Rapid Recovery 6.3 - User Guide

Opening an Exchange database

1. From the Rapid Recovery Core Console, click the (More) menu, and then click Mail Restore.
2. On the Mail Restore page, to access the Exchange database where the mail item is stored, click Open Database.
   The Open Exchange Databases Wizard opens.
3. On the Location page of the wizard, you can open a database from a protected machine or from a local path such as your current machine or a file share. Do one of the following:
   • Open from protected machine: Click Next, and then continue to the next step in this task.
   • Open from local path: Enter the following information for the location, and then click Finish:
     • Database file path
     • Logs path
     • System path
4. On the Machines page, select the protected machine that houses the Exchange database, and then click Next.
5. On the Recovery Points page, select the recovery point for the point in time from which you want to open the database, and then click Next.
6. On the Databases page, select the Exchange database that you want to open, and then click Finish.
   Rapid Recovery opens the selected database and displays it on the Mail Restore page, with the mailboxes and folders listed on the left in an expandable navigation tree. Items within folders display on the right.

   NOTE: The amount of time it takes for Rapid Recovery to open the Exchange database depends on the size of the database.

Restoring a mail item in Rapid Recovery

1. From the open Exchange database on the Mail Restore page, select the item that you want to recover and then, on the Mail Restore actions bar, click Restore.
   The Email Restore Wizard opens.
2. On the Restore Session page, complete one of the following options, and then click Next.
   • If you are restoring mail items for the first time, enter a display name and your Outlook credentials for the restore session. You can then select this session for a future restore.
   • If you have previously created restore sessions, select one of the following options:
     • Select Use an existing restore session, and then select a session from the drop-down list.
     • Select Create a new restore session, and then enter a display name and your Outlook credentials for the restore session.
3. On the Destination page, select the target location of the restored item from the following options, and then click Next:

   Table 136: Mail restore destinations

   Option	Description
   Restore to the recovery folder	Recovers the selected items (including the folder hierarchy) to a recovery folder in an online mailbox of your choice. Go to step 4.
   Restore to the original location	Directs the selected item (including the folder hierarchy) to the email box in the online data store in which it originally resided. Go to step 5.
   Restore to the PST file	Saves the selected items (including the folder hierarchy) by creating a Personal Storage Table (PST) file or writing to an existing PST file. Go to step 6.
   Restore to the PST file(s) (separate file for each mailbox)	Saves each mailbox as a Personal Storage Table (PST) file. Go to step 6.

4. If you selected Restore to the recovery folder, on the Configuration page, select a Profile from the drop-down list, browse for and select the Outlook address book, and then go to step 7.

   Optionally, select Show advanced options, to further customize the restore with the following options:

   Table 137: Advanced mail restore options

   Option	Description
   Error handling	Determines the way to address and manage any errors that may occur during the restore process. Select one of the following options: Log and continue. Collects error messages in a log and continues with the restore process. Notify user. Pauses the restore and displays a message in the Monitor Active Task dialog when it encounters an error, and gives you the option to continue with or cancel the restore. Abort restore. Ends the restore process when an error occurs.
   Restore deleted objects	For an Exchange 2010, 2013, and 2016 database, restores items that were permanently deleted. For an Exchange 2007 database, restores strikethrough items from the current folder.
   Restore email rules	Restores any rules the user had in place at the time that the data was backed up.

5. If you selected Restore to the original location, on the Configuration page, select the target Outlook Profile, select a Restore type from the following options, and then go to step 7:
   • Restore only differences. Identifies whether the item being restored is already present in the destination folder and completes the restore only if there is no duplicate item. Also known as a differential restore.
   • Create duplicate entries. Restores every item selected without overwriting existing items, resulting in duplicates of the previously existing items.
   • Overwrite if more recent. Restores newer items that are not present in the online data store. It also restores items that are present in the online data store but are older than the items in the copy of the Exchange database.

   Optionally, select Show advanced options, to further customize the restore with the following options:

   Table 138: Advanced mail restore options

   Option	Description
   Error handling	Determines the way to address and manage any errors that may occur during the restore process. Select one of the following options: Log and continue. Collects error messages in a log and continues with the restore process. Notify user. Pauses the restore and displays a message in the Monitor Active Task dialog when it encounters an error, and gives you the option to continue with or cancel the restore. Abort restore. Ends the restore process when an error occurs.
   Restore deleted objects	For an Exchange 2010, 2013, and 2016 database, restores items that were permanently deleted. For an Exchange 2007 database, restores strikethrough items from the current folder.
   Restore email rules	Restores any rules the user had in place at the time that the data was backed up.
   Restore user permissions	Restores the custom permissions set for a public folder. NOTE: This option is only available when you restore a public folder to its original location. If you do not select to restore permissions, then the default folder permissions are restored with the content.

6. If you selected Restore to the PST file or Restore to the PST file(s) (separate file for each mailbox), on the Configuration page, complete the following selections, and then go to step 7:
   1. Profile. Select an Outlook profile from the drop-down list.
   2. Primary PST storage. To locate and select the initial destination folder for the PST file, enter the path or select an existing file.
   3. Overflow PST storage (optional). If the primary destination has insufficient space for the PST file, select a secondary destination for the PST file.

      NOTE: Do not assign the overflow location to the same disk as the primary location.

   Optionally, select Show advanced options, to further customize the restore with the following options:

   Table 139: Advanced mail restore options

   Option	Description
   Error handling	Determines the way to address and manage any errors that may occur during the restore process. Select one of the following options: Log and continue. Collects error messages in a log and continues with the restore process. Notify user. Pauses the restore and displays a message in the Monitor Active Task dialog when it encounters an error, and gives you the option to continue with or cancel the restore. Abort restore. Ends the restore process when an error occurs.
   Restore deleted objects	For an Exchange 2010, 2013, and 2016 database, restores items that were permanently deleted. For an Exchange 2007 database, restores strikethrough items from the current folder.

7. Click Finish.
   The items restore to your selected destination. You can monitor the progress of the job in on the Events page.

Bare metal restore

When operating as expected, servers perform the tasks for which they are configured. If a server protected in your Rapid Recovery Core suffers a catastrophic failure that renders the server inoperable, administrators must take immediate action to restore the full functionality of that machine.

In such cases, especially when the data loss includes a system volume, you can use Rapid Recovery to perform a bare metal restore (BMR) for your protected machines. BMR is a process that restores the full software configuration for a specific system. It uses the term “bare metal” because the restore operation recovers not only the data from the server, but also reformats the hard drive and reinstalls the operating system and all software applications.

Rapid Recovery Core lets you perform bare metal restore for protected Windows or Linux machines. The protected system can be restored to similar or dissimilar hardware.

This section describes how to restore a recovery point from a protected machine to bare metal using similar or dissimilar hardware. Most of the tasks for a BMR are performed from the Restore Machine Wizard. When restoring a Linux machine to bare metal, you can also accomplish several tasks from the command line. These procedures are also included in this section.

Topics include:

About bare metal restore

Bare metal restore is the process of restoring all content from a specific computer system — data, applications, user accounts, and the operating system — from a recovery point.

BMR is used not only in disaster recovery scenarios, but also to migrate data when upgrading or replacing servers. To perform a BMR, Rapid Recovery uses an ISO image as a boot disk, which lets you connect the BMR target machine with the Rapid Recovery Core using a restore interface called the Universal Recovery Console.

For more flexibility, Rapid Recovery supports BMR both to similar and dissimilar hardware. Examples of restoring to similar hardware include replacing the hard drive only of the existing system, or swapping out a failed server with an identical machine. An example of restoring to dissimilar hardware is the case where you replace the failed system with a server produced by a different manufacturer or with a different configuration.

The process of performing a BMR includes several separate procedures. At the top level, it involves creating or downloading a bootable ISO image; transmitting that image to an accessible location (removable media, network location, or hypervisor); starting up the BMR target server from the boot image; connecting it to the recovery console instance; mapping volumes; initiating the recovery; and then monitoring the restore progress. Once the bare metal restore is complete, you can continue with the task of loading the operating system and the software applications on the restored server, followed by establishing unique settings required for your configuration.

Rapid Recovery supports BMR for both Windows and Linux machines using the Restore Machine wizard from the Rapid Recovery Core Console. Some steps differ. For a list of general BMR steps, differentiated for Windows and Linux restores, see Differences in bare metal restore for Windows and Linux machines.

For Linux, you can also accomplish many tasks required for BMR from the command line. If that is your preference, both approaches are included in this User Guide when applicable.

This section includes conceptual topics throughout, including prerequisites and information about boot ISO images used for BMR for Windows and Linux machines. Before performing any BMR, consider requirements as described in Prerequisites for performing a bare metal restore for Windows or Linux machines.

An ISO image is a single archive that contains data for every sector of a disk, including the disk file system. The topic Performing a bare metal restore using the Restore Machine Wizard describes the process to start a BMR from the wizard in the Core Console. Following that process, and referring to other topics for additional information, users can perform a BMR from the Restore Machine Wizard for both Windows and Linux machines.