XADM: Restoring an Exchange Directory

If you need to restore an Exchange Server computer and you cannot recover the Directory, you can still recover the information in the Private and Public Stores. Typical methods to recover the Directory include running edbutil /d /r /ds, or eseutil /p /ds in Microsoft Exchange Server 5.5, or first recovering the Microsoft Windows NT security accounts manager (SAM) database.

To recover the information in the Private and Public Stores:

Note If you run edbutil /d /r, or eseutil /p in Exchange Server 5.5, against the directory (dir.edb) it is important to export the information, reinstall Exchange Server, and then import the information.

1. If possible, from the Exchange Administrator Program, on the Tools menu, click Directory Export and export all Recipient containers on this server. If this server cannot be brought up long enough to get to this point, you can perform the Directory Export from another server, in the same or other site, that contains the Directory information for the users from this server.
2. In Services, in Control Panel, stop the Microsoft Exchange System Attendant. When prompted, click OK to stop all of the other Microsoft Exchange Server services.
3. Copy Pub.edb, Priv.edb, all Edb*.log files, all Res*.log files and Edb.chk to another folder or another server as a backup.
4. Start Setup.exe from the Exchange Server CD, and click Remove All when prompted. Verify and remove all Exchange directories (across all drives if Optimization was run).
5. Start Setup.exe again, and reinstall the server with the same Organization Name and Site Name as before. Be careful to make sure each name is typed exactly as it was before, because both the Organization Name and Site Name are case-sensitive.
   
   Note Remember to reapply any Service Packs that were applied to the previous install.
6. In Services, in Control Panel, stop the Microsoft Exchange System Attendant. When prompted, click OK to stop all of the other Microsoft Exchange Server services.
7. Move all the files out of the Exchsrvr\Mdbdata folder (across all drives if Optimization was run). Copy to this folder all of the files that were copied to another folder or server in step 1 (Pub.edb, Priv.edb, all Edb*.log files, all Res*.log files and Edb.chk).
8. Start the Microsoft Exchange System Attendant and Microsoft Exchange Directory services in Control Panel, Services.
9. From a command prompt, change the folder to Exchsrvr\Bin, and carry out the following command:
   Isinteg -patch
10. Start the remaining Microsoft Exchange Server services in Control Panel, Services.
11. Run the Microsoft Exchange Server Administrator Program against the server you are recovering.
    
    Note With a new directory it is important to re-establish Mailflow between any outstanding sites and Directory Replication before you proceed to Step 12.
12. If there were any other Recipients containers aside from the default Recipients container, re-create them all. It is important that these containers have the same name and are nested (Recipient containers within Recipient containers) under the same containers as they were before the restore.
    
    Note The users in nested containers may not be recovered if step 1 was not performed. For additional information, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:
    154491 XADM: DS/IS fails to re-create mailboxes in subcontainers
    If step 1 was successful, perform only step 13 below. If step 1 was not successful, (no CSV file could be created), skip step 13 below and perform steps 14 through 16 below.
13. Using the CSV file created in Step 1, on the Tools menu, click Directory Import and import the Directory entries into the Directory.
14. Select the Server Object (Organization, Site, Configuration, Servers, servername), click File, click Properties (or press ALT+ENTER), and then click the Advanced tab.
15. Under DS/IS Consistency adjustment, click All Inconsistencies, and click Adjust.
    
    At this point, all Users should show up in their respective containers except those users who are in nested containers.
16. Go to the Properties of each individual mailbox on the server. At the bottom of the Properties box, click Primary Windows NT Account, and then click Select an existing Windows NT account, and then select the corresponding Windows NT account from the Add User or Group list.

After these procedures are done, the users should be able to log into the server without having lost their mail messages and the public folders should have been restored as well.

For additional information about using Edbutil.exe, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: For additional information on using Eseutil.exe, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: