The Specified Computer is Not a Microsoft Exchange Server

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At the beginning of a restore operation, Backup or another backup application may display the following error or one similar to it:

The specified computer is not a Microsoft Exchange server or

its Microsoft Exchange services are not started.

This is a generic error with multiple causes:

  • The Microsoft Exchange Information Store service on the target Exchange server is not running.

  • The name of the recovery storage group is not the same as the name of the original storage group, and you are restoring a database from a different server to the recovery storage group.

  • The This database can be overwritten by a restore check box has not been selected in Exchange System Manager on the Properties of the database.

  • The database was not found on the target server specified for a restore operation. This is often caused by Microsoft Active Directory® directory services replication or cache latency. Wait several minutes and try again. This may also happen if you have set the Recovery SG Override registry key and are restoring a database from a different server to the recovery storage group. For more information about the registry key, see "Recovery SG Override Registry Key" in Backup and Restore Differences from Previous Versions of Exchange.

  • The same database has been configured in a recovery storage group on a different server. You should have only one copy of a database configured across all recovery storage groups on all servers.

  • The backup application cannot connect to the Exchange server.

    To verify this, you can attempt a restore operation to an ordinary database on the same server (a database that is not configured in the recovery storage group). Before performing this test, you must either delete the recovery storage group so that the server exhibits ordinary restore behavior or configure the Recovery SG Override registry key. If the error reoccurs, the problem is likely server-wide and not specific to the recovery storage group. If a "Database Not Found" error appears in the Application Event Log, the problem is not with connecting to the server but with connecting to the recovery storage group.

    Important

    Be certain that the database you are specifying for this test is mounted, or that it is a test database that can be destroyed. If you have set the Recovery SG Override registry value to 1 and the database specified is not mounted, it will be overwritten immediately in the restore attempt. If the database is mounted, a "Database in use" error will be logged, restore will fail, and the existing database will be unaffected.

  • Misconfiguration of the backup application or the Exchange server. Consult the Microsoft Knowledge Base at https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=31845 for further information about other causes of this error.