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Restore Exchange 2007 CMS when resources got deleted accidentally

The above article has good amount of information embedded in it explaining what to do when you delete an exchange cluster resource from a CMS. Exchange clusters are not like any other cluster aware applications which can be restored by simply recreating the resources in cluster group.  One example is, SQL.  You can do simple recreation of cluster resource if you delete one from SQL instance. But when it comes to Exchange, it is little bit different. Each exchange resource maintains variety of references with each other and with active directory. It also stores it’s unique information about exchange clustered resources in active directory; so recreating the cluster resources manually from cluster admin doesn’t make any sense. You might successfully able to create resources using cluster admin, but exchange will not recognize and use it.
So, follow below steps when you delete any exchange related cluster resource from CMS group.  When I say exchange related clustered resource, I mean, Exchange Information Store Instance (CMSNAME), Exchange System Attendant Instance (CMSNAME) and Storage name (CMSNAME).

  • Note down the values NetBIOS name and IP address of the CMS
  • Run Stop-ClusteredMailboxServer -Identity “CMSName” -StopReason:”your comment text goes here”
    

  • Go to command line and run setup.com /clearLocalCMS /cmsName:”CMSName” to clear the stale entries from cluster; setup.com will be available in your installation media.
  • Run setup.com /recoverCMS /cmsName:”CMSName” /cmsIPv4Address:”IPAddress” from command prompt. This uses the configuration in active directory and reinstalls the CMS with the old configurations.

Hope this helps you and use at your own Risk.  🙂

Happy Learning…,
Sitaram Pamarthi