Question : Recovering Exchange 2003 after a corrupt AD on an SBS 2003 Server.

Horatio_too asked a similar question in March 2003. I'm at about the same point.

Having tried to restore from a Livestate image which failed due to a corrupt AD which I couldn't recover from using all the tools at my disposal, I decided to set up a completely new SBS.

I chose to call the server exactly the same name and went through to the point of configuring the server.

Attempt 1. I allowed SBS to configure Exchange, then restarted the server, stopped all Exchange services, backed up the Exchange Directory and copied the old Exchange Directory into place. Result was that when I tried to start Exchange service, EM wouldn't allow the store to load. It wouldn't even give me a chance to load it (greyed out). I then tried to run ESCUTIL on this copy which reported it to be perfect.

Attempt 2. I tried putting the old Exchange Directory into place before configuring the Server. It didn't seem to object but it failed to allow EM to open the store.

Attempt 3. I've tried to create all the users with the same names (luckily only 15 users) and then tried to mount the old store as a separate instance. I'm getting lost at this stage as to how to do this (or even if this is possible)
 
I'm here on a Sunday morning looking at a server which should have had a perfectly adequate disaster recovery solution in the form of LiveState Advanced Server, which has failed miserably and I not looking forward to Monday when I have to tell the customer that all their Exchange data has been lost.

All help will be very much appreciated. I really need a step by step as I'm at my tethers end having been here since 9:00am Saturday.

Thanking you in anticipation of an early response

Regards


Wayne

Answer : Recovering Exchange 2003 after a corrupt AD on an SBS 2003 Server.

Did you set the properties of the Exchange store to allow it to be overwritten?  Your first method was just about correct... the only thing is you don't want to copy the entire backup directory over the newly created one, just the priv1.edb and priv1.stm files... and then the pub1.edb and pub1.stm files.  But before doing that, you must right click on the mail store and select properties > Database > This database can be overwritten by a restore.

Or, did you make sure that you applied the same service packs and patches that were on the server before?

But, before doing anything further, please review this KB article in it's entirety...

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/313184

Jeff
TechSoEasy