High availability/Disaster Recovery Forum

Backup Restore - Blank Email Body

Mon, 16 Nov 2009 23:14:00 Z

Hi,

i am running exchange server 2003 enterprise edition with 4 stores, on windows server 2003 standard Sp2 fully updated.

i am using Backup Exec 12.5 to backup the information stores with GRT.

when i try to restore messages from backup, many of the restored messages have the body of the email missing! there seems to be nothing common to these messages, some have attachments and some do not.

Symantec have been working with me for weeks and can not fix the problem.

could this be a problem with the information stores or the exchange server? or will it definitely be a backup exec problem?

I can export to a PST in outlook from a mailbox and all the body is there, no problem.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

Shazz

move exchange database to another server

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 23:37:03 Z

Hi,

How can i move the data exchange 2003 data base from one server called server1 with ip 1.1.1.1 to another server called server2 with ip 2.2.2.2? I have read many doc´s that explain how to restore a db to a diferent hardware, but same name and same ip than the old server.

Could you explain how to, or if you have any document, i apreciate.

Thanks a lot

Saul

When I "demote" the front end server on my Windows 2003 Exchange server, the "back end server users cannot send mail to the outside world.

Mon, 30 Nov 2009 14:20:20 Z

When we "demote" the "front-end" server (OMA) on my Windows 2003 Exchange server, on the "back-end" server users cannot send mail to the outside world.

1. Users can receive from the outside and inside.
2. Users can send to the inside.

But they cannot send email to the outside world and OMA doesn't work. We have checked the firewall and nothing is being blocke and all the Exchange Services have been restarted on the back end server.

What are we missing in the steps?

Also I am getting this message in the Event viewer on the back end server:Event ID 4515

The zone sassenheim.emea.sensitech.nl was previously loaded from the directory partition DomainDnsZones.sassenheim.emea.sensiteh.nl but another copy of the zone has been found in the directory partititon ForestDnsZones.sassenheim.emea.sensitech.nl. The DNS Server will ignore this new copy of the zone. Pleae resolve the confilct as soon as possible.

Setup.com /RecoverCMS Errors/Changes with Service Pack 2

Thu, 26 Nov 2009 18:41:04 Z

I have a source SCC Exchange 2007 SP2 UR1 cluster and a target single-node cluster. After running setup.com /recovercms, the following errors appear:

Clustered Mailbox Role Checks ......................... COMPLETED
At least two network interfaces are required on each node in a failover cluster. This cluster has fewer than two networks defined. This is not a supported configuration for production environments.
The installed version of Exchange Server 2007 may be different from the version you are trying to install. The current installed version is '8.2.217.3', the last installed version was '8.2.176.2'.

The first error message is new to Service Pack 2 as it never was an issue before. A single-node cluster does not need two network cards and in this scenario is only meant for disaster recovery, so why has this been coded in as a check?

The second error message is in regards to the minor build not incrementing from Update Rollup installation. I thought this was resolved with an update to EXPBA during the days of SP1?

Sean | http://seanv.wordpress.com

The specified mailbox ... does not exist on database ...

Fri, 27 Nov 2009 19:57:39 Z

I am trying to restore a folder in an Exchange mailbox. After restoring the database to the RSG, I try to run

Restore-Mailbox -Identity user1 -RSGDatabase "Server\SGR\Mailbox01" -IncludeFolders "\Foldername"

This always results with an error message indicating "The specified mailbox USER1 does not exist on the database SERVER\SGR\MAILBOX01". I have tried multiple mailboxes in different stores on different mailbox servers and get the same result. This used to work but this week it does not. Some time ago, we applied Rollup 9 for Exch 2007 SP1 and I do not know if it has worked since then or not.

CCR or NetApp SnapManager 4.0 or both?

Thu, 11 Jan 2007 16:43:01 Z

All,

Have a query which I'm hoping someone can answer! I have been performing snapshots on my Exchange 2003 server every 3 hours for the last year. 1000 mailboxes, with 200mb limits so the databases are not too big. The snapshot are taken by Snapmanager for Exchange directly on our NetApp filer.

Great recoverability but the Exchange server gets kinda slow when the snapshot is taking place.

Due to growth, company acquisition and the transfer of our servers to a datacenter we are looking to move to Exchange 2007.

I have the budget to get 2 mailbox servers (one for each datacenter) and 2 combined CAS/Hub transports.

My Question - if I configure CCR, do I still need snapshots? I was thinking of configuring the dumpsters to hold mail for 2 days (far more than I need).

One or the other?......or both?

Exchange backup after applying SP2 - log files not truncated

Wed, 23 Sep 2009 15:39:33 Z

Hi Experts

My Lab Env.
2 windows 2003 DC/GC
1 windows 2003 R2 / Exchange 2007 SP2 HT/CAS server
2 windows 2008 CCR servers with exchange 2007 SP2 installed on both nodes

I am running the windows server backup from active node to backup the databases to a network share , the backup completes successfully and i can see the backup files on the network share as well, but the log files are not getting truncated and on the SG properties the last full backup date is not coming up.

Any thoughts or advise to resolve the issue will be appreciated
Thanks
Asif

database,backup,exchange server 2003

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 07:16:31 Z

1. if i dont have a database backup in exchange server 2003 & if database is corrupt how we can recover it immediately

2 how we can recover a single mailbox after rentention period is experied or mailbox has been permanently deleted

3 there is any link or website that can give complete knowledge of every group policy in windows server 2003

Thanks

Want to recover mails for single user in Exchange server 2007

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 06:57:20 Z

Hi,

one of my user using MAPI and archived all his mail. but after some time he found that mails of a time period he deleted accedently. i have taken data backup of exchange server 2007.

what would be the process to retrieve mails for that user.

Thanks & Regards,
Balwan Singh

Exchange database rollback, more work with cached mode?

Tue, 24 Nov 2009 19:38:07 Z

Senerio: Exchange 2007sp2 with Outlook 2003sp3 running in cached mode.

I've been testing restores on our new Exchange server and ran into the following issue:

If I do a "point in time" restore (this is using the Netbackup, but I doubt the method matters), it works fine but Cached mode clients still contains the "old" data. OWA and Online mode show that the server mailboxes have been correctly restored to the "point in time", but the changes are not syncronized down to the cache. Anyway to force this? I really don't want to have to deleted and recreate 800+ Outlook cached files (the re-sync itself would be a nightmare).

Thanks,
-J

Scheduled Backup using Windows Server Backup

Wed, 25 Nov 2009 11:29:28 Z

Hi,

I'm trying to schedule an Exchange backup using Windows Server Backup in Server 2008 (using the new VSS-plugin in SP2). When doing a one off backup I'm able to select just the Exchange drive for a successful backup, but when trying to create a schedule I'm unable to deselect the system drive. How do I go about this?

Thanks,

Matt

How are passive node logs truncated in a CCR cluster?

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 22:40:58 Z

If you do a streaming ESE backup on the primary node in a CCR cluster and truncate the logs, how does Exchange know or the Backup know to truncate the logs of the passive node? I've tried searching but can't seem to get any google results on this topic.

We Have a Disaster!!

Wed, 25 Nov 2009 16:18:14 Z

Our Exhange 2003 SP2 server went belly up last Friday. In ran on a Win2003 Server R2 in a Win2003 domain.

We have backups using Acronis Recovery for Exchange.

We have purchased a new server and installed the same version of Win2003 SP2 on it. Problem we cannot restore. We are working with the Acronis support but so far they have not been able to tell us how to set up Exchange so the restore is successful. For example one problem seem to be that Exchange cannot contact the global catalog server.

If anyone who has used Acronis for Exchange and done a full restore can tell us how to configure a new Exchange 2003 install so the Acronis restore will work would be greatly appreciated.

public folders deleted by age limit

Wed, 25 Nov 2009 07:58:44 Z

contents of public folders deleted by changing age limit by an error. is there any way to recover them all ?

ismail filiz

Windows Server 2008 / Exchange 2007 SP2 SCC installation issue

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 06:22:02 Z

Good day every1,

I hope someone has a answer to the problem which I am experiencing...

I have a fresh clustered install of Windows Server 2008+Sp2.

I have shared storage on a EMC which is accessible to both Server systems.

When I install Exchange Server 2007SP2 SCC, the active node install fails everytime at the the Mailbox installation indicating the the system could not start the "Exchange Transport Log Search" service.

Has anyone experienced a similar issue? If so, what action was taken to resolve the problem?

Thanking you in advance.

Regards

Frederick

Standby Continuous Replication

Mon, 23 Nov 2009 20:46:00 Z

I have had some problems with my SCR server.

3 of the 5 storage groups are healthy. 2 of the 5 are NotConfigured.

I issue this command which has worked in the past:
Enable-StorageGroupCopy -Identity "newman\First Storage Group" -StandbyMachine Elaine

But now I get the message:
Enable-StorageGroupCopy : The location for CopyLogFolderPath is not on a fixed
drive.
At line:1 char:24
+ Enable-StorageGroupCopy <<<< -Identity "newman\First Storage Group" -Standby
Machine Elaine

Not sure where to go from here...

Exchange 2007, High availability with SAN replication to DR site

Sun, 22 Nov 2009 15:18:16 Z

Hi All,

We have following existing exchange 2007 +win 2003 setup

MBX - SCC cluster on HP SAN storage
CAS - 1
HUb - 1
ISA - 1

We want to build DR site for exchange 2007 using HP SAN replication.

In DR site, We have HP SAN ( Where the primary SAN information is replication to DR site). We want to use this SAN data on DR site. When site goes down we want to use single MBX server DR site. We dont want to use SCR in Ex2007 as it has own replication mechanism.

DR site WILL have CAS,HUB and ISA too

Please suggest me or guide me with docs how to proceed further.

thanks
UD

Exchange VSS Writer has unsuccessfully completed the backup of storage group. No log files have been truncated for this storage group.

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 02:58:52 Z

Hi,

New Exchange 2007 SP2 CCR build. Windows Server 2008 SP2, Dell EqualLogics iSCSI SAN.

I have configured Windows Server Backup and run a couple of jobs as a test, however the log files are not truncating and Event 9782 is being logged, followed by ESE Event 2007:

Log Name: Application

Source: MSExchangeIS

Date: 5/11/2009 1:04:06 PM

Event ID: 9782

Task Category: Exchange VSS Writer

Level: Error

Keywords: Classic

User: N/A

Computer: O2TDC-EXC02.oxygenforbusiness.com

Description:

Exchange VSS Writer (instance 363b8861-fe7d-4ecb-af90-79fbb03d9986:1) has unsuccessfully completed the backup of storage group 'Oxygen'. No log files have been truncated for this storage group.

Log Name: Application

Source: ESE

Date: 5/11/2009 1:04:06 PM

Event ID: 2007

Task Category: ShadowCopy

Level: Error

Keywords: Classic

User: N/A

Computer: O2TDC-EXC02.oxygenforbusiness.com

Description:

Information Store (1924) Shadow copy instance 1 aborted.

There are 2 VSS providers installed:

[PS] C:\Windows\System32>vssadmin list providers

vssadmin 1.1 - Volume Shadow Copy Service administrative command-line tool

Provider name: 'Microsoft Software Shadow Copy provider 1.0'

Provider type: System

Provider Id: {b5946137-7b9f-4925-af80-51abd60b20d5}

Version: 1.0.0.7

Provider name: 'DELL EqualLogic VSS HW Provider'

Provider type: Hardware

Provider Id: {d4689bdf-7b60-4f6e-9afb-2d13c01b12ea}

Version: 3.3.0.4883

The Exchange writer is showing as stable and has no errors

[PS] C:\Windows\System32>vssadmin list writers

vssadmin 1.1 - Volume Shadow Copy Service administrative command-line tool

Writer name: 'Microsoft Exchange Writer'

Writer Id: {76fe1ac4-15f7-4bcd-987e-8e1acb462fb7}

Writer Instance Id: {afe117b1-d0d1-4690-93cf-905f5a1796df}

State: [1] Stable

Last error: No error

There are no other errors in the event log however the previous event is from the EqualLogics VSS writer which suggests this may be interfering:

Log Name: Application

Source: EqualLogic

Date: 5/11/2009 1:03:36 PM

Event ID: 1000

Task Category: VSS

Level: Information

Keywords: Classic

User: N/A

Computer: O2TDC-EXC02.oxygenforbusiness.com

Description:

The service EqlVss has been successfully started

What is my next step to troubleshoot this issue? I have also raised this with Dell.

I am currently backing up using the EqualLogic Auto-Snapshot Manager (Host Integration Toolkit 3.3) which is application aware, however does not do a full backup or truncate logs when it snapshots the information store.

I need to get the logs truncating before I can start moving mailboxes onto this server.

exchange 2007 backup

Mon, 16 Nov 2009 14:28:11 Z

Hi !

I have an Exchange 2007 server with all the roles installed and with an attached external storage for mailboxes. I need to have a backup, an exchange-aware backup. I followed the sugestions of Best Practices Analizer and made a full-server backup, with system-state, including all partitions (+external storage where resides the mailbox databases) and all the stuff. The backup was completed without errors, but the next day when I performed again the best practices analizer, i noticed that exchange was not aware of the backup and it kept reporting "database back-up critical". Can anyone help and provide some extra-info on how to do an exchange-aware backup ? or give me a link with a free exchange 2007-aware backup software.

many, many thnx !!!

LCR and Windows Backup in Exchange 2007 SP2 on Windows 2008 SP2

Thu, 24 Sep 2009 08:51:16 Z

I am working with Exchange 2007 SP2 on Windows 2008 SP2.
I try to backup the volumes using Windows Backup.

If I enable LCR on the storage groups, the backup will complete with an error message:
" application will not be available for recovery from this backup. Consistence check failed for component microsoft Exchange server \microsoft information store \ servername\.... "
The backup is not flushing the transaction logs.
B ut if I disable the LCR, the backup process will run smooth. The transaction logs are flushed.

Is LCR not supported by Windows Backup (with Exchange SP2)?
Or is there some thing else should I do for LCR and Windows Backup to work correctly ?

Can i have CCR Passive Database on SAN Drive?

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 21:29:50 Z

Hi All,

Just had question? can i have my Passive node database on SAN drive? if No, than what could be issue if i have? what issues i will face?

Thanks
-Gulab

Recover deleted mailbox from exchange 2003

Sat, 14 Nov 2009 10:18:32 Z

Hello all,

I deleted exchange mailbox two days ago. I had a TSM backup but some reason it failed to backup and resotore. I deleted the mailbox and purged. Now, there is a particular user´s mailbox needs to be restored. I have no luck yet. But Mailbox storage properties shows in deleting settings that keep deleted items for 7 days and keep deleted mailboxes for 30 days. Is there anyway I can recover from that point ?

Any help would be appericiated.

M

Additional Exchange 2007 Servers - AD sites question

Thu, 12 Nov 2009 23:45:25 Z

We are adding redundancy to our existing Exchange 2007 organization by adding an additional CAS server and an additional MBX/HT server. The problem we're facing is that the redundant servers are currently in a different AD site (SiteB). Unfortunately, we need that second AD site (for another domain...customer requirement) and would like to keep the networking we have in place. From what I can gather, in order to for the servers to work, all servers need to be on the same AD site (please correct me if I'm wrong).

SiteA

Domain 1

1.1.1.x

SiteB

Domain2

2.2.2.x

In the above example, since I cannot move the entire 2.2.2.x subnet to SiteA, does anyone see a problem with splitting the existing 2.2.2.x subnet into additional subnets (2.2.2.0-2.2.2.239 and 2.2.2.240-2.2.2.245)? Then we could move the 240-245 subnet into SiteA leaving both the networking and the existing SiteB mostly untouched. Does this sound like the correct procedure? What effect would this have on existing servers in SiteB?

Additionally, if we are willing to use a secondary URL for accessing the second CAS server (during maintenance etc), is there anything we should do besides moving the servers to the same site as the mailboxes? We have the mailbox replication taken care of, but are there any side effects on Autodiscover/Out of Office/Free Busy by simply adding a second CAS server? Thanks in advance.

Exchange 2007 DR - Will this work?

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 16:25:13 Z

We have a single Exchange 2007 SP2 Server running on Windows 2003 EE as a virtual machine in an VM Ware ESX server system. I'll try to be as specific as I can, my opinion at this point is that this isn't an exchange issue at all, but regardless the Exchange org is being severly impacted and my priority at this point is getting Exchange back online and avaliable.

Issues:

Extreme lag in system responsivness. Exchange Managment Console takes 10 minutes to open. Opening My Computer takes a few minutes as well. System reboot time takes approximatly 30 to 45 minutes. These issues are not Exchange specific, but are affecting Exchange avaliabllity to the degree that it isn't usable. The technicians on site are saying that backups for the last few weeks are also compromised. It's worth noting that the storage array system for backups and exchange databases are the same and that all the high input/output vm's on the ESX system are suffering varying levels of problems as well though Exchange is by far the most visible.

Solution:

It just so happens that I was able to verify remotly that we do have offline copies of all mailbox edb files, I verified that those files are in a "Clean Shutdown" state. The data in those files is not 100% new, but it would represent 80 to 90% of the data users had before. My general idea in getting everything up and running in the shortest amount of time with as much data as possible is as follows:

1) Backup Active Directory
2) Shutdown ESX Based Exchange 2007 system
3) On a dedicated box, re-install Windows 2003 EE to proper patch levels/service packs/drive letter assignments.
4) Re-join system to Active Directory using the same name as the shutdown system from step 2.
5) Ensure folder paths and drive letter assignments match shutdown system from step 2.
6) Re-install Exchange 2007 using "setup.com /mode:recover"
7) Update Exchange to SP2 + necessary patches
8) Copy offline "clean shutdown" databases into their proper locations.
9) Mount Databases
10) Elation, sleep.

This seems like it will work like a charm to me, but the guys on-site are very exhausted and are under a tremendous amount of pressure and that is what I'll be walking into in the morning. I'm being called in from a different branch, so I'd really like to nip this with minimal hand wringing.

I'd appreciate any feedback, suggestions that might work better than what I have outlined. Of course, mostly I want to know if it will work and what other options you might suggest. Feel free to ask questions if you have any. Thank you very much.

Jason

TLS on Clustering

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 09:04:13 Z

Hi,

Is it possible to configure TLS on exchange 2003 cluster environment. I have googled a lot but unable to find any information.

Clement Rosario

Exchange 2003 Cluster problem

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 12:25:31 Z

Dears ;
we have Echange server 2003 clusterd 8 servers (4 active and 2 passive)
and in 2 of the active servers allawys the same error happen , suddenly one server is hanged and the resources didn't move and many errors are logged in the server as below

source: MSExchangeSA
Category: MAPI Session
Event ID: 9175
The MAPI call 'OpenMsgStore' failed with the following error:
The Microsoft Exchange Server computer is not available. Either there are network problems or the Microsoft Exchange Server computer is down for maintenance.
The MAPI provider failed.
Microsoft Exchange Server Information Store
ID no: 8004011d-0526-00000000

Source: MSEXCHangeSA
category:general
EventID:5007
An error occurred during the message tracking decode operation. Function:ScWriteLog:FlushFileBuffers . <<0xc0070015 - The device is not ready.>>

john yassa

Replacement hardware

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 16:09:02 Z

I'm replacing our exchange hardware this weekend, due to the C: partition is very low on disk space. Its a 20gig partition. I want to make the C: partition of the new hardware at least 40gigs but I see in a kb article that MS wants you to use the same partition size when using the disaster recovery switch.

My question is can I do this without any complications? both the C: and D: partitions are going to be bigger.

Site Resilience Project with Exchange 2007 SP1

Fri, 04 Sep 2009 21:03:00 Z

Hey guys,

I need to get some feedback on his topic. Thanks in advance you’re your prompt reply!

Here you go:

Purpose of the Project: Implement/Deploy a High Availability/Site Resiliency Solution for our Email System running Exchange 2007 SP1

Overview: We are in the process of designing a solution that would handle a full site failure and provide site Resiliency in the event of total loss of our Production Site. We are running Exchange 2007 SP1 on Windows Server 2003 Enterp. Email system was setup using CCR (Cluster Continuous Replication). There is another server running the CAS and HUB server roles and FSW is located in this HT/CAS server.

· We have 2 data centers: The production site located in California (Site A) and the Disaster Recovery (DR) site in New Mexico (Site B)

· The production site (Site A) is a Co-location facility so we have descent bandwidth available and is approximately: burstable 10 to 100 Mbps

· DR Site (Site B) is one of our offices so the bandwidth: Currently 2 T1s but planning to go up to 10 Mbps

Current Environment:

Production site (Site A): IP Subnet A – AD Site A

· Win2003 Enterprise/Exch07 SP1 CCR Active Node

· Win2003 Enterprise/Exch07 SP1 CCR Passive Node

· Win2003 Enterprise/Exch07 SP1 HT/CAS Server Roles

· FWS located in HT/CAS Server

· Win2003/DC1-GC-DNS

DR Site (Site B): IP Subnet B – AD Site B

· Win2003/DC2-GC-DNS

· Win2008 running VMWare VSphere ESX 4.0:

§ VM1: Standby Server (to be used to hold an entire image of Exchange 2007 SP1 CCR Passive Node)

§ VM2: Exchange 2007 SP1 running HT/CAS Server Roles

The general idea is to identify the most optimal solution for site resiliency

We have been exploring different alternatives including:

OPTION 3: Geo-CCR or what others call Multi-site CCR Clusters: more Cons than Pros and actually not even Microsoft recommends stretching CCR nodes.

OPTION 2: Leaving CCR setup as it is at Production Site (Site A) and combine this solution with an SCR Target at DR Site (Site B): This is a viable solution but is not GUI friendly; which means that we’ll have to deal a lot with command-lets and Exchange Shell. All the failover and failback process seems to be very cumbersome to accomplish going this route so we are trying to leave this option as the last option if we can’t find anything else

OPTION 1: CCR in the Production Site (Site A) in combination with a 3^rd party software called Replay Server developed by AppAssure: This application takes an entire image of a server (in our case the CCR passive node) then copies it to a standby server and once that’s done, it takes incremental snapshots of Exchange DBs and Transaction Logs to keep the standby server up to date with the most recent changes. These snapshots which are stored as compressed and deduplicated recovery points can be taken as often as every 15 minutes. Also the application has the capability to replicate the recovery points from source server (Site A) to target server (Site B) over the WAN and the replication can be scheduled as desired.

OK, we would like to explore Option 1 first. Before looking into failover details let’s look at the elements we will have at DR Site (Site B) assuming that Production Site (Site A) has been lost, for instance, after a major natural disaster:

§ Win2008 Enterprise running VMWare VSphere ESX 4.0 with the following VMs:

o VM1: Standby Server running an entire image of the Exchange 2007 CCR Passive Node (with latest Exchange DBs and Log Files)

o VM2: Exchange 2007 SP1 running HT/CAS Server Roles

§ Win2003/DC2-GC-DNS

Other Considerations:

§ Site A is on a different IP subnet than Site B

§ Site A is on a different AD Site than Site B

QUESTIONS:

1. Considering that we’ll have a full copy of the Exchange 2007 CCR Passive node available in Site B, after Site A is lost, I think this is similar to the Geo-CCR scenario in a sense. If this is the case, I guess we’ll be stuck with the Geo-CCR requirements of stretching the AD Site and IP Subnet in addition to provisioning a new FSW in Site B in order to bring online CCR Passive node, Is this right?????

1.a) Do we need to deal with IP subnet and AD Site stretching considering that Site A is completely lost?

1.b) Is there any other way to deal with this? I’ve read that 2 nodes of a CCR cluster need to be on the same AD Site, so I guess the answer to this question would be: NO!

1.c) How can we deal with stretching the AD Site and IP subnet if Site A is down?

BOTTOM LINE: Is there any possible way to bring the email back at Site B using the copy of the CCR Passive Node in the Standby Server at Site B?

1.d) Assuming that we can use the copy of the CCR Passive Node in the Standby Server at Site B…we will have to deal with FSW placement and quorum issues, etc. One of the possible solutions is explained in these articles:

“New File Share Witness and Force Quorum Guidance for Exchange 2007 Clusters” http://msexchangeteam.com/archive/2008/04/03/448615.aspx

Also see this article for more info regarding the FixQuorum and ForceQuorum commands : http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;258078

1.e) Has anybody tried these by any chance?

1.f) Do you need to be on a Stretched IP subnet and stretch AD site for this to work?

1.g) Would that make more sense to setup the FSW in a 3^rd location that has connectivity to Site A and Site B…that way we will avoid to be in the need to force the quorum if we have complete site loss of Site A?

2. What is the procedure to Stretch an AD Site between Site A and Site B?

3. I’ve read some articles indicating that creating a 3^rd AD Site with CCR would be a viable option but I’m not quite sure I really understand this approach

http://msexchangeteam.com/archive/2007/10/08/447211.aspx

Part of the flowchart shown in the link above is not current as the msexchange team released an update on how to deal with the Placement of the File Share Witness on a Geographically Dispersed CCR Cluster

http://msexchangeteam.com/archive/2008/04/03/448615.aspx

4. Does anyone know any Network Latency Calculator that can be used to calculate latency between Site A and Site B over the WAN?

Any feedback would be greatly appreciated. Sorry for the long post!!!

Restore a mailbox from RSG

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 16:28:07 Z

I am looking for a exact syntax to reover a mailbox of the deleted user from AD as well as well from disconnected mailboxes.

I can not achive this in GUI and could be possible using shell commands.

Thanks in advance!

Help recovering Exchange 2003 data for Exchange 2007 User

Fri, 13 Nov 2009 15:45:05 Z

Help recovering Exchange 2003 data for Exchange 2007 User

I am attempting to recover mailbox data for a user. The environment is a mixed Exchange 2003/2007 system. All users mailboxes have been migrated to Exchange 2007, however, the restore data that the user is requesting is from the Exchange 2003 system.

I have successfully recovered the Exchange 2003 data to an Exchange 2003 Recovery group. I have been attempting to following the guidelines posted from the KB article 919088

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/919088

. (You receive an error message when you use the Exmerge tool to retrieve a list of mailboxes from a recovery storage group in Exchange Server 2003).

Reconnecting Mailboxes in a Bulk

Mon, 16 Nov 2009 13:09:50 Z

Hello Folks

A situation exists where the mailboxes are in a disconnected state because of an accidental deletion of an OU containing users across a trusted forest. After this mishap, Forest A(Where OU Container existed) did an authoritative restore of the users.

In Forest B(Where Mailbox Database existed) the list of users were retrieved, created and reconnection of the mailboxes were done manually for 100+ users using the exchange management console.

Type of Mailboxes: Linked Mailbox
Topology: Exchange Resource Forest Topology

I was curious to know if we can write a script to automate the reconnection process?

Regards
Justin

Error message is: The specified mailbox does not exist on database

Mon, 16 Nov 2009 07:26:03 Z

I had one exchange 2007 with all roles deployed, and dpm 2007 server.
After i lost exchange server. I have deployed new Exchange and try to recover mailbox.
DPM restore backup database to recovery group successfuly but when i try to merge mailboxes, i am getting those error:

Error restoring the mailbox (/O=xxx/OU=EXCHANGE ADMINISTRATIVE GROUP (FYDIBOHF23SPDLT)/CN=RECIPIENTS/CN=ADMIN). Error message is: The specified mailbox "a15fe2a1-14d5-472e-b3ee-2d7f4fbba338" does not exist on database "MAIL\Recovery Storage Group\New_DB"..

Best option for redundant mirrored ISCSI storage

Sun, 15 Nov 2009 17:36:32 Z

Here is what I am trying to accomplish.

I have two boxes that will be clustered to offer Hyper-V boxes. They will be using ISCSI targets to pull their VHDs. They ISCSI target will be on Windows Storage Server 2008. I will have two Windows Storage servers that will have the identical hardware that I would like to be redudant so that if one of the storage servers fails the cluster can still pull their VHDs. I know there is a option for MPIO but that looks like it is just multiple paths back to the same storage server. Is there a way to have two storage servers that will be mirrored so that if one goes down you will still be able to pull ISCSI from it?

Thanks,
Josh

Josh

Backing up CCR Passive node with DPM (block level)?

Mon, 16 Nov 2009 02:13:09 Z

Hello,

Right now we're getting ready to start using DPM for backing up our Exchange CCR nodes. Reviewing the documentation I came up with a few questions and the answers I'm getting from co-workers sound right, but still seem to be in accurate.

Node1 & Node2 (node 2 is typically the passive)

Obviously with CCR you would want to backup the passive node or node2 in this example. Now with DPM when you do the install of the agent and configure the job there is a section that ask you to choose what node you want DPM to backup (node1, node2, or always choose the passive node)

To me it makes sense form an administrative standpoint to choose the "Always choose the passive node". The obvious reason is then you don't have to care which node is active or passive. I really don’t want to have to continue to verify that node1 on all CCR nodes in the org is the Active node. Seems like extra admin work for no reason.

The reason I was given they are choosing Node2 to always backup from is because DPM does block level backups and that the EDB/Log files will be different compared to the replicas on the DPM volumes. It will see they are not consistent at a block level. It will then stop all backups until a consistency check is performed. Co-workers also said that this design was verified by Microsoft.

That make sense, but my major question is this, why the heck would Microsoft even give the option to let DPM always backup the passive node if it’s not going to function properly or cause issues? I mean to me that is really dumb and could see it causing all kinds of problems for anyone who is new to DPM (such as me) and well the always choose passive node is the default option. Do other 3rd party backup tools do the same thing such as Symantec? or is this just a DPM thing?

Basically to me now we have to make sure that all node1 are always the active, more work, then if we have to fail over to node2 we have to modify the backup jobs to not run during the day (currently ever 4 hours) if node2 was set as active because node1 was busted.

I hate expensive software then ultimately causes more work in the end.

windows server 2008 usage report like sbs do

Mon, 16 Nov 2009 09:19:32 Z

Hi,

I need to create server usage report in windows server 2008 as we used to create in sbs 2003 for show the Remote Connection Activity and Outlook Web Access Usage by User I mean the "Extended Usage Report" but I am not able to config in windows 2008 it only showing email activity and other things but I want to add

1: Outlook Web Access Activity by User

2: Outlook Web Access Usage by Hour

3: Remote Connection Activity by User

4: Remote Connection Activity by Hour

is there any way to do it ? please advise

Regards,

Tech558

Exchange DR Testing

Thu, 12 Nov 2009 15:55:29 Z

Looking to perform a DR test with Exchagne 2007. Used to do this with 2003 and storage foundations / VVR, but since moving to 2007 i do not think that will work since that involved renaming the server to the origanal servers name, etc.... So was wondering if the following will work and if so, is there a way to redirect all mailbox's to test site temporariliy via a Powershell command.

Two different sites in AD, Production and test (Both sites will be up and accessable) both Exchange 2007 sp1 on 2008 sp2
The idea is to take a backup of production and restore at the Test site, test, and then do the same thing coming back and i am trying to find the easiet way to do this.
would i use
set-exchangeserver
or the
Config only move?
Get-Mailbox -Database <SourceDatabase> |where {$_.ObjectClass -NotMatch '(SystemAttendantMailbox|ExOleDbSystemMailbox)'}| Move-Mailbox -ConfigurationOnly -TargetDatabase <TargetDatabase>

Got the above from here: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa998340.aspx

Is that the way to go, can both systems be up while doing this? Users will only be accessing through OWA so would i need to run any commands or since they are direct to that server will exchange will know, or would it point them back to the Prod server if the link is up?

or is there another way to do this easily. This is going to happen soon so i am not looking to setup SCR.

At this point, i cant wait to get to 2010 and DAG!

E2k7 CCR - can't create more than 4 databases

Wed, 06 Jun 2007 00:40:10 Z

I'm getting my Exchange 2007 CCR server up and going. I've successfully created four Storage Groups, and also successfully created a mailbox database within each one.

I can create a 5th (or 6th, 7th, etc.) SG, but when I try to create a 5th mailbox database (in an empty SG), I get the following warning:

"At least one of this store's database files is missing. Mounting the store will force the creation of an empty database. Do not take this action if you intend to restore an earlier backup. Are you sure you want to continue? YES|NO"

Clicking "YES" produces the following MAPI error:

"Exchange is unable to mount the database that you specified. Specified database: <server>\<storage group>\<database>; Error code: MapiExceptionCallFailed: Unable to mount database. (hr=0x80004005, ec=-2147467259)

When I check the app log, I find an error (event ID 9158) stating that "Max storage groups has been exceeded". The CCR shows up as being E2k7 Enterprise in the GUI - I thought this meant I could have up to 50 SGs?

Where am I going wrong here?

Issue with CCR setup in Exchange 2007 SP1

Mon, 19 Oct 2009 09:15:14 Z

Hi,

We are running an Exchange 2007 SP1 CCR setup. We are having an issue with our failover testing.

When carrying out a manual failover all works fine but if we shut down Node 1, the cluster shows Node 2 as the 'Current Owner' but the status stays on Pending with all databases in an offline state and this never changes. During this time the following error occurs.

Event ID – 1177

Node – Node2

The Cluster service is shutting down because quorum was lost. This could be due to the loss of network connectivity between some or all nodes in the cluster, or a failover of the witness disk.

Run the Validate a Configuration wizard to check your network configuration. If the condition persists, check for hardware or software errors related to the network adapter. Also check for failures in any other network components to which the node is connected such as hubs, switches, or bridges.

Is this the error that stops the server from coming online correctly? If so where should I be look to resolve this problem?

Any help is very much appreciated.

Alex

copy mailbox contents to a new user in exchange 2007 sp1

Wed, 19 Mar 2008 01:07:20 Z

Hello everybody,

I have an exchange 2007 sp1 Org. with 3 locations two of them only have one box (MB,CAS,HT,UM) for each and the third have SCC and another (CAS,HT,UM) box, recently one of our employees has left the company and has been replaced by a new person I want to copy all the contents of the old person to a folder in the new person’s mailbox I had performed the following steps :

1- Create a “temp” mailbox database and move the old mailbox to it (to reduce the edb file size used in recovery)

2- Create a new RSG

3- Mount the “temp” mailbox database in RSG

4- Perform a restore process to the new mailbox (located in the original database)

Till now everything is OK when I open owa for the new person’s mailbox during the restore process I find the new folder and the contents are being copied to it but when the ExRTA finished and displaying “completed successfully “ everything is gone I mean the new restored folder disappears ,

Could you help ..

Thank you

What happen if I shutdown 1 of 2 hub transport?

Fri, 13 Nov 2009 20:51:03 Z

Hi,

I plan to mount 2 hubs transports on my Exchange 2007 ccr environment. My question is what happen if I shutdown or reboot one of them..what happen to the mails in queue?

Thank you.