Back-up Exchange 2010

The current version of DPM is not Exchange 2010 aware*. Therefore you can not directly backup Exchange 2010 mailboxes with DPM2007.
For now (as a work around) there is a plug-in available for the Windows 2008 server backup feature that allows you to backup the Exchange 2010 databases. This plug-in is called WSBExchange.exe and is standard installed with Exchange 2010. The plug-in runs as a service (Microsoft Exchange Server Extension for Windows Server Backup), which can be used by Windows server Backup.

This is a basic way to project

• Backups are VSS-based only. You cannot make streaming ESE backups
• Backups are taken on volume level, To backup the database and log files you need to protect the full volume that contains these files.
• Only full backups can be taken
• Log file truncation will occur after a successful full backup.

First you configured Windows 2008 Server Backup locally on the mailbox server.
Then you can configure DPM to protect the backup files of Windows Server Backup on the mailbox server.

This is maybe not the most efficient way to protect your Exchange, but at least  it’s a work around till DPM is Exchange 2010 aware.

More info on protecting Exchange 2010 with Windows server backup:

• Using Windows Server Backup to Back Up and Restore Exchange Data http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd876851(EXCHG.140).aspx
• Perform a Backup of Exchange Using Windows Server Backup http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd876854(EXCHG.140).aspx
• Restore a Backup of Exchange Using Windows Server Backup: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd876864(EXCHG.140).aspx

*For Exchange 2010 TAP customers there is a special version of DPM2007 available that is Exchange 2010 aware. But this version does not support any other data then Exchange 2010

The DPMRA service terminated with service-specific error 10048

After maintenance on one of the Exchange CAS/HUB servers the DPM server could not contact the DPM agent anymore.

The Error Code:

Log Name:      System
Source:        Service Control Manager
Date:          17-7-2009 14:36:34
Event ID:      7024
Task Category: None
Level:         Error
Keywords:      Classic
User:          N/A
Computer:      servername.domain.local
Description:
The DPMRA service terminated with service-specific error 10048 (0x2740).

This article on Microsoft site tells that this could be caused by another service running on the ports used by DPMRA service. (port 5718 and 5719)

To find which service this is you can use the command netstat –oan, this returns the ports and the corresponding PID. With the command tasklist /svc  you find the service involved.

In this case the service MSExchangeFDS (Microsoft Exchange File Distribution) was running on both ports.

We used the following work around:

• Stop the Microsoft Exchange File Distribution service
• Set the DPMRA service from manual to automatically
• Start the DPMRA service
• Start the Microsoft Exchange File Distribution service

This work around fixed the issue for us.

…
Thanks to Karl

Exchange 2007 Restore with DPM and PowerShell

 

Set-up Overview

This post shows how to recover a mailbox using DPM and Powershell commands

For the examples in this post we use the following set-up

• Exchange 2007 CCR cluster: EXc01
• Storage group to recover from: SG01
• Mailbox to recover from: MBXStore01
• User to recover: Matthijs
• User to recover mail to: Manager
• Disk for recovery storage group: E:\
• Name recovery storage group: Recovery Storage Group

High-level steps for a recovery

• Create recovery storage group;
• Restore data to Recovery Storage Group;
• Copy/merge mail to target mailbox;
• Remove Recovery Storage Group.

Restore to recovery Storage Group

Task description	Example
If you do not have an existing Recovery Storage Group, create one by using the new-storagegroup cmdlet in Exchange Management Shell. Logon to the Active node of the Exchange cluster Start the exchange management shell Create a Recovery Storage Group (RSG) by running the following Exchange Management Shell cmdlet: [PS] new-storagegroup -Server [servername] -LogFolderPath [log file path] -Name “Recovery Storage Group” -SystemFolderPath [database directory] Recovery	new-storagegroup -Server exc01 -LogFolderPath E:\RSG -Name “Recovery Storage Group” -SystemFolderPath E:\RSG -Recovery
Add a recovery database to the RSG by running the following Exchange Management Shell cmdlet: [PS] new-mailboxdatabase -mailboxdatabasetorecover [database_name] -storagegroup [Server_name\RSG_name] -edbfilepath [database_path] This creates a mailbox on exchangeserver1\RSG\DB11. The .edb file name must be the same as the .edb file name for the mailbox you are recovering.	new-mailboxdatabase -mailboxdatabasetorecover exc01\SG01\MBXStore01 -storagegroup "exc01\Recovery Storage Group" -edbfilepath E:\RSG\MBXStore01.edb
Logon to the DPM server start DPM administrative console Select the recovery TAB
On the left side of the window select the Exchange cluster for which you want to perform a system state restore Expand the domain name, expand the cluster name Expand All protected data Exchange data Select the storagegroup that contains the mailbox to restore
In the middle of the window (lower screen) First select the mailbox store and select the users mailbox (Uper screen)select the data and additionally the time of the mailbox to restore. In the right side of the click recover
The recovery wizard start Check the selected settings and click next In the Select recover type window, select Recover the mailbox to an Exchange Server and click Next
In the specify destination type: Exchange server: [Exchange mailbox cluster] EXC01 Storage group name: Recovery Storage Group Database name: [RSG_databasename] mbxstore01 In the specify recovery options window, leave all settings default and click Next In the summary window, check all settings and click recover In the Recover status window, check the status and click close

     

Restore mailbox content to other mailbox

Task description	Example
Logon to the exchange cluster again Open the Exchange management Shell
Restore the content of a mailbox to another mailbox in a special folder Start by running the following Exchange Management Shell cmdlet: restore-mailbox -RSGMailbox [mailbox in RSG*] -rsgdatabase [RSG_Name\Mailbox_database_name] –baditemlimit 10-id [target_mailbox*] -Targetfolder [target_folder] *Use the display name	restore-mailbox -RSGMailbox "Matthijs" -rsgdatabase "Recovery storage group\MBXstore01" –baditemlimit 10 -id "manager” -Targetfolder "restore van Matthijs 20090704"
The confirmation question will be displayed. Check the action described and Click Y	Confirm Are you sure you want to perform this action? Recovering mailbox content from the mailbox 'Vreeken, Matthijs' in the recovery database 'EXC01\Recovery Storage
The mailbox restore is in progress
The results are displayed
In outlook there is a new folder created with the content of the restored mailbox

Restore lost mail to original mail box merge

Task description	Example
Logon to the exchange cluster again Open the Exchange management Shell
Restore the content of a mailbox to another mailbox in a special folder Start by running the following Exchange Management Shell cmdlet: restore-mailbox -id [mailbox in RSG*] -rsgdatabase [RSG_Name\Mailbox_database_name] –baditemlimit 10 *Use the display name	restore-mailbox -id "’matthijs" -rsgdatabase "Recovery storage group\MBXstore01" -baditemlimit 10
The confirmation question will be displayed. Check the action described and Click Y
The mail restore is in progress
The results are displayed
In outlook there is a new folder created with the content of the restored mailbox

Other useful restore command:

Restore only emails received/send between specify data:
Restore-mailbox _RSGMailbox <Mailbox_name_In_RSG> –RSGDatabase <RSG_Name>\<Mailbox_DatabaseName> –ID <Mailbox_Name_To_restore> –TargetFolder <Folder_Name> –StartDate <Start_date> –EndDate <EndDate>

Remove recovery storage group

Task description	Example
Logon to the exchange cluster again Open the Exchange management Shell
Dismount the database with the command: dismount-database -identity "[server_name\RSG_Name\Mailbox_database_name]”	dismount-database -identity "exc01\Recovery Storage Group\MBXstore01"
The confirmation question will be displayed. Check the action described and Click Y
Remove the mailbox from the Recovery Storage Group with the command: Remove-mailboxdatabase –identity <server_name\RSG_name\Database_name>	Remove-mailboxdatabase -identity "exc01\recovery storage group\MBXstore01"
The confirmation question will be displayed. Check the action described and Click Y
The move the Recovery Storage group with the following command: remove-storagegroup –identity <server_name\RSG_name>	remove-storagegroup –identity “exc01\recovery storage group”
The confirmation question will be displayed. Check the action described and Click Y
The recovery storage group has been removed from exchange.
Now remove the files from the Recovery Storage Group directory	E:\RSG\*.*

Exchange mailbox of user from other domain not showing under recoverable item

I run in to a rather strange issue with restoring mailboxes for a customer DPM implementation.
They have an Exchange 2007 SP1 CCR cluster on Windows 2008 SP2 in domain A.

The Exchange cluster is protected with a DPM SP1 server on Windows 2008 SP2 also in domain A. The Exchange server hosts mailboxes from users in many different domains but in the same forest.
The creation of recovery points works without errors and the log files are cleared as expected.
The issue is with recovering a mailbox. When selecting the recovery tab in the DPM administrative console, and select the Exchange cluster, then the storage group and then expand the mailbox store. Here under recoverable item I would expect to see all mailboxes in this mailbox store but instant we see only some of the mailboxes. Infect only the mailboxes of users located in the same domain as the Exchange server (domain A).Recovering the mailboxes is not a problem. When doing a recovery of the mailbox store to the recovery storage group all mailboxes in that mailbox store can be recovered this includes the mailboxes of users in other domains.


UPDATE: There is a hotfix rollup package for System Center Data Protection available that fixes this and 13 other issues. The hotfix number KB 968579 (thanks to Nagesh [MSFT] for pointing me in the right direction).
This also brings me to another important link: Recommended hotfixes for Microsoft Data Protection Manager 2007 systems.

CCR Protection

DPM 2007 provides a very nice way to protect Exchange 2007 Continues Cluster Replication. A CCR consist of Active node which service the clients and passive node that is stand-by. Traditional back- solutions connect to the active node to protect the cluster; this method has impact on the Exchange clients. With DPM 2007 you can connect to the passive node of the cluster and perform a back-up

The image above shows the DPM configuration options for CCR protection. You can choose between protecting the active, the passive or a specific node. When protecting the passive node, you can choose what DPM should do when the passive node is unavailable; protect the active node or fail the protection.