KB196406 - XADM: Replication Fails After Disaster Recovery

Article ID: 196406

Article Last Modified on 10/28/2006

Microsoft Exchange Server 4.0 Standard Edition
Microsoft Exchange Server 5.0 Standard Edition
Microsoft Exchange Server 5.5 Standard Edition

This article was previously published under Q196406

SYMPTOMS

After you follow standard disaster recovery procedures, the restored server appears to fail both in replication and mail transfer. All services start successfully and no errors are encountered.

Prior to the recovery, the server was deleted from the site through the Exchange Server Administration program.

CAUSE

Removing a server from the site forces all other servers to purge the server from the list of valid servers in the site to be replicating with. When the server (both information store and directory service) is restored from backup after you Create a New Site in Exchange Server Setup, the other servers in the site will not begin replication with the server because there is no Reps-To or Reps-From raw value entries for the deleted server. The Reps-To and Reps-From entries are only created on "Joining An Existing Site" in Exchange Server Setup.

WORKAROUND

There are two possible options to restore the server to the original site:

Directory Restore - Depending on the size of the organization, each directory could be restored to their original servers with a backup time prior to the deletion. Each server must remain offline until all restores have been completed.

Rebuilding the Directory - A more practical workaround to organizations larger that a few servers is to build a new directory. If the removed server was the system folder server for the site, perform the steps in the following Microsoft Knowledge Base article prior to continuing:
152960 XADM: Reassigning Site Roles after Removing the First Server in an Exchange Site
1. From the Exchange Administrator Program, on the Tools menu, click Directory Export and export all Recipient containers and Distribution Lists on this server. If possible, export these to the templates provided on the Exchange 4.0 Server CD (Support\Samples\Csvs) to ensure all valid data fields are populated. Verify the data after export.
2. In Control Panel Services, stop the Microsoft Exchange System Attendant. When prompted, click OK to stop all of the other Microsoft Exchange Server services.
3. Copy the Pub.edb, Priv.edb, all Edb*.log files, all Res*.log files and the Edb.chk file to another directory or another server as a backup.
4. Run Setup.exe from the Exchange Server CD, and click Remove All when prompted. Verify and remove all Exchange directories (across all drives if Optimization was run).
5. Using the Exchange Administrator program on another server, remove this server from the site if it is visible. Allow replication to occur -- the time will depend on the links between the other servers in the site.
6. Run Setup.exe again, and join the existing site. This will provide the installation with the same Organization Name and Site Name as before.
  
  NOTE: Remember to reapply any Service Packs applied in the previous installation.
7. In Control Panel Services, stop the Microsoft Exchange System Attendant. When prompted, click OK to stop all of the other Microsoft Exchange Server services.
8. Move all the files out of the Exchsrvr\Mdbdata directory (across all drives if Optimization was run). Copy to this directory the all files that were copied to another directory or server in step 1 (Pub.edb, Priv.edb, all Edb*.log files, all Res*.log files and the Edb.chk file).
9. Start the Microsoft Exchange System Attendant and Microsoft Exchange Directory services in Control Panel Services.
10. From a command prompt, change directories to Exchsrvr\Bin, and carry out the following command:
  ISINTEG -PATCH
11. Start the remaining Microsoft Exchange Server services in the Control Panel Services tool.
12. Run the Microsoft Exchange Server Administrator Program against the server you are reintroducing.
13. If there were any other Recipients container aside from the default Recipients container, make sure the containers have replicated from one of the other servers in the site before the restore.
14. Using the comma separated value (CSV) files created in Step 1, on the Tools menu, click Directory Import and import the Directory entries into the Directory.

At this point, all Users should show up in their respective containers.

After these procedures are done, the users will be able to log into the server without having lost their mail messages and the public folders will have been restored as well.

Additional query words: replication setup recovery

Keywords: kbprb KB196406