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HOWTO: Restoring Exchange 2007 Storage Groups to a Recovery Storage Group using Server 2008

Exchange can be restored to a Recovery Storage Group using the Windows Recovery Environment on Windows 2008 and drive image backups made through BackupAssist.

Please note: some of the instructions outlined here are available in the Windows Server Backup help file.

1. Performing the recovery of your data from an Image backup

Follow the steps outlined here substituting step 8 for the one below:

  1. Under Recovery destination, select Recover to another location, select a directory located on the Exchange server, then click Next.

2. Creating and populating the Recovery storage group

  1. Once the recovery process has completed, navigate to the directory containing the backup of your storage group. You will need to rename all of the files in this directory beginning with an ‘E’ to begin with ‘R’. This includes all of your log files.

    Initially you will have:

    After the renaming you would have:

  2. You will now need to create a Recovery Storage Group to mount the database you are restoring. Begin by launching your Exchange Management Console and opening the Disaster recovery toolbox from the Toolbox node in the Exchange tree:
  3. When the Disaster recovery toolbox loads you will need to specify you server’s name in order to connect to it. Enter the required details and click Next.
  4. We will now make a Recovery Storage group. Click Create Recovery storage group to being the process.
  5. Once the wizard begins select the storage group you are going to restore to the RSG, then choose Next.
  6. It is recommended that you use the default settings for the creation of the recovery storage group. Make a note of the Recovery database path as you will need it in a few minutes. Once you have done this click Create recovery storage group and complete the wizard.
  7. Once you have completed the wizard, launch an explorer window and navigate to the Recovery database path. Copy the renamed files from step 1 into this folder.
  8. After copying the renamed database files go back to the Disaster recovery toolbox and click Mount or dismount databases in the Recovery storage group. Select the newly created RSG and mount it.

To merge mailboxes from the Recovery Storage Group view the following article for instructions: Merging Exchange 2007 mailboxes with a Recovery Storage Group