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Exchange server stores critical business information, which can undergo disaster due to server crashes, configuration errors, certificate problems, accidental deletion, and transaction log issues. With a well-drafted disaster recovery plan, you’ll be able to restore data integrity, mail flow, and mailbox availability.
A successful recovery strategy is designed with include Recovery Time Objectives (RTO), Recovery Point Objectives (RPO), application-consistent backups, and regular recovery testing. Whenever the server fails, the administrator needs to analyze the scope and recover database, preserving the log files and Exchange database.
Why do you need an Exchange disaster recovery plan?
Before we learn about the practices, find out what is the need of a disaster recovery:
- With a disaster recovery plan, you can make sure that your email services are functioning properly and there’s business continuity even after a disaster.
- Many organizations are required to follow regulations and compliance requirements for which they need proper backup and restoration plans.
- Assists in protecting data against hardware or software failure and unexpected losses that helps to preserve the integrity of critical business information.
How to Create Exchange Server Disaster Recovery Plan?
Start your recovery plan with a thorough risk assessment on the server to identify the potential threats in your environment, Here are some practices involved in the best Exchange Disaster Recovery Plan, which we should follow in case of Exchange disaster to recover deleted mailboxes with complete data integrity:
Identify damages in the server
Before anything else, one major step to follow is analyzing the Exchange Server database to identify if it’s actually damaged. These damages can be due to hardware failures, cyberattacks, and natural disasters.
Check everything from storage, Active Directory, networking, assigned certificates, database, log health, etc., to see if the database is in the state to get mounted again. It will allow you a clear overview of the problems in the server.
Plan a backup strategy
Data backup is an essential component of Exchange Server disaster recovery plan, which helps in preserving crucial business data. Choosing the right backup strategy for your Exchange server environment is substantial. According to the amount of data you need to backup and your Exchange environment, you can either go with Full backup, Incremental backup, or Differential backup.
Use the 3-2-1 backup plan to store immutable backups of your Exchange Server and store them offline. Create 3 copies of the backups at minimum on 2 different storage devices and keep one copy at an offsite location within another data center. Make sure the backup is consistent and allows easy Exchange Server restoration whenever required.
Use Database Availability Solutions
For businesses that require quick recovery against Exchange Server failures, configure Database Availability Group to improve resilience and availability of the server. A DAG group exists within the high-availability layer of Exchange disaster recovery strategy rather than as a replacement for the traditional backups.
The DAG groups create a replicated copy of the mailbox database but doesn’t provide protection against all logical data loss and corruption scenarios.
Check for the database consistency
Before committing changes to the database, they are written to the transaction log file which is a sequential set of logs. When all the logs are committed to a database, the database is in a consistent state and ready to be mounted on the Exchange Server. A database should be in a consistent state if you want to mount it on the server.
But when all the changes are not committed, the database is in an inconsistent state. Such a database cannot be mounted, and you’ll need to bring it back to a consistent state.
Upgrade your hardware
Most of the time, the Exchange server crashes due to hardware failures like abrupt shutdowns, frequent power failures, hard drive corruption, or any physical damage to the components of the server. So, the Exchange administrator should maintain the hardware routinely. Here are some common hardware components which can be changed periodically:
- Power supply cables
- Memory
- Processor
- RAID controllers
- NIC (Network Interface Controller)
Adjust the Exchange Server settings
There are several settings which the Exchange server administrator can configure to stabilize the Exchange environment. This will help with Exchange disaster management by eliminating chances of losing data in unfavorable circumstances.
- Save the transaction log files in RAID volume.
- Increase the retention settings under the data retention policy.
- Increase the deleted mailbox retention under data retention policy.
Run a mock drill of Exchange disaster recovery
Running a mock drill during an Exchange server disaster will help you earn some valuable inputs and prepare for an actual emergency. You can also get to know whether your recovery methods are efficient enough for Exchange data recovery.
Use Exchange recovery utilities
There are some inbuilt features in Exchange Server 2019, 2016, 2013, 2010 & other previous versions that help you repair a corrupt database. You can use these tools in case of severe issues with the Exchange environment. The most popular one is ESEUTIL, which is a command-line tool that uses the transaction log files to recover the data and restore it to its previous state.
How to Repair an Exchange Database Using ESEUTIL
You can find the ESEUTIL tool at the following location:
C:\Program Files\Microsoft\Exchange Server\V15\Bin
The ESEUTIL for Exchange repair has multiple switches which the administrator can use as per the corruption level in the database file. With the appropriate Eseutil switches, you can perform the repair process and regain access to your mailboxes. However, it is important to have a backup of the Exchange database before you start with these switches.
Are There Any Limitations of ESEUTIL?
Although ESEUTIL is quite famous among Exchange Administrators, it is not always successful in repairing the database completely, and there is no way to recover the deleted mailbox data. There exists a lot of limitations such as:
- Risk of permanent data loss.
- Can cause downtime.
- Free disk space needed around 1.2x the database size.
- No guarantee of database mounting.
When Should You Use an Exchange EDB Recovery Tool?
To counter all the limitations of ESEUTIL and if you want complete data in the proper structure and format as that of initial mailbox, you can take the help of a professional tool and recover lost/inaccessible/deleted data.
Use Kernel for Exchange Server recovery that allows you to recover and restore lost data from the Exchange database. Using an Exchange EDB Recovery tool is a significant step of Exchange server disaster recovery plan, which eliminates Exchange database (.edb) corruption and restores the complete data in its original form preserving the metadata. This tool is one of the most practical solutions that allows recovering Exchange Server data in a few simple steps even if you are not technically skilled. Apart from retrieving the lost data, it also helps to migrate EDB to Live Exchange & Office 365 while keeping the original folder structure.
Exchange Server Disaster Recovery: Key Takeaways
After a thorough understanding of Exchange disaster recovery plan, choose a suitable method to restore Exchange Server 2019, 2016, 2013, and 2010. But if you want to get your data back in the minimum time and with complete health, then you should go for Kernel for Exchange Server. It accepts EDB file as the source and saves the recovered mailboxes EDB to PST files, Live Exchange, Outlook, Office 365, and Public Folder.
Common Exchange Server Disaster Recovery Plan Questions
Ans. The simplest way to back up your mailbox data is to use an EDB to PST converter and save the mailbox offline in a PST file.
Ans. You can move mailboxes using the built-in Exchange migration tools or try a professional Exchange EDB to Office 365 tool.
Ans. An Exchange Disaster Recovery plan must include:
1. Full information of server infrastructure
2. Recovery objectives
3. Backup strategies
4. Roles and responsibilities
5. Pilot test drills
