Recovering from a disaster |
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By Mike Daugherty
14 Jun 2004 | SearchExchange.com |
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The following is tip #12 from "12 ways to protect your Exchange 2003 data," excerpted
from Mike Daugherty's new book, Monitoring & Managing Microsoft Exchange Server 2003,
reprinted with permission of Digital Press, an imprint of Elsevier, copyright 2004. For more
Information, please visit www.elsevier.com. Return to the main page for more tips on this
topic.
On rare occasions, a server fails badly or is physically damaged to the point that you have
no choice except to rebuild the system. The recovery process is complex, but if you have
maintained the disaster recovery toolkit described in Section 9.2, the recovery should not
be a problem.
After fixing the system hardware (or acquiring replacement hardware), you must reinstall and
reconfigure Windows, restore your disk drives using data from your backup media, recover the
system state information from your backup media, reinstall Exchange in disaster recovery
mode, and finally recover the Exchange Information Store databases from your backup media.
The following procedure can be used to recover from a complete disaster. Many failures will
not result in complete data loss, so you may need to adjust the following procedures to
match your situation.
1. Reinstall Windows.
- Reinstall the same version of Windows by running Windows Setup with the following
options:
-- The hardware and software configuration should match the original Exchange server,
including the same components, the same version of Windows, the same service packs and hot
fixes, the same drive designations, and the same server name.
-- You should not join the Windows domain. Configure Windows as a standalone server in
a workgroup. The server will automatically
rejoin the correct domain when you restore the System State from the backup media.
2. Restore the disk drives.
3. Recover the system state. - Find and mount the correct backup media.
- From the Windows Start menu, select All Programs → Accessories
→ System Tools → Backup (see Figure 9.2).
- On the Backup or Restore Wizard Welcome window, select Advanced
Mode to start the Backup Utility (see Figure 9.3).
Note: If you clear the Always start in wizard mode check box, you can avoid
the Welcome to the Backup or Restore Wizard window in the future by going directly to the
Backup Utility.
- In the Backup Utility window, select the Restore and Manage Media tab.
- On the Restore and Manage Media tab, double-click the backup file containing the files
you want to restore. Select the System State check box. The System State backup includes
Active Directory data, Windows registry data, and other data that are not usually backed up
by file and drive backups.
- Select Start Restore to begin recovering the System State.
- Restart the server.
You will receive an error dialog box informing you that at least one service could not be
started. The failing services are the ones that require Exchange. Windows incorrectly
believes these services are configured on this server because they are listed in the System
State backup. This problem will be corrected automatically when Exchange is reinstalled in
disaster recovery mode.
4. Reinstall Exchange in Disaster Recovery Mode.
- Insert the Exchange Server 2003 CD-ROM into your CD-ROM
drive.
- Select Run from the Windows Start menu. As the command to run,
enter x:\setup\i386\setup.exe/DisasterRecovery, where x is your
CD-ROM drive. Select OK to start the setup program.
- You must install Exchange to the same drive and directory on which it was installed on
the original server. Ensure that each component that was originally installed has an action
of Disaster Recovery. If all of the originally installed components are not automatically
set for Disaster Recovery, you must manually select them. Running Exchange Setup in Disaster
Recovery mode restores the original Exchange system configuration and services. Once you have
restored the Exchange configuration, you can recover the Exchange databases.
5. Recover Exchange Information Store databases.
- Use the procedure outlined in Section 9.9 to recover the Exchange databases.
Get more "12 ways to protect your Exchange 2003 data." Return to the main
page.
About the author: Mike Daugherty is Manager of the Microsoft Consulting
Resource Unit for the Central Region as well as a Senior Solution Architect and Program
Manager with HP Consulting and Integration Services. He travels widely, working with
large Exchange installations and helping clients manage their systems. He is
based in Texas.
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