Symptoms

Exchange subscription was accidentally removed completely from OA. Corresponding organizational unit does not exist in Active Directory anymore.

Is it possible to restore mailboxes with all old messages?

Resolution

Note: use this article with Exchange 2010 and newer. In case of Exchange version 2007 and older use article 131687.

Mailbox data data can be still existing in Exchange mailbox database. It is possible to use Microsoft Exchange functionality applicable to disconnected mailboxes to restore the data to a new mailbox.

Example below shows how to restore data from mailbox johns@example.com

  1. In Exchange Management Shell find removed mailbox in the list of disconnected mailboxes. Data can be restored if mailbox is in the list:

    Get-MailboxDatabase | Get-MailboxStatistics | Where { $_.DisconnectReason -eq "Disabled" } | ft DisplayName,Database,DisconnectDate

DisplayName           Database              DisconnectDate
-----------           --------              --------------
John Smith             11MDB02               08.02.2018 14:34:24

  2. Create temporary user using tool Active Directory Users And Computers, i.e. DOMAIN\johnsmithdummy

  3. Connect disabled mailbox to temporary user:

    Connect-Mailbox -Identity "John Smith" -Database 11MDB02 -User "johnsmithdummy"

  4. Create request to export mailbox data to PST-file on network share:

    New-MailboxExportRequest -Mailbox johnsmithdummy -FilePath "\\SERVERNAME\share_name\johnsmith_recovered.pst"

  5. Monitor status of the request using Get-MailboxExportRequest, for example:

    [PS] C:\Windows\system32>Get-MailboxExportRequest
Name           Mailbox                      Status
----           -------                      ------
MailboxExport  DOMAIN\johnsmithdummy        Completed

  6. Create new Hosted Exchange subscription in OA for the affected customer.

  7. Re-create new mailbox in CCP > Exchange, i.e. johns@example.com. You can use existing OA service user to link it with the mailbox. In this case old password will be preserved that can be convenient to the client.

  8. Create request to import mailbox data from PST-file to specified folder in the new mailbox:

    New-MailboxImportRequest -Mailbox johns@example.com -FilePath "\\SERVERNAME\share_name\johnsmith_recovered.pst" -TargetRootFolder FOLDERNAME

  9. Monitor status of the request using Get-MailboxImportRequest:

    [PS] C:\Windows\system32>Get-MailboxImportRequest | Get-MailboxImportRequestStatistics |fl Status,PercentComplete,Target
Alias,FilePath
Status          : Completed
PercentComplete : 100
TargetAlias     : smith
FilePath        : \\SERVERNAME\share_name\johnsmith_recovered.pst
  10. When import is completed, remove temporary user (DOMAIN\johnsmithdummy) in Active Directory Users And Computers

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