I dont have RSG setup but if i was to set it up today, could i use it in future when the need arises? Or is there a setback here? What about disk space would it only consume disk space when i need to restore/retrieve backed up emails/mailbox? Thanks

You could, but there is really no reason to create it until you need it since it remains empty until you restore a mailbox store to it. You havent said what version of Exchange you are using, but if its 2003 and depending on what backup software you are using, you dont want to set it up until its required because its mere existance will cause Exchange to redirect any restores of the store to the RSG rather than to the production store path. (Unless you change that default behavior in the registry)

Im using Exchange 2007. So the best way would be to create this when needed? My reason of creating it before hand is to see if i could gain some experience on using it in case 'real' issues arise so i know what to do etc. Based on what you said i dont want to create a RSG if it will interfere with live mails. I would want live mails to stay in the current DB rather than a RS DB. Thanks

It can only be done through Powershell in Exchange 2007 onwards. http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa997694(EXCHG.80).aspx

Ok, in that case, create and do some test restores. It wont hurt you. Just make sure you choose to redirect the restore to the RSG in your backup software. I also like to verify that the production stores are set to not allow restores so you dont accidently overwrite them. That's the default setting. The RSG will never interfere with production email so there is no worries there. I only mentioned the possbile issues with Exchange 2003 because if you were ever in a DR scenario and wanted to restore the production store, if the RSG existed, the restore would go there instead. Since this is 2007, its not an issue. I would test away. Document your procedures and you'll be ready to go if you ever really need it. http://www.msexchange.org/tutorials/Working-Recovery-Storage-Groups-Exchange-2007.html http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa997260(EXCHG.80).aspx

It can only be done through Powershell in Exchange 2007 onwards. http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa997694(EXCHG.80).aspx You can still use the EMC gui in 2007.

Yes, I agree with Andy. You can do it with GUI - Toolbox and Disaster Recovery tools I guess. However, based on my experience; I would like to suggest not to keep an RSG hanging there. If you want to perform some testing, you can surely give it a try but otherwise, as someone said, its not going to serve any purpose. I have seen issues when people forget to delete RSG on a server, when you perform some DR down the line a few months on a different server, you get some error and come to know (hard way) that you have RSG hanging out there on some server in the org thats causing the issue. We change the ESE behavior with RSG in place where all the restores will be redirected to RSG only on the server (I'm sure about Exchange 2003, it should be same on higher version of Exchange as well - can be confirmed in a quick minute though). so with RSG in place you want be able to restore to production databases. In a summary, better to create one and work / experiment one in lab and not to keep it on production server unless you are really recovering something.

It can only be done through Powershell in Exchange 2007 onwards. http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa997694(EXCHG.80).aspx "It can be done with EMC well with EMC"

Just make sure you have daily backup. If you're not comfortable with RSG, I would suggest you built a test environment and test it that way. When situation presents itself, you'll be ready.

Just make sure you have daily backup. If you're not comfortable with RSG, I would suggest you built a test environment and test it that way. When situation presents itself, you'll be ready.