Comprehensive Guide to Restore Exchange Mailboxes
In summary, Exchange Server’s restore database makes it simple to retrieve data from a corrupted database. While the actual database is being restored, administrators typically use it to access Exchange Server. This article guides you through the simple process of restoring Exchange mailboxes, including the use of a professional tool and manual methods utilizing Exchange Management Shell for both soft and hard deleted Exchange mailboxes.
If you don’t have backups or copies of the Exchange 2016 mailbox database, restoring it can be quite difficult. Typically, not all users are skilled in technology or able to restore an Exchange Server mailbox database. You need to have a thorough understanding of Exchange features and retention policies in order to return a deleted Exchange database to its initial state. On the other hand, Microsoft provides a dependable method for restoring mailboxes from Exchange Server 2016 and 2019 databases.
What do you mean by “Restore Exchange Database”?
Your data may become inaccessible for a variety of reasons, including corruption, virus attacks, hardware malfunctions, human mistake, and unintentional data erasure. A company or individual may suffer financial loss if such a situation is not handled promptly, as it may result in significant communication disruptions.
The easiest way to prevent these situations is to restore the Exchange database. The company builds and utilizes a Recovery Database (RDB) to facilitate simple data recovery. As part of a recovery procedure, users can mount the restored mailbox database and retrieve data from it thanks to this special database. Mailboxes can be restored using RDB from a backup or a copy of the database without affecting user access.
Why Should I Restore Exchange Mailboxes from an RDB?
Here are some of the advantages of restoring mailboxes in Exchange Server 2016 and 2019 using a recovery database.
- Helps restore lost mails and their contents without compromising the live database.
- Can restore the mailbox to the original or another mailbox.
- Allows you to restore either all mailboxes or selected user mailboxes.
- Having an RDB can assist with legal compliance and auditing.
However, data restoration cannot be accomplished simply by copying and pasting or dragging and dropping database entries from RDB. To extract data from the recovery database, use the New-MailboxRestoreRequest cmdlet. After retrieving the material, restore it to original mailbox or create a new folder.
Preconditions for Mailbox Restore using RDB
Before you begin the Exchange mailbox restore procedure with RDB, there are few things you should know:
- This operation requires Organization Management permissions.
- The database and log files containing the recovered mailboxes must be copied or restored into the RDB folder structure.
- Run mailbox restoration requests.
- You may need to run Eseutil /R to restore databases in a clean shutdown state.
- Once the database has been restored, remove it if it is no longer in use.
Once you understand these concepts, you may utilize Exchange Management Shell to restore data from the RDB.
How do I Restore Exchange Mailboxes?
Go through the parts below to learn how to recover mailboxes in Exchange Server.
Recover Soft Deleted User Mailboxes
Soft deleted mailboxes in Exchange are those that have been removed from the database but remain in the recycle bin with a retention period of 30 days. You can restore mailbox items from the bin within 30 days, after which the data will be permanently erased from the server. Here’s how to get deleted mailboxes using PowerShell scripting:
Step 1: Run Windows PowerShell as administrator.
Step 2: Use the Undo-SoftDeletedMailbox cmdlet to undo the deletion of any mailboxes that are still in the recycle bin.
You can alternatively use the following cmdlet to restore the mailboxes:
Step 1: Connect to Exchange Online PowerShell and run the following cmdlet to find the soft deleted mailbox.
Get-Mailbox –SoftDeletedMailbox | Select-Object Name, ExchangeGuid
Step 2: Create a target mailbox to restore these mailbox objects.
Get-Mailbox -Identity | Format-List ExchangeGuid
Step 3: In the cmdlet below, replace “SoftDeletedMailboxGUID” with the GUID obtained in step 1.
New-MailboxRestoreRequest -SourceMailbox -TargetMailbox .
You have now successfully recovered your soft deleted mailbox items to a new Exchange mailbox.
Restoring Hard Deleted User Mailboxes
A hard deleted mailbox is a user mailbox that has been permanently destroyed and cannot be restored after the 30-day retention period has expired. Any mailbox that is deleted permanently becomes inactive. Let’s look at how we can restore a hard-deleted mailbox.
Step 1: To acquire a list of inactive mailboxes in Exchange Online PowerShell, run the following command.
Get-Mailbox -InactiveMailboxOnly -ResultSize Unlimited | FT DisplayName, PrimarySMTPAddress, When SoftDeleted
Step 2: Create a new variable with properties similar to the inactive mailbox.
$inactiveMailbox = Get-Mailbox -InactiveMailboxOnly -Identity < of indentity active mailbox>
Step 3: Display the inactive mailbox’s LegacyExchangeDN and use it as a proxy address for the destination mailbox
($inactiveMailbox).LegacyExchangeDN
Step 4: Include the X500 proxy address in the LegacyExchangeDN
Step 5: Using the following cmdlet, all the contents of the inactive mailbox will be relocated to the target mailbox.
New-MailboxRestoreRequest -SourceMailbox $inactiveMailbox.DistinguishedName -TargetMailbox
This procedure can be used to recover a hard-deleted mailbox. However, the procedure is very difficult, particularly for non-technical Exchange Server users. You can restore mailboxes to the Exchange database using a professional tool to prevent mistakes.
Using the RDB to Restore Mailboxes with the Exchange Management System
To use RDB to restore deleted mailbox data, follow these steps:
Step 1: Transfer the recovered database and related log files to the RDB’s destination.
Step 2: Next, place the restored database in a clean shutdown condition using Eseutil:
Eseutil /R Exx /l
Step 3: Create the RDB and give it a special name. Use the location for the LogFolderPath argument and the name of the database file for the EdbFilePath parameter.
New-MailboxDatabase -Recovery -Name
Step 4: Use the following command to restart the Microsoft Exchange Information Store service:
Restart-Service MSExchangeIS
Step 5: Use the following command to mount the RDB:
Mount-database
Step 6: Check if the mailbox you wish to restore is in the mounted database using the command below:
Get-MailboxStatistics -Database
Step 7: Use the New-MailboxRestoreRequest cmdlet to restore the mailbox to the production mailbox after confirming the restored mailboxes. To do this, use the command shown below:
New-MailboxRestoreRequest -SourceDatabase –
Step 8: Use Get-MailboxRestoreRequest to see the mailbox restore’s current state. Use Remove-MailboxRestoreRequest to delete the restore request once the restore operation is finished.
Exchange mailboxes kept in the Exchange Server database can be restored using this method. However, there are a lot of steps in this manual method. To extract data from the database, you must first build an RDB, restore the database, and then use a cmdlet. You cannot be certain that your deleted mailbox won’t cause any data loss.
Some of the emails or other data may be absent or unavailable in the recovered file. We advise using a professional tool when you are unable to find a trustworthy mailbox restore solution.
In conclusion
It can be difficult to restore mailboxes from an Exchange database, particularly if you are unsure of the precise procedure. Because the manual method requires technical expertise and has the potential to result in data loss, it cannot be entirely relied upon. Exchange 2016 mailboxes can be easily recovered with third-party Exchange Mailbox Recovery software. which is “Goldytools Exchange Recovery” One of the best programs that makes it easier to recover deleted mails from the database.
