Hi all,
Today I spent some time playing with Exchange 2007, and I’ve found a way to mount a VSS Exchange Backup (such as that done with Windows Server Backup [imaging]) as a recovery storage group. I only just figured it out, and we’ll be writing up more comprehensive instructions shortly.
But here’s what I did:
Firstly – restore your backup to an alternate location – Follow the steps here How to restore Exchange 2007, but in step 8, choose an Alternate location, and restore the files to somewhere like your desktop or temp directory.
Second – create a RSG in Exchange Server – start the Exchange Management Console > Toolbox > Database Recovery Management. Then enter in the name of your server to connect to the server, and you’ll get the task list. Click on Create a recovery storage group and follow the prompts to create it.
Third – copy over the backup database to the RSG location and rename the files. Copy all the files from the relevant storage group (restored from your backup in step one) into the empty directory created for the RSG in step two. Then you’ll need to rename each file starting with “E” to make it start with “R” instead. Just change the first letter of each file from “E” to “R”.
Fourth – mount the RSG. Do this from the Exchange Troubleshooting Assistant (the tool you used in Step two).
You can then merge mailboxes across from the RSG to the main storage group using the Exchange Troubleshooting Assistant. Don’t forget to dismount the store and delete the RSG once you’re finished.
Enjoy!
Linus
2 thoughts on “How to restore an Exchange 2007 VSS Backup to a Recovery Storage Group”
This response came through to us via email – so it’s nice to know that others have had success with this method too!
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Linus, Michael, Sally, and Stuart,
I would like to say thanks for your responsiveness and support with Backup Assist, Exchange 2007, and Windows 2008.
I have used the instructions in your blog post to test merging and copying mailboxes from a Recovery Storage group with a linked Storage Group. Your product works well, fills a much needed hole in Windows 2008 backup/restore, and gives us a way to finally backup/restore exchange 2007 on Windows 2008.
When I completed the above procedure I received an error stating it could not mount the store when I tried to mount it. It turned out the only way the store would mount was to delete all the files containing E????????.Log. I left the one file E00.chk and renamed that to R00.chk as per your above recommendations and Whalla! Perfect mount of the store. Hope this helps others.
For reference I was using:
Windows SBS 2008 64Bit
Microsoft Exchange 2007 SP1 + Update Rollup 8