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Microsoft Exchange Server is arguably the most popular mail server solution used in the enterprise today. It allows organizations to host mail services in the data center and offers many robust features, including extending connectivity to the Microsoft 365 cloud. However, the built-in tools are lacking when there are issues with Exchange, such as corrupted Exchange database (EDB) files, recovering server passwords, performing file conversions, and extracting mailbox data. The Stellar Toolkit for Exchange is a "Swiss Army knife" solution that provides robust Exchange Server utilities.
What is the Stellar Toolkit for Exchange?
The Stellar Toolkit for Exchange is a 5-in-1 bundle of utilities providing IT admins the tools needed to repair corrupt EDB files, extract mailboxes from backup, and convert EDB mailboxes into PST file format, among other capabilities. Instead of needing multiple tools and utilities to perform various troubleshooting and recovery tasks, the Stellar Toolkit for Exchange includes numerous tools and features in a single solution.
Installing and working with the Stellar Toolkit are intuitive and straightforward. The installation includes a "next, next, finish" process. Surprisingly, Stellar Toolkit for Exchange, despite including the five different tools, is only a 115 MB download.
The Stellar Toolkit for Exchange dashboard
These tools include:
- Stellar Repair for Exchange
- Stellar Converter for EDB
- Stellar Converter for OST
- Stellar Extractor for Exchange Backup
- Stellar Password Recovery for MS Exchange
With the solutions combined in a single product, customers have access to the following features:
- Repair and restore corrupt EDB files and inaccessible mailboxes
- Extract mailboxes from backup
- Convert Outlook OST file to PST file format
- Convert EDB files to PST and export mailboxes to Office 365/M365 or a live Exchange Server
- Reset a lost server password
In addition to the features above, Stellar has added new performance and usability improvements to the latest version of Stellar Toolkit for Exchange, including:
- Parallel saves for multiple mailboxes—Supports saving of up to four mailboxes at the same time in live Exchange Server, Office 365, and PST, which improves performance
- Prioritization of mailbox recovery—Allows changing the order of processing based on business requirements
- Export of recovered mailboxes directly to live Exchange or Office 365—Allows direct export of recovered mailbox data to a live Exchange server or Office 365
Exporting mailbox data to a live Exchange server or Microsoft 365
Stellar has many great features for exporting or saving items. Below, we are opening an offline EDB file in the Stellar Converter for EDB application. You simply point Stellar to the offline EDB file, and it will import the file and begin a scan to determine whether there is corruption or other issues that need to be resolved to read the mailbox data. Below, we are opening an offline EDB file for scanning and extraction.
Browsing for an offline EDB file
In the offline EDB file, Stellar enumerates the user mailboxes and provides many options to export or save the mailbox data. Two features to highlight from among the available options are exporting directly to a live Exchange Server or directly to Office/Microsoft 365.
Save options include:
- Save as PST
- Save as MSG
- Save as EML
- Save as HTML
- Save as RTF
- Save as PDF
Export options include:
- Export directly to Exchange Server
- Export directly to Microsoft 365
- Export to Public Folder
Options for exporting from an offline EDB file
Prioritize mailbox recovery and parallel restores
As part of the export/save process, Stellar offers features that directly improve the solution's performance. For example, when your Exchange Server is down, or you are migrating data, you want the process of relocating, moving, or extracting data to be as quick as possible.
Another valuable feature of the Stellar Toolkit is its ability to prioritize the mailbox recovery process. For example, suppose you have dozens or hundreds of mailboxes. In that case, there may be specific mailboxes, such as C-level mailboxes, that need to have prioritized recovery over other lower-level user mailboxes. During the process of exporting mailbox data, the Map Mailboxes dialog box allows changing the priority of mailboxes listed for recovery.
You can effectively set the order of the mailbox recovery process, so high-priority mailboxes are the first to have data recovered, exported, saved, etc.
Adjusting the priority of the mailbox export process
Another excellent performance feature is the parallel saving of multiple mailboxes. Stellar saves up to four mailboxes simultaneously in live Exchange Server, Office/Microsoft 365, and PST files for much quicker data recovery.
Other features to note
In addition to the above mentioned features, the Stellar Toolkit for Exchange provides the following capabilities among the various tools:
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- Enables selecting and repairing only the mailboxes you require
- Enables searching for required mails and filtering the scanned results before saving
- Provides preview of mailboxes and mailbox items such as emails, attachments, calendars, contacts, tasks, notes, and journal
- Supports exporting selected data to the live Public folder of the live Exchange Server and Office 365 account.
- Following EDB file scan, enables creating a file containing all the scan information; using this file, you can resume the process later without scanning the EDB file again
- Supports repair of archived mailboxes in EDB files
- Supports repairing of PUB.EDB files
Extract mailbox
- Extracts mailbox from Online or Offline EDB files
- Extracts multiple EDB files
- Saves extracted EDB files as PST, MSG, EML, HTML, RTF, and PDF files
- Exports mailbox data to live Exchange Server and Office 365
- Supports save option for multiple mailboxes to Office 365 and Exchange Online
- Provides previews of mailboxes and mailbox items
- Provides previews for attachments
- Offers to filter the scanned results before saving
Extract from backup
- Extracts EDB files from BKF, VHDX, and FD backup files
- Extracts multiple EDB files
- Saves extracted files as PST, MSG, EML, HTML, RTF, and PDF files
- Exports extracted file to live Exchange Server and Office 365
- Extracts offline mailboxes from Unicode BKF and VHDX files
Stellar Converter for OST
- Provides options to export OST files to live Exchange Server, Office 365, and Outlook
- Also supports DBX, MBOX, MSG, EML, RTF, HTML, and PDF formats
- Enables converting multiple OST files to PST files in a single conversion cycle
- Enables saving only selected emails as required
- Supports the conversion of encrypted OST files
- Supports preview and conversion of deleted items
- Enables finding emails faster
- Enables resuming the process at a later stage by saving a scan information file
- Enables splitting or compressing a mailbox while saving the output in PST format
- Provides a preview of converted mail items in a tripane structure
- Enables saving all contacts in CSV file format
- Enables right-clicking emails listed in the preview section to save them in the MSG, EML, RTF, HTML, and PDF formats
Wrapping up and impressions
One suggestion for the future would be to eliminate the reliance on Microsoft Outlook to migrate and save data. However, the Stellar Toolkit for Exchange provides many excellent tools, allowing administrators to repair, recover, migrate, export, or change the format of existing Exchange mailbox data. The tool is straightforward to work with, intuitive, and does what you expect it to do. Many of its features provide great performance capabilities when exporting and working with data.
