How-to Restore an Exchange Database to a Windows Virtual Machine

Introduction

The Instant Volume Mount operation restores an entire volume to a Windows VM and is the best way to restore data when recovering a large data set. This restoration method is used to recover Exchange Databases; the Exchange Database's volume will be mounted as a new drive. An Exchange Administrator can then perform the required recovery operations.

Procedure

Cloud Data Protection Recovery Steps

1. Log in to the Cloud Data Protection system
2. From the navigation bar at the top of the page, select the Data Protection → Recoveries tab.
   
3. Select the Recover button and then Instant Volume Mount
     
4. Utilize the search bar to locate the appropriate Exchange server.
5. Click the desired VM to restore to move directly to the Recovery Options page.
6. Set the recovery options

1. Task Name:      Select a meaningful name for the recovery task
2. Source:             Confirm the VM listed is the VM you have selected
3. Mounting:        Select the volume (s) from the server to restore (location of the Exchange databases)
4. Recover Point: Select the snapshot you wish to restore
5. Target:              Select the VM to mount the volume on
6. Disk Online:     Do not select to bring the disk online automatically

1. Interface:         If restoring to EEC, choose Select from Interface/VLANs and select bond0.1930 (bond0.1940 will alternatively be set on DUB-COHESITY); if restoring to private infrastructure, select Select from Interface/VLANs and select the appropriate bond0.* interface.
    
   

7. Select Create Task
8. You will be redirected to the Recovery Overview screen to monitor the restore status.
9. Upon success, the VMDK of the volume will be attached to the target VM

Exchange Recovery Steps

1. Log in to the target VM
2. Mount the VMDK within Windows on the target VM
   1. Login to the Target VM
   2. Launch the Disk Management utility 
   3. Locate the restored disk
   4. Right-click the disk and select Online
   5. The disk will now mount to the OS

3. Utilizing native Exchange Tools perform a recovery on the restored database 
   1. https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/Exchange/high-availability/disaster-recovery/restore-data-using-recovery-dbs?view=exchserver-2019
4. Unmount the VMDK within Windows on the target VM 
   1. Login to the Target VM
   2. Launch the Disk Management utility 
   3. Locate the restored disk
   4. Right-click the disk and select Offline
   5. The disk will now unmount from the OS

Cloud Data Protection Recovery Steps

1. Log in to the Cloud Data Protection system.
2. From the navigation bar at the top of the page, select the Protection → Recovery tab.
3. Select the Task Name of the restore you initiated
4. Select Tear Down to remove the disk from the VM and clean up all Cohesity configurations
   
5. Select Yes, Tear Down to confirm the operation.