Exchange 2007 SCR (Standby Continuous Replication)

SCR is one type of Exchange 2007 Disaster Recovery.

How SCR works?

Requirements:
- To use the server recovery process, the installation path for Exchange Server must be the same for the SCR source computer and the SCR target computer.If these install paths do not match, the server recovery process will fail because the install path in the registry will not match the value for the msExchInstallPath attribute of the Mailbox server object in Active Directory.

- Using the Active Directory Users and Computers snap-in, the computer account for DR Mailbox Server Role is configured with full permissions on the Headquarter Cluster Mailbox Server/Mailbox Server computer object. This is done so that the computer account for Headquarter Cluster Mailbox Server/Mailbox Server can be reset by DR Mailbox Server in the event that DR site is activated because of a failure of Headquarter.
P/S: This step is used only on failover clusters running Windows Server 2008. This is because the Cluster service runs in the security context of the local system. This step is not needed on failover clusters running Windows Server 2003 when the same Cluster service account is used for both failover clusters.

Example:

SCR is configured so that transaction log files are being replicated from three storage groups on EXCMS1 to SCR targets on NODEC. This was configured using the following commands:

Enable-StorageGroupCopy EXCMS1\SG1 -StandbyMachine NODEC
Enable-StorageGroupCopy EXCMS1\SG2 -StandbyMachine NODEC
Enable-StorageGroupCopy EXCMS1\SG3 -StandbyMachine NODEC

To simultaneously enable all of the storage groups on EXCMS1 for SCR, run the following command:

Get-StorageGroup -Server EXCMS1 | Enable-StorageGroupCopy -StandbyMachine NODEC

Verify health and copy status:
- Test-ReplicationHealth
- Get-StorageGroupCopyStatus

e.g. Get-StorageGroupCopyStatus EXCMS1\SG1 -StandbyMachine NODEC

When disaster happen, how to recover?
1. Verify directory services and DNS
2. Prepare the SCR targets for mounting.

Restore-StorageGroupCopy -Identity EXCMS1\SG1 -StandbyMachine NODEC -Force
Restore-StorageGroupCopy -Identity EXCMS1\SG2 -StandbyMachine NODEC -Force
Restore-StorageGroupCopy -Identity EXCMS1\SG3 -StandbyMachine NODEC -Force

3. Remove the existing DNS record for Headquarter Mailbox Server (e.g..EXCMS1) from DNS.
P/S: This step is used only on failover clusters running Windows Server 2008. This is because the Cluster service runs in the security context of the local system. This step is not needed on failover clusters running Windows Server 2003 when the same Cluster service account is used for both failover clusters.

4. SCR is disabled for all storage groups to prepare for the /RecoverCMS process. If SCR is not disabled for all storage groups, Setup /RecoverCMS fails.

Disable-StorageGroupCopy -Identity EXCMS1\SG1 -StandbyMachine NODEC -Confirm:$False
Disable-StorageGroupCopy -Identity EXCMS1\SG2 -StandbyMachine NODEC -Confirm:$False
Disable-StorageGroupCopy -Identity EXCMS1\SG3 -StandbyMachine NODEC -Confirm:$False

5. The clustered mailbox server (EXCMS1) is recovered by using the /RecoverCMS option for Setup. The recovery takes place on NODEC using the following command to perform the recovery:

Setup.com /RecoverCMS /CMSName:EXCMS1 /CMSIPAddress:




Exchange 2007 - Export Individual Mailbox to PST

1. Prerequesites: Exchange management tools, Outlook 2007

2. Grant yourself the full permission to the mailbox.

o Add-MailboxPermission "Mailbox" -User "Trusted User" -AccessRights FullAccess

3. Run this command to export mailbox.


P/S: If you export fail with the following error message:

"Error occur in the step: Approving object. An unknown error occured.."