Archive:Restoring Exchange

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This is not the latest version of SEP sesam documentation and, as such, does not provide information on features introduced in the latest release. For more information on SEP sesam releases, see SEP sesam Release Versions. For the latest documentation, check Exchange documentation.


Overview

This article represents the latest information on restoring Exchange with SEP sesam Exchange Recovery Pro, applicable for SEP sesam version 4.4.2 and 4.4.3. For details on any of the previous Exchange extensions, refer to SEP sesam Exchange documentation.

SEP sesam Exchange Recovery Pro works with your existing Microsoft Exchange Server backup architecture and procedures to recover individual mailboxes, folders, messages, attachments, calendar items, notes, and tasks directly to your production Microsoft Exchange Server or any Personal Folders (PST) file. This eliminates time-consuming and expensive single mailbox(brick-level) backups. Exchange Recovery Pro also lets you search and create a copy of all archived email that matches a given keyword or criteria.

Before attempting to recover Exchange, all preparation steps have to be performed properly, including configuration and backup. Depending on your SEP sesam version, see one of the following configuration guides for details: Exchange configuration guide for SEP sesam Version 4.4.3.x or Exchange configuration guide for SEP sesam Version 4.4.2.x.

For detailed guidelines on using SEP sesam Exchange Recovery Pro, including organizing the Microsoft Exchange server database files for SEP sesam Exchange Recovery Pro and detailed explanation of its options, see SEP sesam Exchange Recovery Pro User Guide.pdf.

Key features

Simple and fast restore of an individual mailbox
Restore mail items from a full backup directly into your production Microsoft Exchange Server, or directly into a new or existing PST file. Individual mailboxes can be restored directly from a Microsoft Exchange Server Database (EDB) file.
Search & find across all mailboxes
An Advanced Find feature enables you to search across all mailboxes in an archive EDB file, rather than searching one mailbox at a time or bringing an old backup

back online for analysis. You can search by a variety of criteria, including keywords, subject, date and specific users.

Prerequisites

Before attempting to recover Exchange, all preparation steps have to be performed properly, including configuration and backup. Depending on your SEP sesam version, see the relevant configuration guide for details. Make sure that the following conditions are met:

  • A SEP sesam data store Path or SEP sesam Si3 data store is required for instant single item recovery.
  • If the backups are encrypted, compressed or stored on tape or a Linux data store, a manual restore to a Windows x64 system (with installed SEP sesam Client, Exchange Recovery Pro for Exchange, Microsoft Outlook (32-bit, 2007/2010/2013)) is required. An additional Outlook license is not required and does not need to be activated.
  • Make sure that there is sufficient free space on the Windows x64 system that will be used to recover the Exchange database and corresponding transaction log files.
  • SEP sesam Exchange Recovery Pro can only be run by users with administrative privileges and in administrative mode.

Limitations

  • If you have ever copied or moved a message using Microsoft Office Outlook, and later restored that same item with SEP sesam Recovery Pro, the message may be duplicated. This is because the message ID numbers differ between SEP sesam Recovery Pro and the Microsoft Exchange Server.
  • Newly created mailboxes on the Microsoft Exchange Server do not become visible within SEP sesam Recovery Pro until someone has logged onto the mailboxes with Microsoft Office Outlook, or at least one message is delivered (or copied) to the mailbox. Until one of these two events occurs, there is no physical mailbox, only directory information.
  • SEP sesam Recovery Pro does not check messages or attachments for viruses when restoring them from the database. If your server antivirus program has current signature files, it should identify and protect against infected messages when the restored messages are on the live server.
  • Due to the database nature of the PST file and the MAPI subsystem, PSTs opened as source will be modified.
  • Mailbox Creation Wizard is not supported on Windows Server 2012 R2 as Microsoft Exchange Server 2013 or earlier Management Tools is not supported on Windows Sever 2012 R2.
  • The Message Table and Attachment Table Views do not support Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 or later EDB sources as Microsoft stopped supporting single instance storage with Microsoft Exchange Server 2010.
  • The following SEP sesam Excange Recovery Pro features are not supported with Microsoft Exchange Server 2016:
    • MailboxCreation Wizard
    • Content Analysis Store
    • Message views
    • Reports
    • Exporting organizational forms

Connection modes

SEP sesam Recovery Pro supports more ways of connecting to a Microsoft Exchange Server target. You can set your connection preferences in the Exchange Recovery Pro -> Edit -> Preferences -> Target Options.

  • Outlook Anywhere: In Microsoft Exchange Server, the Outlook Anywhere feature (also known as RPC over HTTP) allows clients to connect using HTTP. This enables users outside of an organisation's network to connect to the Microsoft Exchange Server without using VPN. If you are using Outlook Anywhere to connect to a target Microsoft Exchange Server, SEP sesam Exchange Recovery Pro uses Autodiscover to determine the correct connection policies. If Autodiscover is not in use or cannot determine the connection polices, the Outlook Anywhere page appears, displaying the values from the most recent successful connection using Outlook Anywhere. The values are empty if no previous connection exists.
    Outlook Anywhere is supported by Microsoft Outlook 2003, 2007, 2010 and 2013, using Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 and later.
  • Note
    Microsoft Outlook 2003 is not supported on Microsoft Exchange Server 2013. With Microsoft Exchange Server 2013, direct MAPI access to the Microsoft Exchange Server is no longer supported, so Outlook Anywhere is required to connect to the server.
  • Autodiscover: Simplifies the process of connecting to a Microsoft Exchange Server by returning the connection settings when requested by a client application. Clients such as Microsoft Outlook can retrieve the connection settings by issuing a request to Autodiscover with the user's SMTP email address. These settings are then used to configure the user profile and establish a connection. Autodiscover is supported by Microsoft Outlook 2007 and later, using Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 and later.

Restore using Exchange Recovery Pro

  1. From the SEP sesam GUI menu bar, select Activities -> Restore. The New restore task window opens.
  2. Select the Exchange save set you want to restore. You can search save sets by task name or by filename or path.
    • If searching by task name, use the drop-down list of available tasks and select the one you want to restore from. This option is selected by default.
    • If searching by filename/path, select the option Filename or path in save set and enter your search expression in the search pattern field.
  3. Under the Saved in period drop-down lists, specify the time frame for which you want to conduct the search. Click Next.
  4. The search results are displayed. From the list of save sets matching your query, select the desired version by clicking on it, then click SEP sesam Recovery Pro for Exchange. Do not select any special options such as Mount save set because Recovery Pro mounts the target save set by default. Click Next.

  5. Select the database you wish to restore. As it is only possible to restore one database at a time, DO NOT select any of the subfolders and select a whole database on the second layer. Click Next.

  6. A mount action is triggered: the selected save set is mounted to the SEP sesam directory var\tmp\mnt. Click Next to display a note about the Exchange Recovery Pro shortcut, which has been saved to the SEP sesam server desktop. Do not click the Finish button until your restore has been completed. Clicking Finish will close the Exchange Recovery Pro, the save set will be unmounted and your restore session will be closed.


  7. Double-click the Exchange Recovery Pro shortcut on your desktop. SEP sesam Exchange Recovery Pro opens and a Data Wizard is displayed.

  8. Select the source type and specify the location, then click Finish. The database is displayed in the Source window.
  9. Search the mailboxes and mails you want to restore. You can browse the mailboxes and emails or click the magnifying glass icon to open the Find dialog.

  10. Now click the third icon from the left to select the target Exchange server. The Target Selection opens.

  11. Select the target. If you are restoring a single mailbox, enter the email address of the mailbox user whose mailbox/emails you want to restore. Enter the server name and enable the options Connect using Autodiscover and Connect using Outlook Anywhere. Click Next.
  12. A security certificate warning pops up. Click Yes to proceed and enter the mailbox user name and its password to open the target. The live target Exchange is opened below in the Target window.
  13. In the Source window, select the items you want to restore and drag & drop them to the target destination. Note that you can create a new folder in the target destination, e.g., Restore, to provide the mailbox user with quick access to the restored items.

  14. If you want to restore additional mailboxes/emails, select a new target. Otherwise, close SEP sesam Recovery Pro and click Finish in the New restore task window to unmount the save set. Click Next to close your restore session.

Manual restore from tape or Linux sesam server

If your Exchange backups are encrypted, compressed or stored on tape or a Linux datastore, a manual restore to a Windows x64 system (with installed SEP sesam Client, Exchange Recovery Pro for Exchange, Microsoft Outlook (32-bit, 2007/2010/2013)) is required.

  1. From the SEP sesam GUI menu bar, select Activities -> Restore.
  2. To configure your restore task, select the Exchange save set you want to restore. From the list of save sets matching your query, select the desired version by clicking it. If the option Hide migrated is checked, the migrated save sets are not displayed. Do not select any special options such as Mount save set. Click Next.

  3. Data from the selected save set is displayed in a hierarchical tree structure. Select the database and log files you wish to restore. Click Next.

  4. Review your configured restore task. From the Target node drop-down list, select the new target node on which the SEP sesam Client, Exchange Recovery Pro for Exchange and Microsoft Outlook (32-bit, 2007/2010/2013) are installed. Make sure that there is sufficient free space in the selected directory for the restore. Click Start to start the restore.
  5. Open Exchange Recovery Pro and start the restore wizard.

  6. Select the location of the .edb and .log files.

  7. Connect to the target Exchange server. Select one of the following options:
    • Export e-mails, contacts, ... to a .pst file.
    • Exporting to PST: You can export to a .pst file from the Source and Target panes, the Source and Target Message lists and the Source and Target Find windows.
  8. Recover to a live Exchange server/mailbox. If there is a special user with administrative access to all mailboxes, you can select Microsoft Exchange Server (All mailboxes) as the target and use that user's credentials for authentication. If there is no such user, you can connect to a Single mailbox with the correct user credentials. For details on connecting to a Microsoft Exchange Server target, see Connection modes. You can set your connection preferences in the Exchange Recovery Pro -> Edit -> Preferences -> Target Options.
  9. Target connection for Exchange/DAG 2003, 2007 and 2010


    Target connection for Exchange/DAG 2013

  10. Drag and drop the specific items to the online mailbox/Exchange server, or view/export them with a right-click.

Known issues

If you have problems with Exchange, check the Troubleshooting Guide.

See also

Exchange configuration guide for SEP sesam Version 4.4.3.xExchange configuration guide for SEP sesam Version 4.4.2.xSEP sesam Exchange Recovery Pro User Guide.pdfAll Exchange versions