How to Recover a Mailbox by Using a Recovery Storage Group
Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 will reach end of support on April 11, 2017. To stay supported, you will need to upgrade. For more information, see Resources to help you upgrade your Office 2007 servers and clients.
Applies to: Exchange Server 2007, Exchange Server 2007 SP1, Exchange Server 2007 SP2, Exchange Server 2007 SP3
This topic explains how to use the Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 recovery storage group (RSG) to recover a mailbox.
Before You Begin
To perform the following procedure, the account you use must be delegated the following:
Exchange Server Administrator role and local Administrators group to create and manage the RSG and to access data in the restored mailbox.
Exchange Recipient Administrator role on the server that holds the target mailbox.
For more information about permissions, delegating roles, and the rights that are required to administer Exchange 2007, see Permission Considerations.
Servers are part of a single forest or resource forests. Mailbox data can only be exported to mailboxes within the same forest. The Active Directory directory service accounts associated with the mailbox can be in an external forest, but mailbox data cannot be exported to servers in different forests.
Only Exchange 2007 databases are supported as recovery databases, and only Exchange 2007 is supported as a destination server for recovered mailbox data.
The Restore-Mailbox cmdlet can only use disconnected mailboxes as a source of data and connected mailboxes as a target for data.
Procedure
To merge a recovered mailbox using the RSG
If an RSG does not already exist, you can create one by running the following Exchange Management Shell command:
new-storagegroup -Server <Server_Name> -LogFolderPath <path_to_Logfiles> -Name <RSG_Name> -SystemFolderPath <Database_Path> -Recovery
Add a recovery database to the RSG by running the following Exchange Management Shell command:
new-mailboxdatabase -mailboxdatabasetorecover <Database_Name> -storagegroup <Server_Name>\<RSG_Name> -EDBFilePath <Database_Path>
Set the recovery database to allow overwrites by running the following Exchange Management Shell command:
set-mailboxdatabase -identity <Server_Name>\<RSG_Name>\<Database_Name> -AllowFileRestore:$True
Mount the recovery database by running the following Exchange Management Shell command:
mount-database -identity <Server_Name>\<RSG_Name>\<Database_Name>
Recover the mailbox of an existing user to an existing mailbox by running the following Exchange Management Shell command:
restore-mailbox -identity <User_name> -rsgdatabase <Server_Name>\<RSG_Name>\<Database_Name>
Examples of Commands to Recover User Data
The following are examples of commands that can be used to recover user data from an RSG:
To recover one mailbox from the RSG database to the currently used mailbox 'John Smith', run the following Exchange Management Shell command:
Restore-Mailbox -identity 'John Smith' -RSGDatabase 'RSG\mailbox database'
To recover all mailboxes in the RSG to their respective active mailboxes, run the following Exchange Management Shell command:
Get-MailboxStatistics -database 'RSG\Mailbox Database' | restore-mailbox
If you want to restore a mailbox in an RSG into a different active mailbox, run the following Exchange Management Shell command:
Restore-Mailbox -RSGMailbox 'John Smith' -RSGDatabase 'RSG\Mailbox Database' -id 'Allison Brown' -TargetFolder 'JSmith Email'
To recover end-user data between two dates, run the following Exchange Management Shell command:
Restore-Mailbox -RSGMailbox 'John Smith' -RSGDatabase 'RSG\Mailbox Database' -id 'Allison Brown' -TargetFolder 'JSmith Email' -StartDate '02/02/05' -EndDate '02/05/05'
For More Information
For general information about doing restores, see How to Perform a Basic Restore of Exchange Databases.