Anybody got TDP for Exchange 6.1 working right yet?

[n9hmg]

I can do backups, but as soon as I got to "mailbox restore", I get an ACN0004E.

We (foolishly, in my opinion) dropped TSM support, so I can't call IBM. IBM left TDPExc 6.1 in our PPA, as a courtesy. Following the docs, I've upgraded my server to the latest 5.5 code, installed baclient 6.1, and TDPExc 6.1, on our windows server 2008 x64.
The docs talk about requiring the "Microsoft Exchange VSS Integration Module version 5.5.2". All that's out there in the client updates directory is 5.5.0, which refuses to work with my version of BAClient anyway. I had thought the VSS integration was necessary only for VSS operations, and I due to extreme parsimony, there's just about exactly enough space on each server to hold exactly what they put on it, with lots of going back and "Do we have to put X on there? There's not enough space." So there's nothing useful we can do with VSS - just systemstate, and baclient temporary snapshots... Only legacy backups.
But, since the "Mailbox restore software and operating system requirements" table specifies that VSS integration module, without other reference to VSS - does mailbox restore require VSS? There's no public nformation on the topic available from IBM.

 

[moon-buddy]

Might as well go back to version 5.5.x on your BA and TDP. I am afraid there isn't much experience (on 6.1) on this forum to answer your issues.

 

[n9hmg]

Yep, that's what I'm seeing all around. Unfortunately, the deal here is that they're moving to Exchange 2007, require brick-level restores, and the ArcServ they've been limping along on doesn't support 2007. Looks like saving that $80k on TSM (we were offered SUCH a sweet deal to stay current) is going to cost about $60k in new ArcServ, and we get to keep supporting two platforms.

Unless I can hash through this myself.

 

[n9hmg]

I'm hashing through it. Through back channels I've learned that I'm configured correctly but have run into a recently-discovered bug concerning exchange datastore naming.

 

[n9hmg]

OK, now there's a positive answer. Me.
I'll try to remember to check this thread from time to time in case anybody else is trying and runs into the same stuff I did.

 

[tenshi]

Hey n9hmg,

maybe you just post the mistakes/errors you encountered during your evaluation of TDP 6.1 ? Makes life a bit easier for all of us

Thanks in advance

 

[n9hmg]

I suspect most of this won't be relevant after the first maintenance release, but:

If it can see any Exchange servers that don't have every LDAP field needed to perform item-level restores, you can't even open the item-level-restore screen, and in the commandline client, the operation just fails, with the same message the GUI gives. That was a problem for us because we're migrating from exchange 2003 to 2008, and you can see the old servers from the new. There is also a bug in the AD interface, whereby it pukes if it can see any non-ascii characters in any AD record accessed. Both of these bugs are addressed in the engineering release they gave me.

Those bugs drove me to try unnecessarily doing some of the steps specified for exchange 2003, on my 2008 servers - specifically the mfcmapi.exe steps. If you touch your mapisvc.inf with that under 2008, it won't work again until you add both services to the file. Since the package wasn't working as specified, I presumed the instructions were poorly worded and tried to guess what they really meant.

In ordinary operation, this would probably almost never be an issue, but it sure shows up in QA testing... When using mailbox restore, the username performing the restore cannot be a substring of the name of either the source or the destination mailbox. Since I naturally made an account under my own username to test with, this provided days of fun, until IBM figured that out. So, out with tconwayGA(Conway, Tim - Global Admin) and in with homerj(Simpson, Homer J.). Success all around after that.

You can restore right back to where the messages came from, or to a subfolder, either within the original database, or in an alternate mailbox. You can select by pattern matching on subject or content, by dates, senders, and I think by attachment names. I can no longer see the interface to verify those details, as my access was removed the instant I got everything working.

They still haven't fixed all the AD-related bugs. For now, at least in my environment, I have to run without storing mailbox history, which means if I need to restore a single mailbox which is no longer in existence, I have to know the exact name of the storage group and the mailbox and the date of the backup. However, item-level restores are almost always the result of user error, not an admin wiping out the entire mailbox.
If you're running into that, you can get rid of the annoying stop&prompt that happens every backup, by adding "storemailboxinfo no" to your tdpexc.cfg.

 

[Runamuck]

Have you gotten any further with this?

 

[Runamuck]

This is terrible compared to other products.

TSM is great for massive amounts of servers but is really lacking in the exchange world.

 

[n9hmg]

I'm fully implemented. Now I'm waiting for the windudes to start migrating accounts into the new domain. I've done small backups and restores and brick-level restores to the original mailbox. a new mailbox. and to PSTs. Everything works, at least at this scale. I'm SO looking forward to seeing how it does with the big load. I'll post results here when it happens.

 

[Runamuck]

I am able to backup and almost restore, restore fails right at the end, driving me crazy. The directions provided by IBM are not good.

Did you have to configure the mapi if so where and how? Says to check microsoft lol.

 

[Runamuck]

Got it figured out, I hate microsoft.

 

[Elomis]

Can you let us know what you did?

 

[putukas]

Im getting "ACN5912E: The MAPI subsystem has experienced a failure" Error while restoring mailbox level. I dont have any errors in event logs.

I have windows 2008 and exchange 2007 with TSM BA 6.1 and TDP Exchange 6.1

I dont even know if i need to look into Exchange config or TSM config to find the problem.

Thanks,

 

[hile]

I'd also like to know what the fix was, in case I run into this issue myself.

 

[Masonit]

Can someone explain why their is a limit of 2 GB when restoring to a pst file!?! You have the 2 GB limit in Outlook 97-2000. But it can't be that IBM are using that old system..? :down:

\Masonit

 

[AjM]

Got it figured out, I hate microsoft.

Hi Runamuck,

Can you explain how you soved this problem...

"ACN5912E: The MAPI subsystem has experienced a failure"

Thanks in advance.

 

[indernet]

Two things to consider when restoring

1)Temprestore directory must have enough space (if not specified C: is taken, if there is enough space restore wont be sucessful)

2)The administrator who is restoring must have the rights for it and must have a mailbox.

 

[dbutch1976]

Two things to consider when restoring

1)Temprestore directory must have enough space (if not specified C: is taken, if there is enough space restore wont be sucessful)

2)The administrator who is restoring must have the rights for it and must have a mailbox.

This appears to have fixed my issue. It's standard best practice to have a separate user account for admin functions. I think like 99% of other administrators out there my admin account does not have a mailbox. This software continues to amaze me.. and not in a good way.

 

[putukas]

Im getting "ACN5912E: The MAPI subsystem has experienced a failure" Error while restoring mailbox level. I dont have any errors in event logs.

I have windows 2008 and exchange 2007 with TSM BA 6.1 and TDP Exchange 6.1

I dont even know if i need to look into Exchange config or TSM config to find the problem.

Thanks,

i fixed this problem by adding my ip and hostname to windows hosts file. I found out this problem by trying to log in to exchange with MFCMapi tool. When i did it with hostname it failed but with ip i was able to log in. After adding line to hosts file TDP also started to restore mailboxes and no MAPI error anymore.