How to restore Exchange 2007 from image backup (Server 2008)

Hi all,

In response to a few questions we’ve had (and also due to the fact that people are having difficulty finding Microsoft’s documentation on the matter), we have released a brief document that describes how to restore Exchange Server 2007 from a Windows Server 2008 image backup (VHD backup made by Windows Server Backup or BackupAssist).

http://wbadmin.info/articles/howto-exchange-2007-restore.html

The article above describes how to restore using the Windows Server Backup restore UI.

It is also possible to do the restore by:

  1. Restoring the Exchange application to an alternative location, such as your desktop – which will restore just the files of the Exchange databases
  2. Dismounting the relevant Exchange stores / shutting down the Exchange services
  3. Copying over the mailbox directories from your newly restored location back to the original location
  4. Restarting the Exchange services / remounting the stores

Important disclaimer: We’re not sure if this method is documented or supported by Microsoft, but note that it is virtually idential to the “Forklift” procedure that was popular with Exchange 2000/2003, where it was possible to restore Exchange databases to new exchange servers using the same method.

We recommend using the Microsoft UI to do the restore where possible – that was the first method described in this blog post.

Hope that answers a few questions!

Linus

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