602 Chapter 9 • Disaster Recovery with Exchange Server 2007 We now have the option of swapping the Mailbox database mounted to the RSG and the linked production Mailbox database (a recommended step if you’re performing a dial-tone database restore) by checking Swap Database Confi gurations, as can be seen in Figure 9.24. Since this option will swap the two databases, both of them need to be dismounted, which will affect mail service to the end users whose mailboxes are stored in the respective database. Figure 9.23 Selecting a Mounted Database in the Recovery Storage Group Disaster Recovery with Exchange Server 2007 • Chapter 9 603 Since we aren’t dealing with a dial-tone database restore in this example, just click Next. On the Select Merge Options page, click Perform pre-merge tasks (Figure 9.25). Figure 9.24 The Database Swap Option 604 Chapter 9 • Disaster Recovery with Exchange Server 2007 The fi nal step is to select the mailboxes you want to merge. You do this by checking the box to the left of each user name in the list, as shown in Figure 9.26. Figure 9.25 Specifying Merge Options NOTE Note that you have the option of clicking Show Advanced Options. Under the Advanced options, we can specify different match and fi ltering options, as well as the bad item limit. This is also the place where you specifi ed whether all merge mailbox data should be merged to the respective mailboxes in the production Mailbox database, or whether they should be copied to a single target mailbox. Disaster Recovery with Exchange Server 2007 • Chapter 9 605 Now wait for the tool to merge the mailbox data from the Mailbox database in the recovery storage group for the selected mailbox. When the mailbox data merge has completed, you should be able to see the content deleted from the production Mailbox database. You don’t even need to restart the Outlook or OWA client for the restored data to appear! When you have merged or copied the required Mailbox data, you can use ExTRA to dismount and then remove the recovery storage group. Be sure you delete the fi les in the RSGxxxxxxxxx folder after you have removed it so the fi les don’t take up valuable disk space. Managing Recovery Storage Groups Using the Exchange Management Shell As mentioned earlier in this chapter, you can also manage an RSG using the Exchange Management Shell (EMS). If you know your cmdlets, restoring mailbox data from a Mailbox database in a recovery storage group can be done a lot faster than when you’re using ExTRA. Figure 9.26 Selecting the Mailboxes to Merge 606 Chapter 9 • Disaster Recovery with Exchange Server 2007 The fi rst step is to create the RSG. In order to create an RSG via the EMS, you need to run the New-StorageGroup cmdlet with the –Recovery parameter. So, to create an RSG for the fi rst storage group on a server named E2K7S04, type: New-StorageGroup –Server E2K7S04 –LogFolderPath “E:\Program Files\Microsoft\ Exchange Server\Mailbox\First Storage Group\RSG –Name “Recovery Storage Group” –SystemFolderPath “E:\Program Files\Microsoft\Exchange Server\Mailbox\First Storage Group\RSG” –Recovery The LogFolderPath and SystemFolderPath parameters are used to specify where the RSG-related fi les should be located. As you can see, we specifi ed they should them to be restored to a subfolder called RSG under E:\Program Files\Microsoft\Exchange Server\Mailbox\First Storage Group\RSG. If you intend to do the same, please make sure there’s suffi cient disk space available for the Mailbox database you’re restoring from backup. To see if a respective storage group is a recovery storage group (as well as many other types of information), you can use the Get-StorageGroup <storage group name> | FL command. If the storage group is a recovery storage group, it will say True under Recovery, as shown in Figure 9.27 Figure 9.27 Full List of Recovery Storage Group Information . 602 Chapter 9 • Disaster Recovery with Exchange Server 2007 We now have the option of swapping the Mailbox database mounted to the RSG and the linked production Mailbox database (a recommended. space. Managing Recovery Storage Groups Using the Exchange Management Shell As mentioned earlier in this chapter, you can also manage an RSG using the Exchange Management Shell (EMS). If you know. –LogFolderPath “E:Program FilesMicrosoft Exchange ServerMailboxFirst Storage GroupRSG –Name “Recovery Storage Group” –SystemFolderPath “E:Program FilesMicrosoft Exchange ServerMailboxFirst Storage