Restoring Legacy .EDB to a File Server with TSM (Best Practice)

zolagbr

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PREDATAR Control23

Good morning All,

I will appreciate if Tivoli experts on this forum can advise me on the issues below:

We have upgraded our MS Exchange environment from Exchange 2010 to Exchange 2016. The final step is to uninstall Exchange 2010 from the old servers and then delete the old servers from the new Exchange environment.

For legal requirements we need to maintain the existing Backups for many years but, the question is, how can we restore mail from the old environment using Tivoli TSM.

Ideally, we would like to simply restore a .edb database to a file server and use third party tools to extract a mailbox from the file. This would not require Exchange Server to mount the database, the tools work on an offline database.


Can Tivoli TSM do this, simply restore the .edb file to a specified file path? If so, what steps do we need to follow to do this?

If TSM cannot do this what have other customers done when upgrading their Exchange environments? Surely we do not need to maintain old email servers indefinitely?


Can i log a case for this with IBM?

Many thanks in advance

Richard
 
PREDATAR Control23

I'd say see if you can log a case with IBM, but they may ask to get a point open with Microsoft as well.

Exchange keeps a LOT of information in AD, so as you migrate from one to the other, your AD items are updated. What does that mean when trying to recover 2010? I really don't know.

Thoughts of keeping a small 2010 exchange server powered off in vmware? Just make sure it has enough storage for logs and edb files you need to bring back? Heck clone your AD server and set it to vmware network only and then stand up a 2010 on the same vm host. This way everything is 'functional' and bring back the data that way.

Spit balling as I have no expertise in this. Our exchange's were in-place upgrades, and if I recall correctly, I seen the old databases from the 2010 as well as the new naming scheme we transitioned to. But this was several years ago so I could be totally off the wall here.
 
PREDATAR Control23

I'd say see if you can log a case with IBM, but they may ask to get a point open with Microsoft as well.

Exchange keeps a LOT of information in AD, so as you migrate from one to the other, your AD items are updated. What does that mean when trying to recover 2010? I really don't know.

Thoughts of keeping a small 2010 exchange server powered off in vmware? Just make sure it has enough storage for logs and edb files you need to bring back? Heck clone your AD server and set it to vmware network only and then stand up a 2010 on the same vm host. This way everything is 'functional' and bring back the data that way.

Spit balling as I have no expertise in this. Our exchange's were in-place upgrades, and if I recall correctly, I seen the old databases from the 2010 as well as the new naming scheme we transitioned to. But this was several years ago so I could be totally off the wall here.

Thanks for taking time out to respond to my questions.

I have raised a call with IBM which is still ongoing about finding an easier way of restoring the backed up .edb without having to install Exchange Server.

Please see their response below:

Hi Richard



thank you for feedback.





As told before you have to restore into a the same exchange server version than backup was taken due to a Microsoft limitation.

https://www.ibm.com/docs/en/spfm/8.1.7?topic=data-restoring-exchange-server-database



See also following technote

https://www.ibm.com/support/pages/node/553747

Microsoft restricts recovery operations which utilize VSS and Recovery Databases to like versions. This means that a user cannot restore a database backup from one version of Microsoft Exchange Server, to a newer or older version of Microsoft Exchange.



Please consult MS support in case of further questions regarding converting tools etc.



Kind regards
 
PREDATAR Control23

Pro's and Conns of how TSM works right? Rely on the API from whoever. VMware, Microsoft, etc. Other backup products sometimes shoves all that aside and uses their own hooks to backup everything. But when something goes wrong, I've seen it a huge mess and total failure to recover data. Especially when trying to engage Microsoft support and all they say is get with your vendor, as non-native functions.

I just view doing it the right way, the safe way the only way to protect critical data.

Good luck with your efforts. I still think perhaps a vm with exchange and bring back each edb to open it up with whatever tool might be the better way to go.
 
PREDATAR Control23

Just imagine your legal says you have to be able to restore emails from 7years ago. Meanwhile your email infrastructure migrated from Exchange 2010 to HCL Domino/Notes. But in order to restore emails from 7y ago, you need to install an old Exchange anyway. The same scenario is with Exchange 2010/2016 - if their API is not compatible you are just out of luck.
 
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