Microsoft Exchange - How to Restore Exchange databases to a new server

Microsoft Exchange and SQL

These are the two possible procedures to restore an Exchange database backup to an Exchange server different than the one backed up.

The first is to rename the default Storage Group, default Mailbox Store and the default Public Folder Store to be exactly the same as the backed up server. The Organization and the Administrative Group must also be identical to the backed up server. To do this, follow the steps below:

Ensure that the entire LDAP path to the Exchange Server exists as it was before on the backed up server. To do this right click on the root tree node (the organization) in the System Manager and go to properties. Check the Display Administrative Groups checkbox and restart the System Manager.

Change the name of the Storage Group, Mailbox Store, and Public Folder Store, to exactly match what they were on the backed up system. If there is more than one Storage Group, the Storage Group which contains the Public Folder Store which is associated with the default "Public Folders" Public Folder Tree is the one which must be modified, any others will not work.

With this complete it should now be possible to run a successful restore, overwriting the default storage data with that of the backup.

The alternate work around assumes that the Storage Group containing the Public Folder Store associated with the default "Public Folders" Public Folder Tree, contains production data, and the customer does not want to rename and overwrite it. In that case a new Storage Group can be created to restore to. To do that, follow the steps below.

Start by following steps 1 and 2 above. If you cannot change the Organization and Administrative Groups to match the source computer, this server cannot be restored to and you should set up a temporary server which you can modify.

Instead of changing an existing Storage Group create a new storage group with the same name as the source storage group being restored.

Right click on the new Storage Group and select new > mailbox store. Name it exactly the same as the original Mailbox Store on the source system. Then click the Database tab and check the "This database can be overwritten by a restore" checkbox.

If there is not an available Public Folder Tree you will need to create one. Right click on the "Folders" tree element and select new > public folder tree. Name it anything. This step is only necessary if step 5 fails with a dialog saying "All the public folder trees already have an associated public store on this server…​".

Right click on the storage group and select new > public store and name it exactly the same as the original Public Folder Store. Click the Browse button and select an unassigned Public Folder Tree to associate with the store, the name doesn’t matter. Select the Database tab and check the "This database can be overwritten by a restore" checkbox.

It should now be possible to successfully restore over this newly created Storage Group.

Last Update: February 13, 2012