Exchange 2010 Creating a Recovery Database to Restore a Mailbox With DPM

In a previous post I showed you how to restore an Exchange Mailbox Database and a single Mailbox using Data Protection Manager (DPM).
This is a follow-up post on restoring a single mailbox, because it requires:
1. Setting up a Recovery Database
2. Restoring the entire Database that the mailbox exists/existed on
3. Reconnecting the mailbox.
I know it sounds like a lot of work for just one mailbox, but that's the way Exchange and DPM works...this is why I like to inform users that there is no single item recovery :)

Creating the Recovery Database (RDB) requires using the Exchange Management Shell (EMS).

First, ensure that you have enough disk space to house the entire database .edb that you are restoring.
Second, make sure that the mailbox server you are creating the RDB on, has the DPM protection agent installed.

Fire up the EMS, and run:

New-MailboxDatabase -Recovery -Name "RDBName" -Server "ExchangeServerName" -EdbFilePath "target DB file path" -logFolderPath "target log file path"

**Note** Change "RDBName" to whatever you want to call the RDB, "Exchange Server Name" to the server that will house the new RDB, "target DB file path" to the location where you want the database .edb file, and "target log file path" to where you want to place the log files.

You can run Get-MailboxDatabase to verify that the RDB was created, or check in the EMC under Organization Configuration > Mailbox > Database Management and you will see it listed.

You will notice that the newly created RDB is dismounted, and under Properties > Maintenance "This database can be overwritten by a restore" is checked.

Once you have your RDB created, you can follow my previous post to restore the mailbox database.

After the restore process, you can recover the mailbox...this will take hours depending on database size, LAN speed, and throttling settings.

Fire up the EMS, and run:

Restore-Mailbox –Identity "Username" -RecoveryDatabase "RDBName"

**Note** Replace "username" with the mailbox you are restoring, and "RDBName" with your Recovery Database name.

The RDB will now be Mounted and the overwrite switch will be unchecked.

You will see at the top of the EMS window, the progress "bar" and each folder being restored.

**Note** Once the process is finished, I recommend adding yourself as Full Access on the newly restored mailbox, and opening it in OWA to verify that all folders/items are intact.

After verification, you can dismount and remove the RDB.

Fire up the EMS and run:

Dismount-Database "RDBName"

Then run:

Remove-MailboxDatabase -Identity “RDBName”

**Note** "RDBName" will be the name of the RDB

You can now delete the .edb and log files locations

The mailbox should now be in it's proper location with folders and items, and a happy user praising your ability to save their job :)