restore Exchange from production to lab

I have duplicated AD from production to lab. It seems working fine. Now,
I'd like to restore one of the Exchnage 2003 server with multiple SGs to the
lab server. I can set up the lab server with same name, OS, etc. But it's a
server with different hardware. The lab is in an isolated network, has no
Internet or connection to any network. I also don't have backup/restore
system to restore online backup from production to lab. But I might be able
to get the DBs restored to a laptop and bring it into the lab. I have been
searching MS KB for instructions but haven't found any so far.

I think I need to set up Exchange using DR option. But what should I do
with the DB as I know DR option won't create DB.

Mark
Tue Apr 17 01:37:30 CDT 2007

On Mon, 16 Apr 2007 15:32:01 -0700, Chris
<Chris@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote:

>I have duplicated AD from production to lab. It seems working fine. Now,
>I'd like to restore one of the Exchnage 2003 server with multiple SGs to the
>lab server. I can set up the lab server with same name, OS, etc. But it's a
>server with different hardware. The lab is in an isolated network, has no
>Internet or connection to any network. I also don't have backup/restore
>system to restore online backup from production to lab. But I might be able
>to get the DBs restored to a laptop and bring it into the lab. I have been
>searching MS KB for instructions but haven't found any so far.
>
> I think I need to set up Exchange using DR option. But what should I do
>with the DB as I know DR option won't create DB.

Your obvious thing to do here is to do the /disasterrecovery
installation (I assume you replicated the forest in the lab by
restoring a DC?)
Then do a backup of the production Exchange server to a bkf file using
just plain old ntbackup.
That will allow you to do the restore into your newly created lab.
Because all the identities will be the same you won't have any of the
usual naming problems etc.

Have a mull over of that and then post some follow ups if you need.

Chris
Tue Apr 17 10:02:03 CDT 2007

Mark,
Thanks for your reply. Yes, I restored the system state backup from one
of the DC in production to the lab. I'll try to run NTBackup aganist a
couple SG on production server. Then I'll restore but is there any document
or MS KB will show me how to do it step by step? Also, how can I verify if
the AD I restored has proper schema ready for me to restore Exchange?

"Mark Arnold [MVP]" wrote:

> On Mon, 16 Apr 2007 15:32:01 -0700, Chris
> <Chris@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote:
>
> >I have duplicated AD from production to lab. It seems working fine. Now,
> >I'd like to restore one of the Exchnage 2003 server with multiple SGs to the
> >lab server. I can set up the lab server with same name, OS, etc. But it's a
> >server with different hardware. The lab is in an isolated network, has no
> >Internet or connection to any network. I also don't have backup/restore
> >system to restore online backup from production to lab. But I might be able
> >to get the DBs restored to a laptop and bring it into the lab. I have been
> >searching MS KB for instructions but haven't found any so far.
> >
> > I think I need to set up Exchange using DR option. But what should I do
> >with the DB as I know DR option won't create DB.
>
> Your obvious thing to do here is to do the /disasterrecovery
> installation (I assume you replicated the forest in the lab by
> restoring a DC?)
> Then do a backup of the production Exchange server to a bkf file using
> just plain old ntbackup.
> That will allow you to do the restore into your newly created lab.
> Because all the identities will be the same you won't have any of the
> usual naming problems etc.
>
> Have a mull over of that and then post some follow ups if you need.
>