GroupWise 5.5 Restoring Deleted User

Accidentally deleted a Novell 5.1/GW 5.5 account. Recreating the NW side was no biggie, but getting the user's GW back online was so no fun.

Started the Great Google Search around 1600L. Searched in a variety of ways to include GroupWise "restore user" and "GroupWise 5.5" "restore user." It's freakin' amazing at the number of different ways posted to do this, most of them quite complicated, and all were basically useless. It wasn't until late in the evening that I hit on the answer and it was rather simple, compared to the gyrations listed on many of the sites.

What worked for me was this:

1. I recreated both the NW and GW accounts for the user. That way my user could continue to send and receive email while I was working on the restoration.

2. From backup tape, I restored wpdomain.db to a safe folder. Then I started NetWare Administrator, clicked on Tools – System Connection. At the GW System Connection window, I clicked on the Specify Other Domain button. I then browsed to the folder holding the restored wpdomain.db and selected it. After the GWSC window indicated it was pointing to the restored wpdomain.db, I clicked on the Connect button anyway. (There is something to be said for healthy paranoia.) I found the user's NW account (AKA the userid) and double-clicked on it. I then clicked on the GroupWise button. In the middle of the second box, I found the users three character File ID (or FID) which I will call OLD. I then went back to the GWSC and pointed it back to my live wpdomain.db. I then did the same drill to get the users new account FID which I'll call NEW.

3. Now that I knew the user's old FID, I restored the users backup USEROLD.DB from \po\ofuser to the same safe folder.

4. At this point, I had my user forward any email received from the new account to me. I then advised the user to get out of GW completely, to include Notify. Assured user could still remain logged on the the network, just couldn't use GW.

5. Using Windoze Explorer, I went to the live \po\ofuser folder, found the USERNEW.DB and renamed it to USERNEW.org. I then copied USEROLD.DB from the safe folder to the live \po\ofuser folder. I then renamed it from USEROLD.DB to USERNEW.DB. For grins and giggles, I logged on as the user and tried opening GW and no joy. Didn't even recognize the user even had a GW account. So, I opened my standalone GWCheck 5.5 and ran a structural rebuild on the account. Praise to Jesus, this time the user's GW account was up and happy. I then forwarded the users new email back to the restored account.

6. I reminded the user today that any email sent after the system backup and before the GW account was recreated was lost. Being that the user had 99% of the important email and the calendar back, the user was pretty happy.

Even tho I didn't leave until 2230L last night, it did feel good knowing that issue was resolved and I now know the drill.