You only need the B,C etc if you need to copy off different drive letters.

http://blog.glo-networks.com/2010/08/10/hyper-v-snapshots-and-their-uses/

The arrticle describes why you shouldn’t use Hyper-V Snapshots and why Volume Shadow Copy snapshots should be perfectly fine (provided you’re backing up the vhds, not the avhds).

I apologise for not responding to you sooner – we got a bit busy with customers and your request for help completely popped out of my head

I have finally solved my problem. Just delete all snapshot and exec your diskshadow script. Sorry but this is a basic difference, between vhd and snapshot, that Hyper-v don’t makes so the microsoft Hypervisor is not ready for production env for me :\

thanks for support, you can use this solution for create another blog entry.

i have solved the problem by resetting secure AD secure channel I have another problem: with Public folder database . In the restored exchange server i can’t see my public folder but i can see that restored edb is 2MB and original edb is 200MB so (i think) that this edb is not backed-up.

can you help me?

Yes they are 2 seperated machine in the same host.

this is the “step-by-step” used by me:

-backup
1. diskshadow the C: volume (there are PDC and Exchange VHD here)
2. exposed C: as X: and copied VHD on NAS via richcopy

-restore
1. Prepared another isolated server for “testing restore”
2. copied VHD from NAS to this server on C: at the same “past” location
3. created VM for PDC with restored VHD
4. created VM for Exchange with restored VHD
5. at the end, i have changed the network configuration to reflect conf on prod environment with same ip for PDC and Exchange.

the 2 machine are Windows Server 2008 and Exchange is Exchange 2007 SP2

I’m able to boot up the machines, i can login on PDC but i can’t login on Exchange server with Domain Administration password.

I’m able to ping exchange from PDC and viceversa and yes, DC is the dns and the dns setted on exchange server.

At boot time i can read error in event viewer on Exchange server:

Event ID: 3210
Comuter: Exch01.domain.local
unable to authenticate with \\DOM01.domain.local [...]

And if i try to execute nltest /SC_VERIFY:domain on Exchange server the answer is “ERROR_ACCESS_DENIED”

if you think that this is the right way to backup and restore Hyper-V VMs you give me a good hope but now, i don’t know why i can’t use these restored VMs.

You think about any “change SID” related problem? restore VMs is like restoring only the hardisk in another server, no?

Sorry to hear that you’re having trouble. We’ve restored an Exchange machine backed up this way, so it should work. Reading your message I’m not sure if the DC and Exchange installations are on separate machines, or the same one. I think they’re separate in which case the following should help out -

Starting with the basics, it should work provided -
1. The relevant services are running correctly on the DC? Since altering the IP settings have the relevant services been restarted (or the box rebooted)?
2. All the network details are correct (so the Exchange VM is looking at the correct DNS server(s), the DNS records for the DC boxes are correct, etc. – when you rush its easy to fat-finger an IP and get it slightly wrong)
3. The time is correct on the 2 boxes

If that’s the case then it’s time to try some simple tests:
* Can you at least ping the various boxes (both by name and IP)?
* Do DNS lookups resolve correctly for the domain?
* Is anything meaningful being logged in the event logs of the DC or the Exchange server?

Sorry it’s a bit simple, but without more information its the best we can suggest for now.