at the Run dialog box on your Exchange server and perform an export: • HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Exchange • HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\Current Control Set\Services

42. Chapter 10: BACKING UP, RESTORING, AND REPAIRING EXCHANGE MAILBOX ROLE CONFIGURATION BACKUPS • The Offline Address Book (OAB) is stored on the mailbox role server itself. • For MAPI clients older than Outlook 2007 or Entourage 2008, the OAB is stored within the default public folder database. • To back up the OAB used by these clients, you can back up the default public folder database. • Outlook 2007, Entourage 2008, and later MAPI clients obtain their OAB using the Autodiscover service. • To back up the OABs used by these clients, you can back up the ExchangeOAB directory on your Mailbox role servers: C:\Program Files\Microsoft\Exchange Server\ExchangeOAB.

43. Chapter 10: BACKING UP, RESTORING, AND REPAIRING EXCHANGE HUB ROLE CONFIGURATION BACKUPS • Hub role servers store most of their configuration within AD. • You should back up the message tracking and protocol logs on each Hub role server. • Hub role servers also have a storage queue database that is used to store emails temporarily during the email relay process. • The message tracking logs on each Hub role server include important information about routed emails that may be useful in tracking the path a message took when delivered from sender to recipient. • Located in the C:\Program Files\Microsoft\Exchange Server\ TransportRoles\Logs\MessageTracking folder. • The protocol logs on all Hub role servers contain all of the SMTP communication that occurred on the send and receive connectors of those servers. • Located in the and C:\Program Files\Microsoft\Exchange Server\TransportRoles\Logs\ProtocolLog folder.

44. Chapter 10: BACKING UP, RESTORING, AND REPAIRING EXCHANGE EDGE ROLE CONFIGURATION BACKUPS • The Edge role is the only Exchange Server role that does not store its configuration within AD. • Most of its configuration, such as antispam filter settings, is stored on the local server and obtains some configuration from Hub role servers using the EdgeSync protocol. • To back up the local configuration settings on an Edge role server, you can save all Edge role settings in an XML-formatted file. • Referred to as a cloned configuration

45. Chapter 10: BACKING UP, RESTORING, AND REPAIRING EXCHANGE EDGE ROLE CONFIGURATION BACKUPS • To create a cloned configuration, you can run the ExportEdgeConfig.ps1 script within the Exchange Management Shell on your Edge role server. • For example ExportEdgeConfig.ps1 –CloneConfigData ‘C:\EdgeBackup.xml’ • This cloned configuration file can then be copied to removable media or included with other file backups.

46. Chapter 10: BACKING UP, RESTORING, AND REPAIRING EXCHANGE EDGE ROLE CONFIGURATION BACKUPS • Edge role servers maintain message tracking and protocol logs. • Because these logs may contain important information, you should back them up on each Edge role server within your organization. • By default, these are located in the C:\Program Files\Microsoft\Exchange Server\TransportRoles\Logs\MessageTracking and C:\Program Files\Microsoft\Exchange Server\TransportRoles\Logs\ProtocolLog directories on each Edge role server. • Edge role servers also log information regarding messages that were filtered by spam filtering agents within agent logs. • These logs are located by default in the C:\Program Files\Microsoft\Exchange Server\TransportRoles\Logs\AgentLog directory on each Edge role server and should be backed up alongside the message tracking and protocol logs.

47. Chapter 10: BACKING UP, RESTORING, AND REPAIRING EXCHANGE CAS ROLE CONFIGURATION BACKUPS • CAS role servers store their configuration in several locations. • Most configurations are stored within AD, but some configuration is also stored within local configuration files as well as within IIS. • Although you can back up the configuration of IIS within IIS Manager, restoring this configuration often causes problems because changes made to IIS are not synchronized with the related changes to AD. • It is best to carefully document the configuration changes that you make within IIS Manager or to OWA on a CAS role server so that those settings can be re-created following a restore. This documentation should specifically include any virtual directories or additional Web sites that you created within IIS.

48. Chapter 10: BACKING UP, RESTORING, AND REPAIRING EXCHANGE UM ROLE CONFIGURATION BACKUPS • Nearly all of the configuration information used by the UM role is stored within AD. • However, your organization may use custom audio files (*.wav) that are used by the UM role when interfacing with the telephone system or when providing Outlook Voice Access. • You can back up these custom audio files by backing up the Custom directory on your UM role server: By defaut, C:\Program Files\Microsoft\Exchange Server\UnifiedMessaging\Prompts\Custom

49. Chapter 10: BACKING UP, RESTORING, AND REPAIRING EXCHANGE RESTORING EXCHANGE SERVER ROLES • Provided that you have backed up the appropriate configuration for the server roles within your organization, you can restore a failed server role. • The process used to restore the Hub, CAS, Mailbox, and UM server roles is fundamentally different than the process used to restore an Edge role server.

50. Chapter 10: BACKING UP, RESTORING, AND REPAIRING EXCHANGE RESTORING A CAS, HUB, MAILBOX, OR UM ROLE SERVER • Fix the hardware problem, if any. • Reinstall Windows and add to the domain. • Install the prerequisite software. • Run the following command to install Exchange Server 2007 on your computer using the server role configuration information stored within AD: setup.com /m:RecoverServer • Restore logs • Restore any certificates.