Applies to: Exchange Server 2010 SP3, Exchange Server 2010 SP2

Topic Last Modified: 2012-11-12

Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 includes a plug-in for Windows Server Backup that enables you to make Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS)-based backups of Exchange data. You can use Windows Server Backup to back up and restore your Exchange databases.

Prerequisites

  • This procedure can only be performed locally on a computer running Exchange 2010 on the Windows Server 2008 or Windows Server 2008 R2 operating system.

  • When you restore a database to its original location, the database can remain in a dirty shutdown state and be mountable by the system. When you restore to an alternative location (such as the recovery database), the database must be in a clean shutdown state. You can bring a database into a clean shutdown state by using Exchange Server Database Utilities (Eseutil.exe).

Use Windows Server Backup to restore a backup of Exchange

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

  1. Start Windows Server Backup.

  2. In the Actions pane, click Recover. The Recovery wizard appears.

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

    1. If the data being recovered was backed up from the server on which Windows Server Backup is running, select This server (ServerName), and then click Next.

    2. If the data being recovered wasn't from the server on which Windows Server Backup is running, 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.

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

  5. On the Select recovery type page, select Applications, and then click Next.

  6. 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. Click Next.

  7. On the Specify recovery options page, select where you want to recover the data, and then click Next:

    1. Select Recover to original location to recover backed up data to its original location. If you use this option, you can't set a single database or multiple databases; all backed up databases are restored to their original location.

    2. Select Recover to another location to restore databases and files to a specified location. Click Browse to specify the alternative location. If you use this option, you can restore databases to a custom location. After being restored, the data files can then be moved to a recovery database, and then manually returned to their original location. When you restore databases to an alternative location, the restored databases are in a dirty shutdown state.

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

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

  10. Click Close when the recovery operation has completed.