Preparing for Restore

To prepare for restore, do the following:

• Make sure the destination database is mounted.

• Make sure the destination database has the overwrite property enabled.

Important. Whenever an Exchange database is mounted, the Exchange overwrite property is automatically set to not allow overwrite. Before running a restore, you must manually set the Exchange overwrite property to allow overwrite. See Setting the Exchange Overwrite Property for Restores.

• Use Exchange Management Console to suspend replication to the passive database copy. This applies to DAG only. See Suspending the Passive Database Copy in a DAG.

Setting the Exchange Overwrite Property for Restores

If the Exchange database on the destination node does not have the overwrite property set, the restore will honor the property and fail. You must ensure that the Exchange overwrite property is set, before running the restore job.

Warning! For restore of multiple Exchange database in a single restore job, all the target databases must have overwrite enabled. If the overwrite property is not set for any one of the target databases in a multiple-database restore job, all the restores in the job will fail.

To set the Overwrite property in Exchange Management Console (Standalone or DAG):

1. Select Mailbox on the navigation tree in the left pane.

2. With the Database Management tab selected, right-click the database for which you want to set the overwrite property.

3. In the context menu, click Properties.

4. In the Properties dialog, select the check box This database can be overwritten by a restore.

5. Click OK. At this point you can run the restore if you have already defined it. See Defining and Running Exchange 2010/2013 Restores.

Suspending the Passive Database Copy in a DAG

1. On the Exchange Mailbox screen, select the database you want to suspend. The database will be highlighted in the lower pane.

2. Right-click the passive copy of the database.

Tip. Databases indicated as Mounted are always active. Any other listed databases are passive.

3. From the context menu, select Suspend Database Copy.

4. In the Suspend Mailbox Database Copy dialog box, optionally enter a comment, then click OK.

5. Once the Copy Status changes to Suspended, you can proceed with defining and running the restore job. See Defining and Running Exchange 2010/2013 Restores.