Exchange Recovery to a Recovery Group/Database Fail if Replication or DAG is Used

Summary:

• This article is for Windows only

If your attempt to restore mailbox databases fails when restoring to a Recovery Group or Recovery Database and ​you are running Microsoft Exchange 2007 or 2010:

For Exchange 2007, this occurs when your Exchange mailbox server uses one of the following:

• Cluster Continuous Replication (CCR)
• Local Continuous Replication (LCR)
• Standby Continuous Replication (SCR)

For Exchange 2010, this occurs when your Exchange mailbox server meets these requirements:

• Participates in a Data Availability Group (DAG)
• Hosts both active and passive database copies

Like most of CSSB's functions, Microsoft Exchange backup and restore relies on the Windows Volume Shadowcopy Services (VSS). Exchange provides two separate VSS Writers by default: The Exchange Information Store VSS Writer and the Exchange Replication Service VSS Writer.

The Information Store writer allows for the backup of active, mounted databases. The Replication Service writer allows for the backup of passive databases, if a replicated database model is utilized. However, the Information Store writer and the Replication Service writer have the exact same VSS Writer ID, which means that Carbonite Safe Server Backup cannot tell the difference between the two writers. If Carbonite Safe Server Backup attempts to initialize the wrong writer, the restore will fail.

For more details about this issue, please refer to the following Microsoft articles:

• VSS backup using Windows Server Backup on Exchange Server 2007 SP2 fails when LCR or SCR is enabled
• Using Windows Server Backup to Back Up and Restore Exchange Data

Solution:

To resolve this issue, disable the Microsoft Exchange Replication Service Writer. Once the writer is disabled, begin your restore to the Recovery Group or Recovery Database.

Follow these steps to disable the Exchange Replication Service Writer.

1. Log on to the server with an administration account.
2. Open the Registry Editor (regedit).
3. For Exchange 2010, navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\ExchangeServer\v14\Replay\Parameters.
   For Exchange 2007, navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Exchange\Replay\Parameters.
4. Add a new DWORD value named EnableVSSWriter.
5. Set the value of EnableVSSWriter to 0.
6. Exit the Registry Editor and then restart the Microsoft Exchange Replication service.

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