Restaure Exchange 2016 DAG

[mascac]

Hello,

We are planning to restore an Exchange DAG in our test environment. The DAG is composed of two Exchange servers.

Do I need to start both servers at the same time after the restoration, or can I start them at different times?

Is there any Veeam KB to follow to restaure Exchnage 2016 DAG ?

[Andreas Neufert]

Assuming all exchange mailbox servers are gone but the Forest Tree root Active Directory Server is still present and the Active Directory/DNS server configured in the Exchange server that you want to restore are present. As well as the configured witness share or if not selected a CAS server is present to ensure that exchange has the witness and the infromation store will boot.

You restore one server, but ensure that networking and boot is selected at restore. If you have backed up the server with Veeams Guest Processing, then the server will automatically recover in VSS recover mode with the mailbox coming up. Ensure that the information store of the databases come up. Then restore the second server the same way and it will ensure correct replication through VSS recover mode.

[mascac]

Hello Andreas,

Thank you for your help.

I had to restart both DAG servers.

I also opened a ticket, and the support team shared with me the procedure below.

Below are the recommended steps to restore both Exchange DAG member VMs using Veeam Backup & Replication v12:

1. Ensure your test environment is fully isolated from the production network to prevent any conflicts, especially with Active Directory and Exchange services.

2. Use Veeam Backup & Replication to restore both Exchange DAG member VMs from backup.
o Select the appropriate restore point for each VM.
o Perform a full VM restore for each DAG node to the test environment:
https://helpcenter.veeam.com/docs/backu ... ml?ver=120

3. Before powering on the restored VMs, disconnect their network adapters or connect them to an isolated test network to avoid accidental communication with production systems.
Adjust IP addresses, DNS, and other network settings as needed for your test environment.

4. If application-aware processing was enabled during backup, the restored VMs will be transactionally consistent, and Exchange logs will be processed, ensuring database integrity.
o For more details, please refer to: Application-Aware Processing

5. Power on the restored VMs in the test environment.
o Verify that Exchange services start correctly on both DAG nodes.
o Confirm that the DAG configuration is intact and that databases are mounted as expected.

6. Ensure the account used for guest processing during backup had local Administrator permissions on the Exchange servers, as required for proper backup and restore operations.
o For more information, see: Required Permissions

7. Test mailbox access, database mount status, and DAG failover functionality within the test environment to verify backup integrity.

[Andreas Neufert]

This is for test environments, yes. You likely needed to restart the DAG as your witness was not present.