Data Protector: Exchange 2010 database recovery from copy session fails

The recovery of an Exchange mailbox using a recovery database is usually no big deal. Simply restore the database, create a recovery database and recover the mailbox or items from the mailbox. Sometimes you have the luck that the customer has licensed the Data Protector Exchange 2010 Granular Recovery for Exchange (GRE). This was unfortunately not true in my case. Okay, so let’s do it the old way. The needed tape was available in the library and luckily it was a full backup. So I quickly added a disk to the VM and started the recovery of the database to a temporary location. At this point, the disaster took its course…

This isn’t a general problem of Data Protector, it’s a bug. The following constraints met in my case:

Recovery source is a copy session (e.g. post-backup object copy to tape)
Data Protector 7.03
Microsoft Exchange 2010 SP2
Recovery to temporary location

This is the output of “omnidb -session 2014/08/01-6 -detail” for the wanted session. As you can see, this is a copy of session 2014/08/01-3, which was without protection and therefore was removed by Data Protector.

Object name : exchangeserver.domain.tld:/30ae2b6b-df08-4ed1-a030-a7
0dbae354a6/DB2
Object type : E2010
Object status : Completed
Started : Freitag, 1. August 2014, 15:49:39
Finished : Samstag, 2. August 2014, 03:31:22
Object size : 0 KB
Backup type : Full
Protection : Protected for 50 weeks
Catalog retention : Same as data protection.
Version type : Normal
Access : Public
Number of warnings : 0
Number of errors : 0
Device name : HP:Ultrium 4-SCSI_1
Backup ID : 2014/08/01-3
Copy ID : 81705 (Orig)
Encrypted : No
DiskAgent ID : 1406901317

When trying to recover the DB to a temporary location, I ran into this error:

[Normal] From: RSM@backupserver.domain.tld "" Time: 21.08.2014 09:26:21
Restore session 2014/08/21-47 started.

[Normal] From: OB2BAR_E2010_BAR@exchangeserver.domain.tld "MS Exchange 2010 Server" Time: 21.08.2014 09:26:21
Analyzing MS Exchange Server 2010 environment.

[Normal] From: OB2BAR_E2010_BAR@exchangeserver.domain.tld "MS Exchange 2010 Server" Time: 21.08.2014 09:26:30
Restoring database DB2 :
Restore mode : Restore files to a temporary location
Session ID : 2014/08/01-3
Restore only this backup : TRUE
Target client/s : exchangeserver.domain.tld
Restore location : R:RDB
Restore options : Perform database recovery - FALSE
Restore database file only - TRUE

[Minor] From: OB2BAR_E2010_BAR@exchangeserver.domain.tld "MS Exchange 2010 Server" Time: 21.08.2014 09:26:30
Getting the restore information from IDB and creating the restore chain failed for database DB2(30ae2b6b-df08-4ed1-a030-a70dbae354a6).

[Critical] From: OB2BAR_E2010_BAR@exchangeserver.domain.tld "MS Exchange 2010 Server" Time: 21.08.2014 09:26:30
No mailbox database copy can be selected for restore/instant recovery.

[Normal] From: RSM@backupserver.domain.tld "" Time: 21.08.2014 09:27:09
OB2BAR application on "exchangeserver.domain.tld" disconnected.

============================================================================
Session failed!
============================================================================

The session I tried to recover was 2014/08/01-06, the session that was chosen by Data Protector for recovery was 2014/08/01-03. To make the long story short: You can fix it with a site specific path for Data Protector 7.03. Log a call at the HP Support and ask for SSPNT700_038. Plase note that you need a valid HP Software Support contract to get this patch! The patch delivers fixes for the three defects QCCR2A51280, QCCR2A53555 and QCCR2A46724. The patch is delivered as a ZIP file and contains binaries and libraries which has to be installed on the Cell Manager and the Exchange server. The patch contains files for Windows on x64, HP-UX 11.23, 11.31 on IA64, HP-UX 11.23, 11.31 on PA RISC and Linux on x64. When running Data Protector on Windows, you have to replace the following files:

On the Exchange server

e2010_bar.exe PSHAPI.dll vssbar.exe

On the Data Protector Cell Manager

asm.exe bsm.exe csm.exe dbsm.exe libob2eadm.dll libob2ecdb.dll libob2ecmn.dll libob2emmdb.dll mmd.exe msm.exe rsm.exe

You have to stop the Data Protector services on the Cell Manager and the Data Protector Inet service on the Exchange server before you can replace the files. Make a backup of the files before you replace them. After the file replacement start the services and try the restore again. In my case the restore didn’t worked after applying the patch: It failed with the same error. I opened a case at HP and after a few day I got the notice, that lab engineering was involved in the case. Short after that notice, the support sent me two files (QCCR2A54842_TM1) that I had to replace on the Data Protector Cell Manager (libob2ecdb.dll & libob2ecmn.dll). Both files were part of SSPNT700_038, so you can interprete this as a patch for a patch. ;) This patch did the trick and the restore was successful. The root cause was, that a database query returns the wrong session for the recovery. So if you face the same problems, ask HP for the site-specific patch. If the problem remains, ask for QCCR2A54842_TM1.