Restoring your Exchange environment

Exchange environment recovery processes

Recovery from catastrophic loss of an Exchange environment that integrates SnapManager for Microsoft Exchange and NetApp filers is outlined in the following process.

Task	Process
1	Recovering the Windows environment All procedures in this document assume that you already recovered your Windows environment. For more information about recovering your Windows environment, see the Microsoft documentation listed in Guides you should read and have at hand.
2	Recovering the Exchange server This process is performed using the backup application you used to back up the Exchange server.
3	Recovering the Exchange databases This process is performed using SnapManager for Microsoft Exchange.

Task

Process

Recovering the Windows environment

All procedures in this document assume that you already recovered your Windows environment.

For more information about recovering your Windows environment, see the Microsoft documentation listed in Guides you should read and have at hand.

Recovering the Exchange server

This process is performed using the backup application you used to back up the Exchange server.

Recovering the Exchange databases

This process is performed using SnapManager for Microsoft Exchange.

Rules and guidelines for disaster recovery

Before you perform disaster recovery using SnapManager for Microsoft Exchange, make sure that you understand the following rules and guidelines:

If you archive only your database LUNs (and not the LUN containing the transaction logs), you will only be able to perform a point-in-time restore. The Exchange databases will be restored back to the time when the backup was created. Changes made to the databases after this time cannot be recovered.
If you archive and restore your transaction log LUN along with the database LUNs, and the transaction log LUN contains transaction logs that accumulated after the archived backup was created, then you have the option of selecting an up-to-the-minute restore. In this case, the database would be restored up to the time when the archive was created. Changes made to the database after the archive was created cannot be recovered.
If you are using SnapMirror, you can use an up-to-the-minute restore to restore your databases to the point in time of the last SnapMirror replication to the target volume containing the transaction logs LUN.
If you are restoring from an archive, the LUN files from the archive must be restored into their original location in the active file system of the filer's volume.
The drive letters assigned to the LUNs that are restored must be the same drive letters that were used when the archive was created.
You cannot recover a LUN or transaction logs into a read-only file system, such as a snapshot.
For SnapManager Restore to work properly, SnapManager for Microsoft Exchange and SnapRestore must be licensed on the filer that stores the Exchange databases.
The recovery processes in this guide do not address a large-scale disaster in which supporting Windows infrastructure, such as Active Directory and DNS, is damaged or lost. Before attempting recovery of the Exchange server or the filer, you must recover the supporting infrastructure.

Which recovery procedure to use

You can use the following table to determine which recovery process most closely matches your needs.

If...	Then use...
You want to recover Exchange databases from a SnapMirror destination volume	Recovering Exchange data using SnapMirror
Your Exchange server is online and you want to recover Exchange databases from archive	Recovering Exchange data using archives
Your filer volume has failed or been destroyed and you used archiving	Restoring a filer volume using SnapManager backup archives
Your Exchange server has failed or been destroyed	Recovering a failed Exchange server
Both your Exchange server and your filer have failed and you want to recover on the same hardware	Recovering both a failed filer and a failed Exchange server
Both your Exchange server and your filer have failed or been destroyed, and you want to recover your Exchange environment using a replicated environment on a new Exchange server	Recovering a failed filer and server to a replicated environment