I'm backing up an Exchange 2003 Enterprise server with Backup Exec 11d using the Exchange agent. I want to test my backup to make sureit works. I setup another Win 2003 server on the same domain. I'm wondering if I install a 2003 Exchange server on that server will it cause problems with the production Exchange server. I'm looking for step-by-step instructions to test the backup. I know it may be a lot to write. So if someone could point me to a white paper or Web article with the instructions I would appreciate it.Thanks in advance.Marty

Why not simplyrestore to arecovery storage group instead?If you goal is to validate the backup, that is much easier to test.http://support.microsoft.com/kb/824126http://seer.entsupport.symantec.com/docs/264815.htm

Read over the the Exchange 2003 DR Operations Guide, http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb125070(EXCHG.65).aspx.If you really want to test out a DR for Exchange then I would recommend doing this in a Test lab on a seperate network. This way you can test out restoring the completeMailbox server without affecting production.ThanksWillWill Shepherd - MCSE/MCITP/MCTS (Windows 2008,Exchange 2007,OCS 2007)

That sounds like the safest way to do it. However how do I then get the backup to the other network. I was simply going to restore the backup database files to another location and copy them to a removable disk and then to the other network. But when I go to Backup Exec restore and look in the directory Exchsrvr\mdbdata I don't see the database files. When I look in the back up job it states iti backed up 34 gig from that directory. Not sure whats going on.Can the backup exec only restore those files to an active Exchange server?Help and thanks again.Meanwhile I look at the articel you pointed to.

I'm not sure about how backup exec works, but when I used to have aserver that I would restore all the data to and then before applying the systemstate backup I would take it off the production network and put it on the lab network. Then once the server rebooted I had an Identical server in lab environment.Will Shepherd - MCSE/MCITP/MCTS (Windows 2008,Exchange 2007,OCS 2007)

2 options:1. Copy the backup of the store to another location in the lab, install BE in the lab, catalog the backup in the new BE installation, then restore to the lab server.2. Create a one way trust between the prod and lab forest. Give the prod BE account the necessary privs in the lab forest, then do a redirected restore to the lab.The RSG option looks better all the time, huh? :)