Advanced Recover - Exchange Public Folder Archiver Agent

Table of contents

Related Topics

Recovering a Public Folder Item

Recovering an Attachment

Finding and Restoring

Finding a Message with a Specific Subject

Finding a Message From a Specific User

Finding a Message Sent to a Specific User

Finding a Message Received in a Specific Time Range

Quick Search using Sampling

Finding a Message Backed Up at a Specific Time

Adding Search Results to a List

Using Find from a Browse Window

Restoring a Message or a Mailbox Item from the Search Results

Save, Email, or Print Search Results

Performing an Out-of-Place Recovery

Recovering to a Different Exchange Server Version

Reviewing Data Selected for Recovery

Scheduling a Recovery

Restoring By Jobs

Managing Recover Jobs

Restarting Jobs

Controlling Jobs

Additional Restore Options

Scheduling

Provides comprehensive information on scheduling jobs.

Job Management

Provides comprehensive information on managing jobs.

recovering a public folder item

You can restore individual public folder items, such as messages, to a public folder.

  1. From the CommCell Browser, navigate to Client Computers |<Client>| Exchange PF Archiver.
  2. Right-click the <ArchiveSet>, point to All Tasks and then click Browse.
  3. Click OK.
  1. Expand the defaultArchiveSet and navigate to the required public folder in the left pane.
  2. Select a public folder item from the right pane.
  3. Click Recover All Selected.
  4. Click OK.

Recovering an Attachment

Follow the steps given below to browse an archiveset and restore an attachment of a public folder message:

  1. From the CommCell Browser, navigate to Client Computers |<Client>| Exchange PF Archiver.
  2. Right-click the <ArchiveSet>, point to All Tasks and then click Browse.
  3. Click OK.
  1. Navigate to defaultArchiveSet | <Public Folder> in the left pane of the Client Browse window.
  2. In the right pane, select the message that contains the required attachment.

    For all the messages that have attachments, a paper clip icon appears in the list of messages.

  3. Click Recover All Selected.
  4. Click OK.

finding and restoring

Use Find to search and locate messages from an archived data. Find is available from a backup set, subclient, or by right-clicking a public folder, a message, or a public folder item from the Client Browse tab.

finding a message with a specific subject

  1. From the CommCell Browser, navigate to Client Computers |<Client>| Exchange Public Folder.
  2. Right-click <ArchiveSet> or <Subclient>, point to All Tasks, and click Find.
  1. Type the Subject name of the message to narrow the search by a specific subject line containing the specified text string or wildcard pattern. You can search for partial words without the need for wildcard characters at the beginning and/or end of the search string.

    These wildcards, or a combination of these wildcards, are supported in the Subject field:

    • * for any number of characters e.g., Accounting*.
    • ? for any one character e.g., user_group?.
    • [] for a range of characters e.g., [a-k]Lee.
    • [!] for a negation of a range of characters e.g., [!a-k] Lee.
  2. Click Search.

The messages that match the criteria are displayed in Search Results.

finding a message from a specific user

  1. From the CommCell Browser, navigate to Client Computers |<Client>| Exchange Public Folder.
  2. Right-click <ArchiveSet> or <Subclient>, point to All Tasks, and click Find.
  1. In From, narrow the search by entering a specified user who sent the message.
  2. Click Search.

The messages that match the criteria are displayed in Search Results.

finding a message sent to a specific user

  1. From the CommCell Browser, navigate to Client Computers |<Client>| Exchange Public Folder.
  2. Right-click <ArchiveSet> or <Subclient>, point to All Tasks, and click Find.
  1. In To, narrow the search by entering a specified user the message was addressed to.  When searching Public Folder data using this field, keep in mind that only e-mails posted to mail-enabled Public Folders will be searchable. If you wish to search posts made to a Public Folder, use the Subject or From fields instead.
  2. Click Search.

The messages that match the criteria are displayed in Search Results.

finding a message received in a specific time range

  1. From the CommCell Browser, navigate to Client Computers |<Client>| Exchange Public Folder.
  2. Right-click <ArchiveSet> or <Subclient>, point to All Tasks, and click Find.
  1. In Received Time, select an entry from the drop-down list to narrow the search to messages received on the specified date or within the specified date range according to date criteria (Any, Today, Yesterday, This Week, This Month, This Year, Is, After, Before, Between, Specific Date). Depending on your selection, additional date range fields may appear below the Received Time field.
  2. Click Search.

The messages that match the criteria are displayed in Search Results.

quick search using sampling

  1. From the CommCell Browser, navigate to Client Computers |<Client>| Exchange Public Folder.
  2. Right-click <ArchiveSet> or <Subclient>, point to All Tasks, and click Find.
  1. Click Advanced Options to expand and display the fields. 
  2. In Sample Every, specify the rate at which messages are sampled to determine whether they match the search criteria. The default value of 1 indicates that every message will be sampled. Keep in mind that the order in which messages are sampled is based on the order in which the messages were backed up.
  3. Click Search.

The messages that match the criteria are displayed in Search Results.

finding a message Archived at a specific time

  1. From the CommCell Browser, navigate to Client Computers |<Client>| Exchange Public Folder.
  2. Right-click Backup Set or Subclient, click All Tasks | Find.
  1. Click Advanced Options to expand and display the fields. 
  2. In Backup Time, specify a time or time range (Latest Cycle, After, Before, Between, Specific Date, Any, Today, Yesterday, This week, This Month, This Year, or Relative) to narrow searches to messages that were backed up within the time period specified.
  3. Click Search.

The messages that match the criteria are displayed in Search Results.

adding search results to a list

  1. From the CommCell Browser, navigate to Client Computers |<Client>| Exchange Public Folder.
  2. Right-click <ArchiveSet> or <Subclient>, point to All Tasks, and click Find.
  1. Enter search criteria (e.g., Subject, From, To, etc.) as explained in the previous sections.
  2. Click Search.

    The messages that match the criteria are displayed in Search Results.

    Right-click a message and select Add to Selected List.

  3. Click the Selected Items tab and the message will be displayed.
    Moving items to the Selected List lets you control the items you need to restore. You could narrow down the list from the Search Results so that you are able to recover only the items from the Selected List.

Using find From a Browse Window

When you access Find as part of a Browse operation, keep in mind that the time range values are not pre-populated by any previously selected time range settings entered on the Browse Options or Advanced Browse Options dialog.

  1. From the CommCell Browser, navigate to Client Computers |<Client>| Exchange PF Archiver.
  2. Right-click the <ArchiveSet>, point to All Tasks and then click Browse.
  3. Click OK.
  1. Right-click a public folder or a public folder item (e.g., calendars, journals, etc.) and select Find.
  2. Enter search criteria (e.g., Subject, From, To, etc.) as explained in the next few sections.
  3. Click Search.

The search results are displayed in the right pane. You can optionally save the results, email, or print them.

Restoring a Message or a Mailbox Item from the Search Results

  1. From the CommCell Browser, navigate to Client Computers |<Client>| Exchange Public Folder.
  2. Right-click <ArchiveSet> or <Subclient>, point to All Tasks, and click Find.
  1. Enter search criteria and click Search.
  2. Right-click a public folder or a public folder item from the search results and then select Restore.
  3. In the Destination Client list, select the name of client computer.
    In cases where the mailbox alias name has changed, it is strongly recommended to restore messages out-of-place to the current mailbox alias name. Otherwise, attempting to restore the data in-place to a mailbox alias that no longer exists will cause the restore operation to fail.
  4. Click OK.

save, email, or print search results

  1. From the CommCell Browser, navigate to Client Computers |<Client>| Exchange Public Folder.
  2. Right-click <ArchiveSet> or <Subclient>, point to All Tasks, and click Find.
  1. Enter search criteria and click Search.
  2. Click Save, Email, or Print in the upper-right corner of the window.
  3. If Email is selected, enter the SMTP parameters (SMTP Host, To, From, Subject).

performing an Out-of-Place recovery

By default, the Exchange Public Folder iDataAgent recovers data to the client computer from which it originated; this is referred to as an in-place recovery. You can also recover the archived data to another client computer.

When you perform an out-of-place recovery, the recovered data assumes the rights (i.e., permissions) of the parent directory.

  1. From the CommCell Browser, navigate to Client Computers |<Client>| Exchange PF Archiver.
  2. Right-click the <ArchiveSet>, point to All Tasks and then click Browse.
  3. Click OK.
  1. Select a public folder, a message, or a public folder item from the Client Browse window and click Recover All Selected.
  2. In the Destination client list, select the client. The source and destination clients must reside in the same CommCell Console. The destination client must have the Exchange Public Folder Archiver iDataAgent installed on it.
  3. Click OK to start the recovery.

Recovering to a Different Exchange Version

When performing a cross-application recovery of Exchange Archived public folders from a newer version of Exchange Server to an older version, it follows the same compatibility support provided by the Exchange Server, unless otherwise noted.

  1. From the CommCell Browser, navigate to Client Computers |<Client>| Exchange PF Archiver.
  2. Right-click the <ArchiveSet>, point to All Tasks and then click Browse.
  3. Click OK.
  1. Select a public folder, a message or a public folder item from the Client Browse window and click Recover All Selected.
  2. In the Destination client list, select the client. The source and destination clients must reside in the same CommCell Console. The destination client must have the Microsoft Exchange Public Folder Archiver iDataAgent installed on it.
  3. Click OK to start the recovery.

Reviewing Data Selected for Recovery

When you select multiple public folders, messages and public folder items from multiple locations, you can review all the data and locations before starting the restore. Follow the steps give below to review the data selected for restore:

  1. From the CommCell Browser, navigate to Client Computers |<Client>| Exchange Public Folder.
  2. Right-click the defaultBackupSet and click All Tasks | Browse Backup Data.
  3. Click OK.
  1. Select a public folder, a message or a public folder item from the Client Browse window and click Recover All Selected.
  2. In the Destination client list, select the client. The source and destination clients must reside in the same CommCell Console. The destination client must have the Microsoft Exchange Mailbox iDataAgent installed on it.
  3. Click Advanced.
  4. Select the Selected Paths/Filters tab.
  5. Click OK.
  6. Click OK to start the restore.

Scheduling a Recovery

1.
  • From the CommCell Console, navigate to Client Computers | Exchange PF Archiver.
  • Right-click an <ArchiveSet>, point to All Tasks and then click Browse.
  • Click OK.
2.
  • Select one or more public folders in the left pane. The public folder items (e.g., calendars, journals, etc.) will be selected in the right pane.
  • Click Recover All Selected.
3.
  • Click Job Initiation tab and click Schedule.
  • Click Configure.
4. Select the appropriate scheduling options.  For example:
  • Click Weekly.
  • Check the days you want the run the restore job.
  • Change the Start Time to 9:00 PM
  • Click OK to close the Schedule Details dialog
  • Click OK to close the Restore Options dialog

The restore job will execute as per the schedule.

Restoring by Jobs

The Restore By Jobs feature provides the facility to select a specific backup job to be restored. This method of restoring data is considerably faster as it reads continuously on the tape and retrieves the data and does not depend on the indexing subsystem to get the seek offsets on the media.

This feature can be used in different scenarios such as the following:

Consider the following when restoring by jobs:

Use the following steps to restore data by jobs.

  1. From the CommCell Browser, right-click the level whose data you want to browse, click View and then click the Backup History.
  1. From the Backup History Filter window, select the filter options, if any, that you want to apply and click OK.
  1. From the Backup Job History window, right-click the backup job that need to be restored and select Browse.
  2. From the Browse Options dialog box, click OK to execute the browse using the Browse the Latest Data option.
  1. From the Browse window, select the instance node in the left pane and then select the required data and logs in the right pane, and click the Recover All Selected button at the bottom of the window.
  2. Select the desired restore options and click OK.

Managing Recovery Jobs

Once you initiate the recovery operation, a recover job is generated in the Job Controller. Jobs can be managed in a number of ways. The following sections provide information on the different job management options available:

Restarting Jobs

Jobs that fail to complete successfully are automatically restarted based on the job restartability configuration set in the Control Panel. Keep in mind that changes made to this configuration will affect all jobs in the entire CommCell.

To Configure the job restartability for a specific job, you can modify the retry settings for the job. This will override the setting in the Control Panel. It is also possible to override the default CommServe configuration for individual jobs by configuring retry settings when initiating the job. This configuration, however, will apply only to the specific job.

Backup jobs for this Agent are resumed from the point-of-failure.

Configure Job Restartability at the CommServe Level

  1. From the CommCell Browser, click Control Panel icon.
  2. Select Job Management.
  3. Click Job Restarts tab and select a Job Type.
    • Select Restartable to make the job restartable.
    • Change the value for Max Restarts to change the maximum number of times the Job Manager will try to restart a job.
    • Change the value for Restart Interval (Mins) to change the time interval between attempts for the Job Manager to restart the job.
  4. Click OK.

Configure Job Restartability for an Individual Job

  1. From the CommCell Browser, navigate to Client Computers | <Client> | Exchange Public Folder | <Backup Set>.
  2. Right-click the <Subclient> in the right pane and then click Browse Backup Data.
  3. Click OK.
  4. Select the data that you want to restore and click Recover All Selected.
  1. Click Advanced and select the Job Retry tab
  2. Select Enable Total Running Time and specify the maximum elapsed time before a job can be restarted or killed

    Select Kill Running Jobs When Total Running Time Expires to kill the job after reaching the maximum elapsed time.

  3. Select Enable Number Of Retries and specify the number of retries.
  4. Click OK.
 

Controlling Jobs

The following controls are available for running jobs in the Job Controller window:

Suspend

Temporarily stops a job. A suspended job is not terminated; it can be restarted at a later time.

Resume

Resumes a job and returns the status to Waiting, Pending, Queued, or Running. The status depends on the availability of resources, the state of the Operation Windows, or the Activity Control setting.

Kill

Terminates a job.

Suspending a Job

  1. From the Job Controller of the CommCell Console, right-click the job and select Suspend.
  2. The job status may change to Suspend Pending for a few moments while the operation completes. The job status then changes to Suspended.

Resuming a Job

  1. From the Job Controller of the CommCell Console, right-click the job and select Resume.
  2. As the Job Manager attempts to restart the job, the job status changes to Waiting, Pending, or Running.

Killing a Job

  1. From the Job Controller of the CommCell Console, right-click the job and select Kill.
  2. Click Yes when the confirmation prompt appears if you are sure you want to kill the job. The job status may change to Kill Pending for a few moments while the operation completes. Once completed, the job status will change to Killed and it will be removed from the Job Controller window after five minutes.

Additional Restore Options

Several additional options are available to further refine your recovery operations. The following table describes these options, as well as the steps to implement them.

Be sure to read the overview material referenced for each feature prior to using them.

Option Description related topic
Skip Errors and Continue

This option enables you to to continue the restore job regardless of media errors and create a file that lists the full path names of the files that failed to get restored. Follow the steps given below to set this option:

  1. From the CommCell Browser, click Client Computers | <Client> | Exchange Public Folder.
  2. Right-click the <Backup set> that contains the data you want to restore and select All Tasks | Browse Backup Data.
  3. In the Browse Options dialog box, click OK.
  4. In the  Client Browse tab, select the data to be restored and click Recover all Selected.
  5. In the Restore Options for All Selected Items dialog box, click Advanced.
  1. In the Advanced Restore Options dialog box, click General.
  2. On the General tab, select the Skip errors and continue check box.
  3. Click OK.
 
Startup Options

The Startup Options are used by the Job Manager to set priority for resource allocation. This is useful to give higher priority to certain jobs. You can set the priority as follows:

  1. From the CommCell Browser, click Client Computers | <Client> | Exchange Public Folder.
  2. Right-click the <Backup set> that contains the data you want to restore and select All Tasks | Browse Backup Data.
  3. In the Browse Options dialog box, click OK.
  4. In the  Client Browse tab, select the data to be restored and click Recover all Selected.
  5. In the Restore Options for All Selected Items dialog box, click Advanced.
  1. In the Advanced Restore Options dialog box, click Startup.
  2. On the Startup tab, select Change Priority.
  3. Enter a priority number - 0 is the highest priority and 999 is the lowest priority.
  4. Select the Start up in suspended State check box to start the job in a suspended state.
  5. Click OK.
Refer to Job Priority and Priority Precedence.
Copy Precedence By default, the system retrieves data from the storage policy copy with the lowest copy precedence. If the data was pruned from the primary copy, the system automatically retrieves data from the other copies of the storage policy in the lowest copy precedence to highest copy precedence order. Once the data is found, it is  retrieved, and no further copies are checked.

You can retrieve data from a specific storage policy copy (Synchronous Copy or Selective Copy). If data does not exist in the specified copy, the data retrieve operation fails even if the data exists in another copy of the same storage policy. Follow the steps given below to retrieve the data from a a specific storage policy copy:

  1. From the CommCell Browser, click Client Computers | <Client> | Exchange Public Folder.
  2. Right-click the <Backup set> that contains the data you want to restore and select All Tasks | Browse Backup Data.
  3. In the Browse Options dialog box, click OK.
  4. In the  Client Browse tab, select the data to be restored and click Recover all Selected.
  5. In the Restore Options for All Selected Items dialog box, click Advanced.
  1. In the Advanced Restore Options dialog box, click Copy Precedence.
  2. On the Copy Precedence tab, select the Restore from copy precedence check box.
  3. Enter the copy precedence number.
  4. Click OK.
Refer to Recovering Data From Copies.
Data Path Options

The data recovery operations use a default Library, MediaAgent, Drive Pool, and Drive as the Data Path. You can use this option to change the data path if the default data path is not available. Follow the steps given below to change the default data path:

  1. From the CommCell Browser, click Client Computers | <Client> | Exchange Public Folder.
  2. Right-click the <Backup set> that contains the data you want to restore and select All Tasks | Browse Backup Data.
  3. In the Browse Options dialog box, click OK.
  4. In the  Client Browse tab, select the data to be restored and click Recover all Selected.
  5. In the Restore Options for All Selected Items dialog box, click Advanced.
  1. In the Advanced Restore Options dialog box, click Data Path.
  2. On the Data Path tab, select the MediaAgent and Library.
  3. Select the Drive Pool and Drive for optical and tape libraries.
  4. Select the name of the Proxy server if you wish to restore using a proxy server.

    You can select the Proxy server only when you are restoring from a snapshot. This option is not available for a regular restore.

  5. Click OK.
Refer to Change Data Path.
Encryption

If the client's data is encrypted with a pass phrase, you must enter the pass-phrase to start the data recovery operation. Follow the steps given below to enter the pass-phrase:

  1. From the CommCell Browser, click Client Computers | <Client> | Exchange Public Folder.
  2. Right-click the <Backup set> that contains the data you want to restore and select All Tasks | Browse Backup Data.
  3. In the Browse Options dialog box, click OK.
  4. In the  Client Browse tab, select the data to be restored and click Recover all Selected.
  5. In the Restore Options for All Selected Items dialog box, click Advanced.
  1. In the Advanced Restore Options dialog box, click Encryption.
  2. Enter the Pass Phrase.
  3. Click OK.
Refer to Data Encryption.
Browse Options

Deleted files can be manually restored by the user. You can specify the time range for the deleted items to be restored.

  1. From the CommCell Browser, navigate to Client Computers | <Client> | iDataAgent. The default backup set and subclient are displayed on the right-hand window pane.
  2. Right-click the Backup Set, click All Tasks and then click Browse.
  3. From the Browse Options window, click OK.
  4. Select the data to be restored and click Recover all Selected.
  5. From the Restore Options for All Selected Items dialog box, click Advanced.
  6. From the Browse Options tab, select Restore deleted items option.
  7. Select Specify Time Range option to specify the time zone, start time and end time for the deleted items to be restored.
  8. Click OK.
Refer to Job Management.
Alerts

This option enables users or user groups to get automatic notification on the status of the data recovery job. Follow the steps given below to set up the criteria to raise notifications/alerts:

  1. From the CommCell Browser, click Client Computers | <Client> | Exchange Public Folder.
  2. Right-click the <Backup set> that contains the data you want to restore and select All Tasks | Browse Backup Data.
  3. In the Browse Options dialog box, click OK.
  4. In the  Client Browse tab, select the data to be restored and click Recover all Selected.
  5. In the Restore Options for All Selected Items dialog box, click Advanced.
  1. In the Advanced Restore Options dialog box, click Alerts.
  2. Click Add Alert.
  3. From the Add Alert Wizard dialog box, select the required threshold and notification criteria and click Next.
  4. Select the required notification types and click Next.
  5. Select the recipients and click Next.
  6. Click Finish.
  7. Click OK.
Refer to Alert.
Command Line Restores Command Line Interface enables you to perform backups or restore from the command line. The commands can be executed from the command line or can be integrated into scripts.

You can also generate command line scripts for specific operations from the CommCell Browser using the Save As Script option.

Refer to Command Line Interface.
CommCell Readiness Report The CommCell Readiness Report provides you with vital information, such as connectivity and readiness of the Client, MediaAgent and CommServe. It is useful to run this report before performing the data protection or recovery job. Follow the steps given below to generate the report:
  1. From the Tools menu in the CommCell Console, click Reports.
  2. Navigate to Reports | CommServe | CommCell Readiness.
  3. Click the Client tab and click the Modify button.
  4. In the Select Computers dialog box, clear the Include All Client Computers and All Client Groups check box.
  5. Select the client from the Exclude list.
  6. Click the Include > button.
  7. Click OK.
  8. Click the MediaAgent tab.
  9. Clear the Include All MediaAgents checkbox.
  10. Select the MediaAgent from the Exclude list.
  11. Click Include >.
  12. Click Run.

    The generated report is displayed.

Refer to CommCell Readiness Report.
Restore Job Summary Report

The Restore Job Summary Report provides you with information about all the data recovery jobs that are run in last 24 hours for a specific client and agent. You can get information such as failure reason, failed objects, job options etc. It is useful to run this report after performing the restore. Follow the steps given below to generate the report:

  1. From the Tools menu in the CommCell Console, click Reports.
  2. Navigate to Reports | Jobs | Job Summary.
  3. Click Data Recovery on the General tab in the right pane.
  4. On the Computers tab, select the client and the agent for which you want to run the report.
  5. Click Run.
Refer to Restore Job Summary Report.