How To Restore A Deleted Account and Its Email

A user account was deleted from the production GroupWise system and now all the users mail needs to be restored.

NOTE: This requires that the domain was being backed up by Reload prior to the deletion of the user.

Phase 1:

First we are going to get a copy of the wpdomain.db from the Reload server.

1. Log into the Reload Web Administration.
2. Click on the Domain that we need the wpdomain.db from.
3. Click on the Backups tab.
4. Select Select Another Domain Backup For Download".
5. Choose the backup, prior to the deletion of the user, from the drop down and then click on the "Select Backup" button.
6. After waiting for about 20 seconds then click on "Download The ZIP File That Was Just Created".
7. The zip file will now be in your download directory.
8. Unzip the file

Phase 2:

GroupWise 8, GroupWise2012

Now we are going to use ConsoleOne to restore the deleted user from the wpdomain.db.

1. Launch Novell's ConsoleOne.
2. Select the GroupWise System.
3. Select Tools.
4. Select GroupWise Utilities.
5. Select Recover Deleted Account.
6. Browse to the location of the wpdomain.db that we just downloaded from Reload.*
7. click on the GroupWise world icon in the section Account To Restore.
8. Select the user to restore.
9. Click OK.
10. Verify info and click Next twice.
11. Click Finish.

GroupWise 2014

1. Browse to the Administration Web Console
2. Select System
3. Select Recover Deleted Account
4. Browse to the location of the wpdomain.db that we just downloaded from Reload.*
5. click on the GroupWise world icon in the section Account To Restore.
6. Select the user to restore.
7. Click Recover.
8. Click Done when the recovery is complete.

*It sometimes works better when the domain database is on the GroupWise server itself.

Restoring the Mail can be done using Access Mode or Restore Mode.  If the post office is on Linux, restoring all mailbox items can be done within ConsoleOne quite easily.  See the Novell technical information document, "How to Set Up a Restore Area".  Go to the section near the bottom of the document, "Restoring a User's Mailbox Items". 

See Also: Reload Setup for GroupWise Restore Area Management - Linux

Note:  The Novell TID refers to placing a copy of the backup where it can be accessed.  Reload backups are designed to look just like a post office; however, they contain Linux symbolic links to the master BLOBS (a.k.a., "offiles" or "attachments" directory). 

This article was originally published in the GWAVA knowledgebase as article ID 2118.