I am trying to do a test restore of both Exchange servers in my organization.  I have restored the domain controller and am trying to restore both servers. I have found many articles on how to do it but they both say to run commands from the Exchange management shell. I can't run these commands because I have no Exchange servers. If it install the shell on another computer in my domain it tries to connect to the exchange server and then fails and I don't even have the ability to access those commands via powershell.

https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/gg513521%28v=exchg.141%29.aspx?f=255&MSPPError=-2147217396

How can I do this?

T

after your AD is up and running you will then need to start the installation of server using m:/recover

did you have DAG Configured , if not then m:/recover switch will be pretty smooth. You can't run a PowerShell to connect to an Exchange Server when there is NO Exchange Server. You must need to recover the server first.

what do you mean by BOTH Exchange Servers, it is CAS and Mailbox or Two Mailbox servers?

I can't run the m:/recover it fails and says that it is part of a dag... I do have  a DAG configured in my production environment and the DR environment is aware of that fact.

not sure why the article on technet

Rebuild an Entire Database Availability Group

and others say to run the following commands

1. Run the following Exchange Management Shell commands.

   Remove-MailboxDatabaseCopy -Identity DAG1-DB1\MBX2 -Confirm:$False
   Remove-MailboxDatabaseCopy -Identity DAG1-DB2\MBX1 -Confirm:$False
   

2. Because the DAG members aren't operational, the commands will complete successfully but with several warning messages. You can verify that each mailbox database has a single copy by using the Get-MailboxDatabase cmdlet, as shown in the following examples.

   Get-MailboxDatabase -Server MBX1 | Format-List Name,DatabaseCopies
   Get-MailboxDatabase -Server MBX2 | Format-List Name,DatabaseCopies
   

Both exchange servers I mean 2 exchange servers that each host all the roles.

You can take a look at informative technet article ( https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd638206%28v=exchg.150%29.aspx) that assists to you cover the required aspects to resolve this issue and more about to recover a Mailbox Server in A Database Availability Group( https://www.simple-talk.com/sysadmin/exchange/recover-a-mailbox-server-in-a-database-availability-group-%28dag%29/ ).

Otherwise, you could also try Lepide exchange recovery manager (http://www.lepide.com/exchange-manager/) Which recover the EDB files into previous version.

Hi Jennifer,

I also recommend you refer to the following article to recover a DAG member server:

Recover a database availability group member server

Use Setup /m:RecoverServer to recover a server

Thank you both for replying neither one of these help as I can't run the commands because I have no exchange server and can' t run the Exchange Management shell without it ..when I install it on another computer it tries to connect to the exchange server and fails..

Any way to remove the computers from the dag without it?

Jennifer

another way I can think of which I did in Exchange 2010 is you can install only the CAS Server, this will give you at least the management shell and from there you will be able to remove the nodes from DAG. So remove first node , then install the mailbox02 server.  let me know if that works

Hi Jennifer,

Try the below steps and let me know, if it works.

Recover a Lost Exchange Server

Satyajit

I am afraid to do this only because I am afraid once I do it  my AD etc will be all messed up and then I will have to restore my Domain controller again etc because it will remove all the setting etc in AD..

I may be forced to try it. Thank you.

I was only trying to restore one of my servers but now am trying both and then going to try  the other post I received about only adding the cas on the second server I am trying to restore but will have to install it like a brand new exchange server unless I find a way just to restore that role even though it hosted all roles.  I can get to the point on my first exchange server where is says all exchange prequites complete but then it gets to the MB role and says failed because it is part of the DAG. I am stuck now on one of my mail servers I am rebuilding saying it is in an "inconsistent state" for install and can't do anything.

I can't believe there is no other way to remove a server from a DAG besides the Exchange Management tools.  all documentation I have found says to use them but how do you use them if  you have no functioning Exchange Server.

I just wanted to update you. I had thought of building a new Exchange server but just installing the CAS role on another regular server I had restored worked..it allowed the CAS role to be installed with no issues.  However when I launched the Exchange Management Console or Shell it came up with error that trying to start that it could not connect I received an error

Connecting to remote server failed with the following error message: The WinRM client received an HTTP server error status (500), but the remote service did not include any other information about the cause of the failure. For more information, see the about_Remote_Troubleshooting Help topic. It was running the command 'Discover-ExchangeServer -UseWIA $true -SuppressError $true'.

I found an article that said

Possible Causes

1. The ExchangeInstallPath variable may be missing. To check this, go to the System Properties, Environment variables, and look under the System variables. You should see a variable of ExchangeInstallPath with a value pointing to C:\Program Files\Microsoft\Exchange Server\V14\.

2. The Path of the Powershell virtual directory has been modified. The PowerShell virtual directory must point to the \Program Files\Microsoft\Exchange Server\v14\ClientAccess\PowerShell directory or you will encounter problems.

Turns out it was the 1st possible cause that was the issue I entered the environment variable and restarted.. Opened the Exchanage Management Shell and it took a while to connect then it worked. I was able to run Exchange commands..I am still working on it but I wanted to thank you for your help so far and wanted to update this post so hopefully it will help others...

installing the first CAS server was the point and it gave you the path to go through the necessary steps. Glad to know that it worked for you.