Solved

restore migrated mailbox in Exchange

  • 16 May 2021
  • 7 replies
  • 284 views

Badge +1

Hi!

For different reasons I need to move On-prem Exchange mailboxes from one DB to other.

I use intelliSnap backup so when I need to restore, first I must knew in which DB the mailbox is.

My question is: if I need to restore, for example , an  email that was deleted before migration, in which DB I must look for it? The original when the item was deleted or the actual?

Thanks

icon

Best answer by marito 19 May 2021, 09:31

View original

7 replies

Userlevel 7
Badge +15

Hi @marito 

Thanks for the question and welcome to the Community!

I would expect you will need to search for the mail items in the Exchange DB at the time the backup was performed prior to deletion, so best bet is to check the original.

Thanks,

Stuart

Badge +1

Hi Stuart,
thanks for your answer.
Your answer is what I expected but not the one I like: in the case that I move a mailbox from DB01 to DB02, ie., and in the future, the user needs to restore an email that was deleted a few months ago before the migration( it isn't a theoretical hypothesis, it is a real case), I must know the original DB. There is no register in Exchange ( only general logs ) So I need to do a manual register and remember to check it. This is not a good practice.
Do you know another way to assure a successful restore in this case?
Thanks

Userlevel 7
Badge +15

Hi @marito 

Commvault will know the location of the mailbox and the messages at the time the backup is performed, so you will need to browse following that logic for restore. Commvault won’t track migrations of mailboxes between databases outside of backup jobs.

Maybe Finding Messages to Restore will help locate messages, note: search is defined by set, mailbox or subclient.

Or maybe from an end user perspective: Searching for Mail Messages.

Thanks,

Stuart

Userlevel 2
Badge +5

Hi @marito 

I can appreciate the concern you have here. The thing with Exchange Database backups though is that this is a snapshot of the database “as is”. Commvault does not look inside of the database at what mailboxes are being backed up. It will only backup the database as a whole or logs which contain transactions. 

For you to accomplish what you are asking you also need to be running Exchange Mailbox Agent backups. This will provide you Point-In-Time restores of your mailbox data and also allow you ro recovery single items from specific date/time’s you like. 

More info on this agent is here: Exchange Archiving (commvault.com)

Thanks

James

Userlevel 1
Badge +2

As James said you can use the mailbox agent for a granular restore option however, you can also use the DB snap restore out of place (which I assume you are currently doing)  The message in question could potentially be in both DBs depending on the time of deletion and where the mailbox resided at that time.

Badge +1

Hi guys!
I really appreciate your fast and deep answers.
Mailbox agent for a granular restore should be a nice feature but haven't license for it.
The bottom line is that in my case I should avoid migrating mailboxes between DBs to assure restoration.
Thanks

 

Userlevel 1
Badge +2

Good day Marito,

I want to be clear that you can move mailboxes between DBs and still be able to recover them via the DB agent.  The challenge is that you will just need to know the dates the MB was moved.  Also once the db is recovered you will need to mount it in a RDB or use the live browse feature

 

https://documentation.commvault.com/11.23/essential/96540_recover_messages_from_exchange_database_live_browse.html

Reply