Exchange Disaster Recovery Analyzer released today! (ExDRA)

Microsoft released a new tool today called the Exchange Disaster Recovery Analyzer (ExDRA). This tool looks at an Exchange server's databases, and collects configuration data and header information from databases and transaction log files. The tool analyzes all headers and creates a detailed list of instructions explaining what the problem is, and how to resolve it. The goal is to guide a user through the disaster recovery process, automating as much as possible.

The initial release of ExDRA is currently only stepping through the log replay part of disaster recovery. While the ESEUTIL tool will do many of these things, this tool makes many recovery processes much easier when you have a database that won't mount or needs transaction logs rolled forward. One thing I have already noticed, though, is that it does not detect single-bit errors in the database (-1018 errors). Those won't keep a database from mounting, but they will keep the database from being backed up successfully!

ExDRA is available at: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=c86fa454-416c-4751-bd0e-5d945b8c107b&DisplayLang=en