Have you ever encountered an Exchange 2016 downtime situation where the Server failed suddenly and the complete business activities are put on hold. You might be having a virtual machine with damaged and non-functional Operating System or there might be a hardware breakdown with physical server preventing it from booting up.
Owing to its vast architecture and environment, there are a number of issues that takes place with Exchange. Similarly, Exchange EDB recovery depends upon a number of factors and DBAs must consider every single aspect associated with the recovery process such as implementation and the exchange database corruption issue.
Sometimes, replacing a hardware component can fix the issues with Exchange Server, but most of the time, you need to execute software driven recovery procedure in order to make the Server online. But here, we are discussing a critical situation where the Exchange Server completely fails to boot and all the business communication processes are affected.
Step by Step Guide to Repair Exchange 2016 Mailbox
The Exchange recovery procedure can be initiated following the given guidelines and procedures:
1. Install a new Windows Server instance with same attributes to that of the failed Server. These characteristics can be same Server name, similar performance, Windows Server version and same drive letter.
2. Run setup with “/mode:recoverserver switch” to execute recover install of Exchange 2016
3. Reapply custom configuration settings that are not automatically applied by recovery install
4. Restore Exchange databases if the volumes are lost during the instance of Server failure
Exchange 2016 Server Recovery
To get started, you will require preparing the Server on which Exchange 2016 mailbox recovery is initiated. You will need to perform the following steps regardless of whether the recovery has to be performed on the same server or different server. Follow the steps below:
1. Install the same Windows Server Operating System and service pack level on the Server on which recovery has to be performed.
2. Configure storage volumes to assign the same drive letter to that of the previous Exchange Server
3. Reset the system account existing in the Active Directory and link the Server to the domain
4. Install Exchange Server 2016 pre-requisites
Performing Recovery Install of Exchange Server 2016
To perform the recovery install, copy the Exchange Server 2016 setup files to a location on Server that has been prepared for recovery. Make sure that the location is accessible on the Server. The same setup files must be used on Exchange Server 2016 cumulative update being installed previously on the Server. Remember that the recovery process mentioned herein must not be used for upgrading or downloading process.
Open the command prompt and change the folder that contains Exchange 2016 setup files.
“C:\> setup / mode: recoverserver /IAcceptExchangeServerLicenseTerms”
Restoring Custom Exchange Server 2016 Configuration
Most of the Exchange Server 2016 configurations are stored in Active Directory. The configurations settings include transport settings, virtual directory URL settings, names and location of the database, etc.
The machine specific settings and certificates stored locally on the server, including registry keys, SSL certificates, IIS settings, modified configuration settings, etc. cannot be restored by recovery install. It is recommended to document and organize post-install configuration of Exchange Server so that customizations can be reset in situations of Server failure.
Next, you will need to reinstall the SSL certificate for the Exchange Server. For multiple Exchange 2016 servers with the same SSL certificate installed, you can export the certificate to any one of the existing servers and thereafter import it to the recovered server. After the SSL certificate is reinstalled, the Exchange services can be enabled.
Restore the Exchange Server 2016 Mailbox Database
If the volume that incorporates mailbox databases and the corresponding transaction logs are configured using the same drive letter and are not erased in the server failure then it is quite easier to successfully mount the database and continue with the functionality without losing a single bit of data stored in the Exchange mailbox.
Using eseutil.exe, you can perform a soft recovery if the database files as well as log files are available but are not mounted. If the EDB files and associated log files are deleted in the instance of server failure, then they can be recovered and restored Exchange Mailbox from the last backup.
This is why Exchange DBAs are recommended to backup Exchange mailboxes on a regular basis to avoid data loss.
All You Need To Know Before Initiating Recovery
- The estimated time to complete the overall procedure is 20 minutes.
- The disk drive letters being assigned for mounted databases on the Server on which recovery is performed must match the drive letters on the failed server.
- Before starting with the recovery procedure, you are required to assign specific permissions.
- The server on which the recovery procedure is being performed must run the same Operating System as running on the lost Server
- The recovery server must have same hardware configurations and performance characteristics as that of the failed server
Quick Analysis over Lost Exchange Recovery Procedure
- Install the Operating System and enter same name for the new Server as provided to the lost Server. It is mandatory that the name of both the Servers (Recovery and Failed) must match, else the recovery won’t succeed.
- If the Exchange is installed on the location different to default, you may use /TargetDir switch in order to specify location of Exchange binary files. Else, the Exchange files will install at the default location which is “(%programfiles%\Microsoft\Exchange Server\V15)”, if /TargetDir is not used.
Undoubtedly, MS Exchange is the most complicated business application used in large organizations for communication purposes. To initiate the recovery process, all you need to know is the core knowledge of the Server architecture, including custom configuration, drive letters, file locations, scripts and everything associated with the Server.
However, if the EDB files have been deleted during the Server downtime and you do not have any recent backup to restore data from, then the only solution you can rely upon is Stellar Repair for Exchange. The software helps recover all incorporated data from different folders of the mailboxes existing on Exchange database. The recovered data can be restored to multiple file formats and can be accessed over different emailing applications on Windows without connecting to the Server.