Restoring the Exchange 2010 mailbox database to the point in time

Restore the mailbox database to the point in time (PIT) that the snapshot set was created or last refreshed and mount the Exchange databases.

Refer to Microsoft Exchange Shell cmdlets for details.

Note:

When restoring after hardware failure, you must use the command line and make sure to specify the -r option.

Warning:

If you choose to restore the mailbox database to the point in time, you cannot later restore it to the point of failure. You can only perform one recovery procedure on a database.

Warning:

You must verify that you have correctly assigned the drive letter or mount point to each volume and that you have accounted for all the volumes in the mailbox database.

To restore the mailbox database to the point in time of the snapshot set

  1. Verify that you have correctly assigned the drive letter or mount point to each volume and that you have accounted for all the volumes in the mailbox database.
  2. If replication is enabled for a cluster setup, then use the Suspend-MailboxDatabaseCopy cmdlet to block replication and replay activities (log copying and replay).

    Suspend-MailboxDatabaseCopy -Identity MB1 [-Confirm:$False]

    Use -Confirm to prevent user intervention.

  3. Use the Set-MailboxDatabaseCopy cmdlet to configure the properties of a database copy and set the checkbox for "This database can be overwritten by Restore".

    set-mailboxdatabase -identity MB1-allowfilerestore:$true

  4. Use the dismount-Database cmdlet to dismount the database.

    dismount-Database -Identity MB1[-Confirm:$False]

    Use -Confirm to prevent user intervention.

    For a VCS cluster setup, offline the VCS resource for the database manually if automatic offlining of the resource fails.

    Specifying the -a option with the vxsnap restore command dismounts the database automatically. In the case of a VCS cluster setup, it offlines the resource for the database automatically.

  5. Now perform the VSS restore operation using either the VEA wizard or the vxsnap CLI utility with the active writer (Microsoft Exchange Writer) to restore the passive copy snapshot.
    vxsnap -x snapdata.xml restore RestoreType=PIT writer="Microsoft
    Exchange Writer"

    For this example, assume that the snapshot of the replica was performed with

    vxsnap -x snapdata.xml create writer="Microsoft Exchange writer
    Replica" component=MB1 backupType=COPY -E -O
  6. Use the mount-Database cmdlet to mount the database.

    mount-Database -Identity MB1

    For a VCS cluster setup, online the VCS resource for the database manually if automatic onlining of the resource fails.

    Specifying the -a option with the vxsnap restore command utility mounts the database automatically. In the case of a VCS cluster setup, it onlines the resource for the database.

  7. If you have suspended replication as shown in step 2, then use the Update-MailboxDatabaseCopy cmdlet.

    Update-MailboxDatabaseCopy -Identity MB1[-Confirm:$False]

    Use -Confirm to prevent user intervention.