Microsoft Exchange Server

This Protected Item type backs up Microsoft Exchange Server databases. The underlying technology is VSS (Volume Shadow Copy Service), and it is compatible with Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 and later, including Exchange Server 2019.

Because Exchange Server can only be installed on Server SKUs of Windows, this backup type applies only when running on Windows Server. The appropriate VSS writer must be installed.

Some forms of Exchange Server backup will cause log truncation to occur on the Exchange Server. For more information, see the official Microsoft Exchange Server documentation. If circular logging is enabled on the Exchange Server, the Incremental and Differential backup types have limited effect.

Exchange Server 2007

By default, Exchange 2007 does not enable the VSS writer, although it may already have been enabled by another backup system installed on the machine.

If you encounter error messages such as Couldn't find Exchange Server installation on this device or Failed to perform VSS snapshot on a machine running Exchange 2007, the Exchange VSS writer (MSExchangeIS) may not be enabled.

  • You can confirm whether this is the case by checking for Microsoft Exchange Writer in the output of vssadmin list writers, or in the Browse dialog for a new "Application Aware Writer" Protected Item.

You can manually activate the Exchange VSS writer with the following steps:

  • 1. Open regedit and navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\MSExchangeIS\ParametersSystem
  • 2. Change the Disable Exchange Writer value from 1 to 0
  • 3. Restart the Microsoft Exchange Information Store service

For more information on this issue, see Microsoft's Knowledge Base article at https://support.microsoft.com/kb/838183/en-us.

Restore

The Magnus Box snapshot of Exchange Server includes the *.edb file, the *.log / *.stm / *.chk files, and other supporting files. To restore data, you can either:

  • reinstate the Information Store files directly as a whole. This approach is suitable in a disaster recovery situation; or
  • recover individual items. This lets you access individual mailboxes and messages without affecting the existing mounted database. It is suitable when you only need to access small parts of past data that has since been deleted or corrupted, without affecting the current running Exchange Server state.

Full EDB Recovery

One option for restoring the Exchange EDB is to replace the full EDB file. You can replace the EDB and log files on the Exchange Server with the restored versions. This approach is suitable for disaster recovery.

In the Exchange Server console:

  • 1. Dismount the existing Exchange Server Store.
  • 2. Replace the files on disk with the restored copies.
  • 3. Mount the Exchange Server Store.

The path must match the original copy, because the transaction log files include an embedded path to the *.edb / *.stm files. If the EDB file was backed up from a different disk location, first use the Move database feature to update Exchange Server to look for the database files in their original location.

Recovery Database mode

Another option for restoring the Exchange EDB is to mount it as a recovery database (RDB). Once mounted, you can attach Outlook to the recovery database, or use the New-MailboxRestoreRequest PowerShell command to extract a PST mailbox. For more information, see Microsoft's guidance on restoring data using recovery databases.

Extract EDB contents

Another option for restoring the Exchange EDB is to use a third-party application to extract content. These applications can read the contents of the EDB file to extract individual messages, contacts, or other mailbox items. Examples of available tools include:

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