Setting End User Expectations During the Recovery Process

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Any time you plan to reset a mailbox database, you should first send a message to all mailboxes homed on the database, informing users of what has happened and setting their expectations for the recovery process. A typical message should include the following:

  • Explain that their existing information is in the process of being recovered. Tell them that, in the meantime, you have restored mail service, and that they can send and receive e-mail messages.

  • State the expected time it will take to complete recovery.

  • If you intend to swap databases, encourage users not to spend time reconfiguring rules, views, and folders. Inform them that you anticipate restoring their original mailboxes, and new customizations will be lost. Let them know that new messages and items that they create will be preserved and added to their original mailboxes. You should also inform users that there will be a short service outage, and that you will alert them before the outage occurs. Explain that after the outage, new messages will be temporarily unavailable, but all old items will be restored, and explain that newer items will soon be restored as well.