Accelerating Exchange Server recovery

Imagine a situation where the first hard drive of your Exchange server is completely damaged and has to be replaced. If this server is not part of the cluster, or the drive is not mirrored, and it is not part of a fault-tolerant arrangement of some type, you will have a big problem at this time.

In this case, we generally accept the following recovery solutions: Install Windows and Internet Information Server (IIS), and update Windows using the previously used service software package, in addition, the latest backup files are restored to the maximum extent.

This recovery process may take two to six hours, depending on the speed of your server and the type of drive-this is really a long downtime.

If the damaged Exchange Server runs on the Windows Server 2003 platform, you can use automatic System Recovery (ASR ), this tool greatly saves the time required for recovery operations. By using ASR, you do not need to wait until the Windows Installation program is complete Before restoring your backup file. In contrast, you can recover backup files in the early stages of Windows installation.

Rules

The following are some rules for using ASR:

Your Server must run the Windows Server 2003 operating system.

The backup file to be restored must be an ASR backup file. If you open an NTBACKUP file and click the "welcome" tab, you will see that the automatic system recovery backup option has been completely separated from the common backup options. ASR backs up the Windows operating system and system status. (It will also create an ASR floppy disk, which will be described in the next section of the article .)

ASR does not back up the Exchange Server and install other applications on the Server. The only goal of ASR is to quickly restore the Windows operating system, so you only need to focus on installing your application and running it later.

When you start an ASR-based recovery operation, ASR will format the system drive. There is no problem with formatting because you want to replace this corrupted drive. However, if there is still data saved in the drive, you will want to avoid this ASR-based recovery operation.
ASR floppy disk

As part of the ASR backup process, ASR creates an ASR floppy disk. This floppy disk will be used during recovery to provide ASR with backup media information.

This floppy disk is required for ASR recovery. If you do not have one, you can create another one. You only need to take the backup tape of the server to another machine and restore the files ASR. SIF and ASRPNP. SIF to a floppy disk. These two files are located in the \ Windows \ repair folder.

Perform automatic system recovery

Now that you have your ASR floppy disk, it is time to restore it:

1. Use Windows Server 2003 to install the CD to start the Server.

2. When the installation process prompts you to perform automatic system recovery, insert the ASR floppy disk and your backup tape.

3. Follow the prompts below to restore your server.
Recover Exchange

After the recovery operation is complete, you must install the Exchange Server and make it return to the available status.

First, make sure that the Windows operating system has been updated to the latest level. To successfully recover Exchange, the Windows operating system must be run in the same level of service package (service-pack) environment as the most recent Exchange backup file was created, it is more appropriate to have the same hotfix.

After the Windows operating system is updated, you also need to install the Exchange Server. The simplest method is to run the Installation File of Exchange by using the/disasterrecovery command. This command will tell the installation file Exchange Server that there is no database, which greatly simplifies the recovery process. After installing Exchange, make sure that you have installed the Exchange service package, which was used before the disaster.

In this case, you can recover your recent Exchange backup file at will. The following are some reasons why you have to wait for a while before restoring the backup file. First, restoring the database in advance does not seem to be of any benefit because Exchange has not been installed. Second, if the backup software is recognized by Exchange, you can only perform online Exchange backup. Before you install Exchange, the NTBACKUP file cannot be recognized by Exchange.