Hard Drive Disaster - Need opinions on how to get up ASAP

Question

Hi,
I have a crisis on my hands. I brought a Virtual machine up about a month ago with Windows Server 2012 R2 and then proceeded to install Exchange 2013 on it. Approximately a week ago I migrated all the mailboxes from Exchange 2007
to the new machine. After the migration I set Exchange 2013 up with Exchange Online Protection and Azure Rights management and started syncing our Active Directory.
Now for the bad part: the raid 1 configuration on the server was not syncing the drives and I hadn’t started making backups of the server. The hard drive containing the virtual machine configuration and the virtual hard drive crashed
without warning 2 days ago. Please don’t beat me up about the backups, I already know how stupid it was to not backup a business critical machine. The hard drive is currently with a data recovery company and they estimate there is a 90% chance of 100% recovery
of the data. However, I want to be prepare for the worst and would like opinions on what my options are.
Possible outcomes:
Everything is recovered and the Virtual Machine fires right up. (I am not very optimistic about this)
I am able to recover the exchange databases from the failed hard drive.
Nothing is recovered.
Preferably option one is what occurs. However, please give me your thoughts on what the best way to get up and running ASAP if I can’t start the machine. I am not an expert but I had the following ideas:
If I am able to recover the database can I bring a new server up and move the database to it?
Bring a new server up, create a new database and import the user’s .PST files.
Since active directory was synced with Microsoft, maybe I can purchase Exchange Hosted and then import the user’s .pst files?
Any guidance on the above thoughts would be greatly appreciated.
There a multiple domain controllers in the environment and the old Exchange 2007 server is still up. I believe I still have backups of the Exchange 2007  server with all the mailboxes on it.

Answer 1

Alright, I am going to post a walk through in case it can help someone else in the future.
I brought a new Windows 2012 R2 server up and then proceeded to install Exchange 2013 with the recovery switch as BoS pointed out in his posted.
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd876880(v=exchg.150).aspx
The installation failed with:
Disaster recovery setup needs access to the log drive C:\Program files\Microsoft Exchange\v15\mailbox\mailbox database
xxxxxxxx to continue."
and
"Disaster recovery setup needs access to the mailbox database drive C:\Program files\Microsoft Exchange\v15\mailbox\mailbox
database xxxxxxxx\mailbox database xxxxxxxx.edb to continue."
To get around the errors, I created the path on the hard drive C:\Program files\Microsoft Exchange\v15\mailbox\mailbox
database xxxxxxxx and then created a text file with an .edb extension and put it in the folder. On the second attempt to the install it failed with:
Configuring Microsoft Exchange Server
Preparing Setup                                          
COMPLETED
Stopping Services                                        COMPLETED
Copying Exchange Files                              COMPLETED
Language Files                                            COMPLETED
Restoring Services                                      COMPLETED
Languages                                                
 COMPLETED
Hub Transport Server Role                        
FAILED
The following error was generated when "$error.Clear();
Install-ExchangeCertificate -DomainController $RoleDomainController -Services SMTP " was run: "The internal
transport certificate for the local server was damaged or missing in Active Directory. The problem has been fixed. However, if you have existing Edge Subscriptions, you must subscribe all Edge Transport servers again by using the New-EdgeSubscription cmdlet
in the Shell.".
The solution in this post pointed me in the right direction:
http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/exchange/en-US/d3c443da-6977-43ac-9d20-dc2b0a619e89/exchange-2010-failed-recovery-help?forum=exchangesvravailabilityandisasterrecoverylegacy
However, instead of
"MsExchSyncCredential"
it is “MsExchEdgeSyncCredential”.
On the third attempt to install the installation failed with:
A Setup failure previously occurred while installing the HubTransport role.
 Either run Setup again for just this role, or remove the role using Control Panel.
By following the steps to delete the water mark as shown in example 5 on
This site I was able to complete the installation of Exchange.
After Exchange was installed I created a new mailbox database and mounted it. Even though I did not have the old database
I was able to associate all the email address from it with the new database by running the following in powershell:
Get-Mailbox –Database “OldDatabaseName” | Set-Mailbox –Database “NewDatabaseName”
At this point users were able to start logging into the new Exchange server.
Using the pst files I made from Outlook I was able to import the data back into the new server by following the steps shown
here:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee332351(v=exchg.150).aspx
As Troy pointed out, the Outlook cache needs to be exported to .pst files before Outlook connects to the new server.
On a side note, previous to bringing the new server up, I made .pst files from the user’s offline folders in case everything was deleted when the user connected Outlook to the new server; it was not necessary. When
Outlook (2010 and 2013) connected to the new server a warning window popped up informing the user that their mailbox had been temporarily moved to a new server and gave them the option to use the temporary mailbox or their old data. At any time you should
be able to select the old data option and then export it to pst.
I am currently waiting to receive the logs and the Mailbox database back from the data retrieval company.
As soon as I have copies I am going to import any data that might be missing into the new database.