CommVault: Exchange 2010 Outlook Web App cannot restore stub in public folder (preSP3)

Commvault has an Exchange public folder archiver and you are running it to get your public folder store size reduced.

If you are running Simpana 8.0 you should be aware that all written public Commvault documentation has told by fault that Exchange 2010 is suppported, but it wasn't. This wrong documenation was public until Oktober 2010 and has been removed in a "cloak-and-dagger operation" with my support call. We banged on this migration wall while moving from Exchange 2003 to 2010 and have been made by Commvault to wait for Simpana 9.0 SP1 that came available in mid January 2011. Because of so many bugs in the product we have been made waiting until mid May 2011 (SP2). You may be working with Exchange 2010 since November 2009 and you may have just waited for Exchange 2010 SP1 that has been released in June 2010 to get a more stable Exchange 2010 and to finish migration.

After we upgraded from Simpana 8.0 to Simpana 9 SP2 in May 2011 we resumed the postponed Exchange 2010 migration. As many other stuff has also been upgraded we made OWA testing as the very last step in production and learned that restoring mail items in users inboxes is working just fine and in public folders not at all again. A support case has been opened and the support lead of Exchange team confimed first - it should work and he is not aware of any known issues. After ~4 weeks and some remote sessions with debugging he called a developer and this guy was also not aware that OWA stub restore does not work. After another debugging session they told me to repro this in lab and came back a day later with the disappointing information that OWA stub restore in public folders of Exchange 2010 is not possible because of design changes in public folders. Support told me they are unable to support OWA public folder recalls due to limitations with public folder architecture for Exchange 2010 without giving any details.

Simpana 9.0 documentation told an OWA stub restore is possible with Exchange 2010. Commvault also provided a perfect guidance - how you can restore public folder items via OWA. I'm sorry, but all below link references have been removed from public. I have an idea why...

Now - 3 weeks later, after many mails have been written about this issue, they made us very happy and released SP3 with a FIX. Unbelievable, but development team made a wonder happen while implementing a fix for our w3wp crashes caused by Commvault stub restore. A way have been found to solve the stub restore bug and made OWA 2010 stub restores possible after this feature was broken for about ~2 years.

Well, no wonder comes without drawbacks. If you restore a stub the restore popup opens, the item is restored and the page is refreshed to show the restored item and not the stub only. If the refresh happens the OWA get's reloaded and the user is redirected to his personal Inbox loosing the current public folder focus. Not only the current public folder is refreshed as expected. This is very annoying as you need to click public folders and than deep down to the folder where you have been. But the item has been restored successful... Some JavaScript code and this reload bug may be fixable... we will see (UPDATE: Bug has been fixed in SP4b or later).

Symtoms / Repro case:

  1. Simpana 9.0 pre SP3 installed.
  2. You see a public folder stub and you click on it.
  3. A WhiteScreenOfDeath (WSOD) browser popup shows loading until a very long timeout (around 5 minutes) that ends with an server error 500.
  4. Until the server timeout the user is no more able to gain access to anything in his OWA.
  5. Whatever a user clicks in OWA or if he reloads the OWA he gets a message telling him Timeout for server operation. Try again later or in German Timeout für Servervorgang. Versuchen Sie es später erneut.
  6. Server side eventlogs will show you Faulting application name: w3wp.exe.

Exchange versions affected:

  • Exchange 2010

Exchange versions not affected:

  • Exchange 2003
  • Exchange 2007

Solution:

  • Install Simpana 9.x SP4b or later

History:

  • 02/20/2012: OWA public folder stub restore no longer reloads public folder UI and no longer redirect to user and keeps the user in the current folder. Manual refresh seems required, but this is acceptable. Found this fix in SP4b, but may have been fixed earlier. Documentation link references are currently broken.
  • 07/20/2011: A wonder was made happen. SP3 fixes stub restores in OWA 2010.
  • 07/02/2011: Confirmed to be broken with SP2b
  • 06/21/2011: Commvault is currently working on a patch to get the bug Faulting application name: w3wp.exe fixed, but not on the stub restore bug.
  • Development came back with "not possible" because of changes in Exchange 2010 public folders, but they are able to restore with outlook.
  • 06/17/2011: Debugged with support and developer
  • 05/20/2011: Case opened with support
Rating
Average: 6.2 (5 votes)