Arcserve Exchange 2003 mailbox restore - Invalid destination path specified. please make a selection or enter a valid path for destination \\machine\dbaxchg2

By -
I've come across a recent problem when trying to restore an Exchange 2003 mailbox at brick level to an Exchange 2010 environment using Arcserve.  The initial concern here is restoring from an old tape which was taken using an old version of Arcserve from an Exchange environment which no longer existed.

In short, I couldn't restore to the Exchange 2010 server when trying to restore to an alternative location.  I was attempting to use Arcserve 16.5 to read the tape and restore the data to an Exchange 2010 server which has the Arcserve 16 agent installed.

When I initially tested the restore, I ran a merge on the tape in Arcserve so I could see the available sessions.  To restore the mailbox I selected the source mailbox by drilling down to individual mailbox, I set the destination as the Exchange 2010 server and selected a subfolder of the Administrators mailbox also at brick level.  The message I received at the point of submitting the job was "Invalid destination path specified. Please make a selection or enter a valid path for destination \\machine\dbaxchg2" at the point

What was clear is the Exchange instance identity was different.  It listed my Exchange 2010 server as \\servername\dbaexsis\ instead of \\servername\dbachg2\ which was included in the error message.

I spoke to CA who confirmed that you cannot restore an Exchange 2003 mailbox to Exchange 2010 and said you need to set-up an Exchange 2003 server to restore too.  Obviously it really wasn't possible to install an older version of Exchange into a domain which already had a higher version listed in the schema.

So…I created an all in one VM as a DC, DNS and Exchange server, set-up an Administrator mailbox.  I rolled out the 16.5 Exchange agent onto the server for restore purposes.  I had to manually add a host entry file into the Arcserve backup server; this was because I couldn't look up the server by name due to being a separate domain.  I entered the details of the AD server in Arcserve so it would then list my Exchange 2003 VM.  You enter this by right clicking on Exchange organisation in Arcserve.  Alternatively you can specify the server manually as a restore destination.

The same error occurred at the point of submitting the job though.  It was still clear that the Exchange identity was the issue as the new server was listed as \\servername\dbaexsis\.

To resolve the issue I had install the 11.5 SP4 Arcserve agent onto the Exchange 2003 server, run through the set-up of the brick level agent.  Once that was done, the server instance showed as \\servername\dbachg2\ and I could then restore the mailbox to the Exchange 2003 environment.  We're keeping the VM, should we need it again.





Ben Owens

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Assigning Windows 10/11 Enterprise Subscription Activation Licences to Hybrid Azure AD Joined Devices

By -
Image
Introduction Starting with Windows 10, version 1703, Windows 10 Pro supports the Subscription Activation feature, enabling users to “step-up” from Windows 10 Pro to Windows 10 Enterprise automatically if they are subscribed to Windows 10 Enterprise E3 or E5. The Subscription Activation feature eliminates the need to manually deploy Windows 10 Enterprise or Education images on each target device, then later standing up on-prem key management services such as KMS or MAK based activation, entering GVLKs, and subsequently rebooting client devices. It’s important to note that the Windows 10 Enterprise subscription activation is designed to “step-up” a device from Windows 10 Pro to Windows 10 Enterprise. Therefore, your device is required to have a Windows 10 Pro license activated as a baseline. For Windows 10 Enterprise Subscription Activation to function, there a several prerequisites which need to be in place. This blog is aimed for organisations which have Active Directory on premises an
Read more

Autopilot Hybrid Azure AD Join with Customised First Login Status

By -
Image
Introduction This is my flavour of deploying a customised HAADJ progress status, building on work by Joymalya Basu Roy's detailed article - https://joymalya.com/autopilot-hybrid-azure-ad-join-reworked-with-joy/ . The differences in my version are: Not using Active Setup to run the HAADJ retry process or Splash Screen as I found this didn't work as expected and I didn't want to add a registry item to affect all future logins with a reboot from the HAADJ process. Running the processes under the context of the SYSTEM account, but displaying status to the interactive user. Avoid the HAADJ process running again after the initial success. This provides a customised first login status which prevents the user from using the devices until Hybrid Azure AD Join from the Autopilot process. It's use is primarily for when the User ESP is configured to be skipped. Files This is my version of customised HAADJ which is built on work and guidance in blogs/articles from Michael Niehaus, S
Read more

Upgrade Samsung Galaxy Ace 2 (I8160) to Android Jelly Bean

By -
Image
There has been talk of Samsung working on an Android build of Jelly Bean for the Samsung Galaxy Ace 2 (I8160) for quite some time. A couple of leaked versions of the build have been available since the end of February and during March, but these contained various bugs as you might expect. On April 2nd, an official release was available on www.sammobile.com and available for install using KIES or OTA, but only for Portuguese customers on the TMN network.  This was curious as this network didn't actually sell the phone.  It could be a way of getting the early adopters to test this version before the big operators like Telefonica and Vodafone build and release a version themselves. There are many online guides on how to manually download the firmware and apply it to your device, but if you make the direct jump from Gingerbread (2.3) to Jelly Bean (4.1.2) you will likely have RAM issues. The gingerbread versions only allocated around 500MB for RAM whereas Jelly Bean needs more
Read more