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Use Windows Server Backup to restore a backup of Exchange

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You can use Windows Server Backup to back up and restore Exchange databases. Exchange includes a plug-in for Windows Server Backup that allows you to make and restore Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS)-based backups of Exchange data. For additional information, see Using Windows Server Backup to back up and restore Exchange data.

What do you need to know before you begin?

  • Estimated time to complete: 1 minute, plus the time it takes to restore the data

  • You need to be assigned permissions before you can perform this procedure or procedures. To see what permissions you need, see the "Mailbox recovery" entry in the Recipients Permissions topic.

  • The Windows Server Backup feature must be installed on the local computer.

  • When restoring a database to its original location, the database can remain in a dirty shutdown state and be mountable by the system. When restoring to an alternate location (for example, in preparation to use a recovery database), the database must be manually brought into a clean shutdown state by using Exchange Server Database Utilities (Eseutil.exe).

Tip

Having problems? Ask for help in the Exchange forums. Visit the forums at: Exchange Server, Exchange Online, or Exchange Online Protection.

Use Windows Server Backup to restore a backup of Exchange

  1. Start Windows Server Backup.

  2. Select Local Backup.

  3. In the Actions pane, click Recover... to start the Recovery Wizard.

  4. On the Getting Started page, do either of the following:

    • If the data being recovered was backed up on the local server, select This server (ServerName), and then click Next.

    • If the data being recovered is from another server, or if the backup being recovered is located on another computer, select Another server, and then click Next. On the Specify location type page, select Local drives or Remote shared folder, and then click Next. If you select Local drives, select the drive containing the backup on the Select backup location page, and then click Next. If you select Remote shared folder, enter the UNC path for the backup data on the Specify remote folder page, and then click Next.

  5. On the Select Backup Date page, select the date and time of the backup that you want to recover, and then click Next.

  6. On the Select Recovery Type page, select Applications, and then click Next.

    Note

    If Applications is not available as a selection, it indicates that the backup selected for restore was a folder-level backup, and not a volume level backup. You must perform backups at the volume level when backing up Exchange data with Windows Server Backup.

  7. On the Select Application page, verify that Exchange is selected in the Applications field. Click View Details to view the application components of the backups. If the backup that you're recovering is the most recent, the Do not perform a roll-forward recovery of the application database check box is displayed. Select this check box if you want to prevent Windows Server Backup from rolling forward the database being recovered by committing all uncommitted transaction logs. Click Next.

  8. On the Specify Recovery Options page, specify where you want to recover the data, and then click Next:

    • Choose Recover to original location if you want to restore the Exchange data directly to its original location. If you use this option, you can't choose which databases are restored; all backed up databases on the volume will be restored to their original locations.

    • Choose Recover to another location if you want to restore individual databases and their files to a specified location. Click Browse to specify the alternate location. If you use this option, you can choose which databases are restored. After being restored, the data files can then be moved into a recovery database, manually moved back to their original location, or mounted somewhere else in the Exchange organization using database portability. When you restore a database to an alternate location, the restored database will be in a dirty shutdown state. After the restore process has completed, you will need to manually put the database into a clean shutdown state using Eseutil.exe.

  9. On the Confirmation page, review the recovery settings, and then click Recover.

  10. On the Recovery Progress page, you can view the status and progress of the recovery operation.

  11. Click Close when the recovery operation has completed.

How do you know this worked?

The Recovery Progress page will indicate whether or not the recovery process completed successfully. To further verify that you've successfully restored the data, do any of the following:

  • Examine the target directory of the backup and verify that the restored data exists.

  • On the server on which Windows Server Backup was run, verify that the job completed successfully by viewing the backup logs.

  • Open Event Viewer and verify that a restore completion event was logged in the Application event log.