In the present scenario, technology is a boom for every individual. It plays a vital role in every sector. With this evolution in technology, disasters also come. Thereby, to ensure that the resources are accessible during planned and unplanned outages, there is a dire need of a Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery. This recovery approach helps during the odd scenarios when things go wrong by restoring normal working conditions.
The effective Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery strategy keeps the data secure and recoverable. Further, it also ensures that the business applications, workloads, and services are continuously available. One of the best Enterprise Backup and Recovery System that contributes to the BCDR strategy is Data Protection Manager. This System Center DPM facilitates both recovery and backup of Enterprise Data.
If we talk about Exchange Server, then, we can easily say it includes native data protection. Although this built-in native data protection is capable, yet there are certain scenarios where traditional backup still is needed. At this stage, DPM 2012 works. The reason being, it has been designed specifically for offering protection to the Exchange Server as well as other Microsoft workloads.
Further, Native Data Protection works perfectly in Disaster Recovery, accidentally deleted items recovery, Point-in-time database snapshots, and long-term data storage. However, when we talk about corruptions, application errors, malware incidents, and security issues, it is not a right option. At these events, DPM is a sure-shot solution.
The Data Protection Manager uses several technologies to deliver continuous Data Protection for Exchange Server 2013, 2010, 2007. It supports the following:
• Both active & passive databases in DAG
• Continuous replication
• Standalone mailbox databases backup
Data Protection Manager for Exchange 2013
In Exchange 2013, DPM ensures backup and recovery for following:
• Under a database availability group, backup of Exchange mailbox databases
• Backup of Exchange Server roles
• Configures Volumes protection
• Provides the protection of all Exchange data and configuration settings
Why Choose Data Protection Manager to Backup Exchange?
• During backup with DPM protection, there is no reliance on DAGs
• DPM practices a simple as well as centralized Data Recovery
• DPM ensures constant backup of Microsoft workloads
• Unlike Native Protection, DPM offers a longer backed up data retention period in comparison
Prior discussing how you can Recover Exchange Data using Data Protection Manager, let us first have a quick overlook at the certain deployment prerequisites and things that are to be considered prior beginning the process.
Deployment Prerequisites to be Verified Prior to Deploying DPM to Protection Exchange 2013
• Examine Release Notes and what is supported, to check the Exchange issues
• Ensure you own same Ese.dll and Eseutil.exe versions on DPM Servers as well as the Exchange
• Ensure for Visual Studio 2012 Update; you own the latest Visual C++ Redistributable
• Ensure DPM protection agent installation on the node for Exchange 2013 Database Availability Group (DAG) node protection.
• Ensure each day at least one full backup is being configured
• Ensure backup Copies do not truncate log files
• Ensure a minimal protection of two copies of every mailbox database, irrespective of the fact whether Exchange is implemented with numerous disks/drives (JBOD) disks or Serial ATA
• Ensure that minimum frequency for mailbox synchronization is set greater than 15 minutes
• Ensure to create manifold protection groups and add Exchange Databases to every protection group for housing parallel Exchange database backups
Things to Consider:
1. DPM Deployment
The first and the foremost step is to ensure that DPM is installed as well as deployed correctly.
2. Storage Setup
The backup data can be stored effortlessly on the tape, disk, and in the cloud along with Azure. Thus, set up the data storage.
3. DPM protection agent Set up
It is necessary to ensure that the agents are installed on the Exchange Server.
How to Recover Exchange Data?
Recovery of an Exchange Data using DPM includes Single Mailbox Recovery, Exchange database recovery and entire Exchange Server recovery.
• Single Mailbox Recovery
The steps to recover single mailbox are as follows:
i. Ensure you have an existing recovery mailbox database on the protected Exchange Server. In case, if you don’t have, just create the one using cmdlet— New-MailboxDatabase
ii. Now, use cmdlet— Set-MailboxDatabase to configure the recovery database
iii. Now, under DPM Administrator Console, select the Recovery view and direct to the mailbox database that is to be recovered.
iv. Go to Recovery Time, select Recover, and choose Recovery points option. In the recovery points section, click on to a data and select a recovery point.
v. Now, under the Recovery Wizard examine your recovery selection
vi. Click on Next.
vii. State the recovery type you wish to execute.
viii. Click Next
ix. Specify Recovery Options screen will pop. Here, specify whether you want to mount the databases, want to enable throttling, want to enable SAN-based recovery, or want to send an email notification on completion or not.
x. Now, under Summary screen, just review the Recovery settings
xi. Click on Recover
xii. After successful completion, click on Close
xiii. By the end of this step, the Recovery process has completed; however, the Mailbox is not completely Restored. To reset the mailbox, run cmdlet: New-MailboxRestoreRequest -SourceDatabase ‘RDB-CONTROL’ -SourceStoreMailbox ‘mailbox name’ -TargetMailbox <name>@contoso.com -TargetRootFolder Recovery -SkipMerging StorageProviderForSource
xiv. After restoring, run the Windows PowerShell cmdlet to dismount as well as delete the Recovery Mailbox database: Remove-MailboxDatabase -Identity ‘RDB-CONTROL’
• Exchange Database Recovery
The steps to recover Exchange Database are as follows:
i. Go to the DPM Administrator Console, select the Recovery view
ii. Under the Recovery view, select the mailbox database that you need to recover
iii. Now, under the Recovery Points section, select a date, and choose Latest to get the recent backup
iv. Click on to Recover.
v. Now, under the Recovery Wizard analyze the recovery selection
vi. Once you are done with it, click on to Next.
vii. Here, state the recovery type you want to execute.
viii. Click on Next
ix. A Specify Recovery Options screen will pop up. In this screen, select Mount the databases after they are recovered and Network bandwidth usage throttling option. Further, if you wish to enable the SAN-based recovery option, do checking the appropriate boxes.
x. Under the Notification window, click on Send an e-mail when the recovery completes option by specifying the email address of the recipient.
xi. Now, Open Exchange Admin Center again
xii. Click on Servers and select Databases
xiii. Now, Select the Exchanger mailbox database that you need to overwrite
xiv. Click on Edit
xv. Now, click on Maintenance
xvi. Select This database can be overwritten by a restore
xvii. Click on Save
xviii. Click on to Summary screen to view your Recovery Settings
xix. Click on Recover
xx. Click on Finish
• Exchange Server Recovery
The steps to recover Exchange Server are as follows:
i. Under the DPM Administrator Console, select the Recovery view
ii. Now, select the Server that needs to recover
iii. Click on to the Recovery Time, choose Recover, and click on to Recovery Points option
iv. Under the Recovery Points option, select the data and recovery point from the list
v. Now, right-click on to BMR -> Recover
vi. Go to Recovery Wizard and examine the Recovery Selection
vii. Click on Next
viii. Under the Selective Recovery Type screen, choose Copy to a network folder or Copy to tape option as per preference.
ix. Now, under the Specify Destination screen, choose the location where you need to store the database files.
x. Now, go to the Specify Recovery Options screen and perform the following actions— Mount the databases after they are recovered, Network bandwidth usage throttling, Enable SAN-based recovery using hardware snapshots, Notifications as per the convenience.
xi. Go to Monitoring Tab to view the process progress
xii. A Recovery Message will generate after successful recovery
xiii. Now, open the destination folder of recovery files and rename it
xiv. If you wish to execute the Bare Metal Recovery, simply insert the operating system ISO and select Repair. Under Advanced options, choose System Image Recovery.
xv. Now, under the Select a system image backup screen, choose Select a system image.
xvi. Here, go to the Advanced option and from a network share, choose recovery files.
xvii. Click on Search for a system image on the network and opt for Yes
xviii. Now, state the network folder, choose the backup, and specify the date as well as the time of the image that needs to be restored. You can also state the additional driver as well as the disk settings
xix. Click on Finish to restore.
Alternative solution
No doubt, DPM for recovery is the best choice, but it has certain limitations associated with it. Such as it uses VSS snapshot that supports only up to 64 snapshots, limited flexibility i.e. no incremental, differential, or full backup, and same retention policies for the data that resides on the same volume. Further, being a manual process, it also has risk associated with it. On the other hand, the Third-Party Recovery solutions are easy, fast, and efficient and are far from being risky as they are free from manual intervention.
To overcome Exchange 2013 Recovery, there are multitudes of Third-party solutions available in the market. Out of these extensive options, some have marked a strong position in the market, whereas some are left behind. If a suggestion is to be given, then Stellar Repair for Exchange can be considered to be the ideal solution. This software is experimented upon, verified, as well as agreed to by skilled Professionals, who have years of experience in this particular niche.
Stellar Repair for Exchange Overview
Download the software from here: http://www.stellarservertools.com/recover-exchange-mailbox.php
A professional solution to repair corrupt Exchange Server Database Files, this do-it-yourself software can be used in any scenario of data loss, be it crash, corruption, etc. The dedicated solution is capable enough to repair EDB Files along with mailbox contents including attachments, calendars, tasks, Journals, emails, notes, contacts, etc. Improved look & feel, smart option sets, advanced features back this EDB Files Recovery tool.
The best thing about this software is its easy steps, fast processing, simple design, and last but not the least, the user-friendly interface. For added convenience, this software comes with several formats such as MSG, RTF, HTML, EML, PST, and PDF. You can choose any of these to save the recovered files. It works in complete harmony with numerous versions of MS Exchange Server such as 2016, 2013, 2010, 2007, 2003, and 2000. Another unique trait about this software is its ability to export the recovered EDB Files to Live Exchange or Office 365 directly.
Stellar Repair for Exchange Key Traits
• Intuitive interface
• Repairs Corrupt EDB files
• Supports Deleted mailbox recovery
• Maintains folder hierarchy
• Supports recovery for Unicode EDB File
• Supports Selective mailbox recovery
• Supports Recovered File Export or Office 365 or Live Exchange
• Supports Mail items preview prior to recovery
• Helps in repair and recovery of mail items such as emails, notes, calendars, attachments, contacts, etc.
• Archives mailboxes conversion support
• Supports PUB.EDB files repairing
• Supports Multiple Formats to save the recovered Files
• Offers support for Saving as well as Loading Scan Information
• Produces Log Report for the entire Recovery Process
Compatibility:
• Windows 10, 8.1, 8, 7, Vista
• Windows Server 12 and 8
The Way Forward
Now, you know how you can recover Exchange Data be it Single Mailbox Recovery, Exchange database recovery and complete Exchange Server recovery effortlessly using Data Protection Management. Further, it also entails how third-party recovery software like Stellar Repair for Exchange helps in smooth recovery. This software solution is authentic and powerful.