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I have a client who performs file system snapshot-level backups using a tool which works with VSS, to backup everything, including his Exchange server.

Is it possible to use this backup method to restore individual mailboxes from the backed up data? E.g. by using some external tool?

Ivan Voras
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  • Doesn't this depend on the tool being used? Would you be willing to share that information? – ewwhite Dec 01 '14 at 17:40
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    @Ivan As ewwhite says, it depends on the tool they use, but generally you'll to restore the Exchange DB, mount it and extract what you need. So where is the problem exactly? You can't restore from the backup? you don't know how to extract the data from the Exchange DB? – EliadTech Dec 01 '14 at 17:48
  • The biggest "problem" is that I'm not a Windows admin and am asking this as a favour to the client. I don't know what is possible and what isn't. The tool in question simply creates backup file system snapshots which can be mounted for restoring. So, it is possible to simply mount Exchange databases from the snapshot on an already running instance of the Exchange server and dig into them? I'm not asking for details, that would be *somebody else's problem* :) – Ivan Voras Dec 01 '14 at 17:56
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    Short story - probably not, if it's only just backing up the EDB files. Even via VSS, that's just the database and not the transaction logs. – mfinni Dec 01 '14 at 18:12
  • Not just the EBD files - the whole drive(s) are backed up, entire file systems. – Ivan Voras Dec 01 '14 at 18:16
  • @IvanVoras Without the name of the software being used, it's difficult to really help. Specifics matter! Are you using [Veeam](https://www.veeam.com), for instance? Is the server physical or virtual? – ewwhite Dec 01 '14 at 19:07
  • Additionally, what version of Exchange is this? – joeqwerty Dec 01 '14 at 19:12
  • Ivan - unless the EDB and log files are on the same filesystem (which is a terrible idea), they won't be consistent. Exchange is a transactional database. There's several reasons that we don't do flat-file backups of transactional database files. – mfinni Dec 01 '14 at 19:31
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    The best thing you can do for this client is to either become, or hire, a competent Exchange admin. – mfinni Dec 01 '14 at 19:32
  • Agreed. Someone who knows his stuff is needed. – Ivan Voras Dec 02 '14 at 20:02

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