IBM Tivoli Storage Manager, Version 7.1

Restoring an Exchange Server database

You can restore an Exchange Server database in the event of data loss or corruption.

Before you begin

To complete a database restore, Tivoli® Storage FlashCopy® Manager must be operating in an account with membership in the Organization Management group.

About this task

When you restore a database on Exchange Server, data that exists in the database is overwritten. The data is not available after restore processing is complete. Instant Restore processing overwrites all files on the destination file system.

For database backups in an Exchange Server Database Availability Group (DAG) configuration, because all database copies are backed up by using a single DAG node, you can restore a database regardless of which DAG member the database is backed up from. Local backups must be restored on the node where the backup is completed.

Ensure that you are set up to use the DAG node name (DAGNODE). You can set up the DAG node name in the DAG Node field in the TSM Node Names page of the Tivoli Storage Manager configuration wizard. Alternatively, you can set up the node name in the Back up DAG databases to common node field in the General properties page for your Exchange workload.

In a stand-alone configuration, you cannot back up a database from one DAG member and restore it to a different DAG member. However, backups from the same node are still managed with the same policy, regardless of whether the database was active or passive at the time of the backup.

In a Tivoli Storage Manager configuration, backups of a database from one DAG member to local can be restored only to the system that created the backup. However, backups to Tivoli Storage Manager can be restored on any Exchange server in the DAG.

When you complete the following steps to restore Exchange Server data, one of the terms that is used is restore into. When you use the restore into options, you restore data to another target destination. The data is not restored to the original source destination.

Procedure

To restore Exchange Server data, complete the following steps:

From the Management console, click Recover Data in the welcome page.
In the Recover tab for the Exchange instance, select View: Database Restore. Use the results pane to browse the databases available for restore. The following features are available:
- Filter: Use the filter options to narrow the list of databases in the result pane.
  1. Click Show Filter Options and Add Row.
  2. Click the down arrow in the Column Name field and select an item to filter. You can filter by database Name, Restore Into, From DB Copy, Backup Type, Backup Method, Backup Location, Backup Date, Size (in GB), Instant Restore Supported, Management Class, and Server.
    For database backups in the Exchange Server Database Availability Group environment, the Server column displays the name of the Database Availability Group and the server that made the backup in this format:
```
DAGNAME\SERVERNAME
```
    Where DAGNAME is the name of the Database Availability Group, and SERVERNAME is the name of the server (Database Availability Group member) that created the backup.
    For example:
```
TSMDAG4\AVOCADO
```
    When you click Select All, all rows that reflect the filter specifications are selected.
  3. Select an operator in the Operator field.
  4. Specify a value to filter on in the Value field.
  5. In you want to filter on more items, click Add Row.
  6. Click Apply Filter to filter your databases.
- Backups: Select the database to restore. You can click Active Backups to show only active backups, or click All Backups to show both active and inactive backups.
- Search: Use the Search field to filter the databases.
- Refresh: Click Refresh to update the view with your changes.
  If you applied a filter, the objects on the server that match the filter or search criteria are listed in the Recover tab. The status area indicates the number of items that match the criteria n of x displayed, where n equals the number of objects that match the filter criteria, and x is the number of objects that are retrieved from the server. For example, "5 of 20 displayed." If you specify refresh options to further narrow your results, and click Refresh again, the objects on the server that match the filtered and refresh options are displayed. Each time that you click Refresh, another query is run against the Tivoli Storage Manager server.
In the Recover tab for the Exchange instance, select one or more backups to restore. If the AutoSelect option is set to True in the Restore Options view, more backups necessary to restore the most recent backup are selected for you. If you do not want more selections that are made for you, set AutoSelect to False.
Verify the restore options. If the restore options are not displayed, click Show Restore Options.
(Optional) Choose a mode for the current task:
- Run Interactively: Click this item to run the current task interactively. This selection is the default.
- Run Scheduled: Click this item to convert the current action into a scheduled task. When you select this item, the schedule wizard begins, complete with the command that is required to complete the task.
Start the restore operation:
- To restore the backup, right-click that backup name and select Restore or click Restore in the Action pane to begin the restore operation.
- To restore the backup into another location, right-click and select Restore Into to specify a target location for the restore operation. A window opens for you to specify the database to restore into. Select the name of a database into which a VSS backup is restored. To restore into a recovery database (RDB) or alternate database, an RDB or alternate database must exist before you attempt the restore operation. Any type of Restore Into processing automatically disables VSS instant restore.
VSS instant restore is only available for full or copy type backups that are on the disk devices that support this type of restore. During the VSS instant restore operation, the drive or volume where the database is located must not be accessed by any other process or application.

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