Exchange Recovery Blog

When you move the Exchange Server database to a system that do not have the same Locale ID (LCID) and then try to defragment the same, it might report an index corruption. Also, when you load the accurate Locale on the server and then try to defragment the database, it won’t report the index corruption.

A LCID is a 32-bit value termed by Microsoft Windows comprising of a sort ID, language ID and reserved bits which is similar to the particular language. After this situation, the data in Exchange Server becomes inaccessible. If you move database between computers having different LCID installation status, then possibility of occurrence of silent database index corruption is high. For example:

• When LCID that was previously uninstalled is reinstalled, then there is a possibility of silent index corruptions

• When Exchange Server database is copied to a different computer, de-fragmented and then copied to the original computer, it might result in index corruption.

The thing that disturbs you the most is database corruption that leads to inaccessibility of EDB file thereby causing massive data loss. There is this latest service pack for Exchange Server made available by Microsoft, it can fix this problem so it won’t occur in future but it cannot deal with the corruption. The corrupt database indexes will still remain corrupt, even after up-gradation.

In this situation, the only solution you are left with is to perform Exchange database recovery to repair damaged indexes. Exchange database recovery can be made possible through the Exchange Server Recovery software. Exchange Server Recovery software is a powerful third party Exchange recovery tool that can take care of almost all kinds of EDB corruption errors.

MAPI is Messaging Application Programming Interface and in MS Exchange Server, MAPI uses different interface methods. “OpenMsgStore” is one of the methods associated with IMAPISession interface that is used to open a message store in Exchange Server mailbox. This method results a reference that is passed to ImsgStore object for further access. After that we get access to our mailbox email items (received or sent).

There are instances when this method fails. Whenever method fails, an application log is generated that records Exchange Server computer events, which can be analyzed for knowing the root cause of failure. Corruption in the message store is the foremost reason for this behavior.

You may encounter the given event log description displaying in the application event log of Exchange Server computer:

The MAPI call ‘OpenMsgStore’ failed with the following error:

The Microsoft Exchange Server computer is not available. Either there are network problems or the Microsoft Exchange Server computer is down for maintenance. The MAPI provider failed.
Microsoft Exchange Server Information Store
ID no: 8004011d-0526-00000000

Event ID for this error is 9175 and is specific to Microsoft Exchange Server 2000 and 2003.

Cause

Reason for this situation to occur is that the IS (Information Store) is not running or the mailbox store fails to mount. The Information Store may stop due to the following possible reasons:

• You might be using an expired evaluation version of Exchange Server

• The store is dismounted and/or corrupted

• The partition storing the IS files is less than or equal to 10 MB in size

• Information Store is in dirty shutdown state

Solution

Following points are recommended in such situations:

• Use the activated version of Exchange Server

• Backup your store and run ESEUTIL/p command to repair it. The command can delete the corrupted pages and cause data loss.

• Check for IS partition is greater than 10 MB in size

• Replay all the transaction log files for the affected mailbox store

If all these points help you in repairing of Exchange Server, then it’s well and good. Otherwise you would be requiring professional Exchange Recovery software. They scan the corrupt database and repair the same efficiently and effectively.

Have you experienced the situation of dirty shutdown with MS Exchange Server? You must have encountered such a situation because it’s very common and tends to happen. After dirty shutdown of Exchange Server, when you try to mount the Information Store database(s) next time, it fails and you receive errors suggesting that one or more database(s) are corrupt. On performing hard restore using backup copy everything fails and you get something like,

“JET_errLogCorruptDuringHardRestore -573”

Error – 573 indicates that Exchange Server has detected some corruption in a backup set; therefore you fail to proceed further.

Solution

To solve this problem, try the following methods.

1. Check for some other valid and updated backup set that may be used to restore the database and carry out hard restore.

2. If not successful with it, then run ‘ESEUTIL /P database_filename.edb’ command to repair the database, where ‘database_filename’ is the name of the corrupted database file.

Using ESEUTIL utility can discard table rows and even complete tables. So, it would be better if you perform recovery of Exchange database with backup copy.

Last but not the least, if backup thing doesn’t work, go for third party software to get efficient Exchange database recovery. Exchange recovery software repair corrupt database .EDB file to recover mailboxes safely from them.

Are you getting error 939586631 in Exchange Server? This blog post will be helpful for you. For instance, consider you run ESEUTIL/CC command; the mailbox store fails to mount and return an unknown error -939586631. As a result, the stored mailbox becomes inaccessible.

Cause

This error particularly results when you run ESEUTIL /CC command using the incorrect file path pointing to Restore.env file.

ESEUTIL /CC is the restore mode command, which is applied to run hard recovery on a database that has been restored from an online backup. Exchange Server creates Restore.env file while restoring from backup to control the hard recovery process.

Solution

Follow the below mentioned steps to recover from the given problem:

1. Run ESEUTIL /CC command using the correct file path of Restore.env file.

2. Check the database consistency. If it is inconsistent, you can use ESEUTIL /P and then ESEUTIL /D command for recovering the database.

ESEUTIL /P is the hard command that deletes the corrupted data, instead of repairing it. So, after using the command, you may find the database with lost pages and deleted information.

So it’s always advisable to use professional Exchange database recovery tool to recover data from corrupt database .EDB file. Error 939586631 will be resolved easily using this tool.

Whenever any information is entered into Exchange database, index entry gets updated. So when you insert a new record in Exchange database table, Exchange inserts the corresponding index entry into index. Now if due to any reason, the data page is keep on increasing but the corresponding index remains intact, database inconsistency might arise. This particular state of database is known as ‘lost flush’.

You might have observed that MS Exchange Information Store services stops responding at repeated intervals of time in a day. On viewing the application event log, you come across event ID 467 associated with a 1025 warning:

Warning 1025:

An error occurred on database “First Storage Group\Public Folder Store (server_name)”

Function name or description of problem: SLINK:: EcUpdate Error: 0xfffffa7a

You come across a similar warning each time when event 467 is logged in MSExchangeIS public or private store.

Reason for this issue

Event 467 conveys that secondary index is inconsistent with the associated table. The database page is corrupted and is causing JET engine to hang.

Resolution

In order to resolve this issue, you need to first locate the corrupted database, which is specified in the Description section of event occurred. After the affected database is detected, follow the given below steps:

1. Start Exchange System Manager and dismount the database causing the issue

2. Run eseutil /g command to confirm for database inconsistency

3. Run eseutil /d command to defragment and fix the corruption

4. Mount the database store

If still the issue persists, then go for deleting the database but make sure that you have an updated valid backup. Backups are not the only solution, so if you are not having backup then you should try result oriented Exchange database recovery software. These tools are capable of resolving any kind of error issues related to Exchange Server database.

Quite often when we try to synchronize MS Outlook offline address book with Microsoft Exchange 2000 Server, we get the following error message

time Microsoft Exchange offline address book
time 0X8004010F
Task ‘Microsoft Exchange Server’ reported error (0×8004010F): ‘The operation failed. An object could not be found.’
Using a new .OST file to synchronize with Exchange does not solve the error.

Cause

Reason for this error 0×8004010F to crop up is any incorrect entry in the Offline address list server box in the Default Offline Address List Properties dialog box.

Resolution

To resolve this issue follow the given below steps:

1. Start Exchange System Manager.

2. Expand Recipients, and then click Offline Address Lists.

3. In the right pane, right-click Default Offline Address List, and then click Properties.

4. Note the computer name that appears in the Offline address list server box. If a deleted Active Directory service object appears in this box, specify a valid server. For this, follow these steps:

• Click Browse, click an Exchange server in the Select Exchange Server dialog box, and then click OK.

• In the Default Offline Address List dialog box, click OK.

5. Examine the properties of the server’s mailbox store to verify that the correct offline address list is specified. Perform the following:

• If administrative groups are enabled, expand Administrative Groups, and then expand the appropriate administrative group.

• Expand Servers, and then expand the Exchange 2000 server.

• Expand the appropriate storage group, right-click Mailbox Store (ServerName), and then click Properties.

• In the Mailbox Store (ServerName) Properties dialog box, click the General tab.

• Verify that Default Offline Address List appears in the Offline address list box.

6. Exit Exchange System Manager.

7. Restart the Microsoft Exchange Information Store service for allowing the Exchange scheduled online maintenance.

This way you can overcome this ‘Microsoft Exchange Server’ reported error (0×8004010F). But if other error messages indicating Exchange database corruption are occurring, then take help of Exchange recovery software. With this you can perform flawless and fast Exchange Database recovery.

Many of you administrators must have come across setup error whenever you reinstall Microsoft Exchange Server. If you reinstall an Exchange Server on the same computer, then whole setup just freezes up and stops responding when it tries to create SRS known as Site Replication Service. The following error message appears in the Setup.log file:

“Error code 0XC1030B0C (2828): The distinguished name already exists. Try the operation again. If the error recurs, try stopping the directory service and the Administrator program and then restarting them.”

Read more about Setup error when you reinstall Exchange Server »

Single instance storage of message is the one of the most exclusive features of MS Exchange 5.5, 2000 and 2003 versions. When a message is copied and sent to multiple recipients and these recipients are located on the same database, the message is stored in Exchange server database only once. Exchange server then creates pointers, which link the original message to the original recipient and all other recipients. This feature of Exchange Server is known as single instance storage. Read more about Exchange single-instance storage and its effect on stores when moving mailboxes »

Regular backing up of all MS Exchange database is an intricate task for any System administrator. Database needs to be backed up on day-to-day basis, so that it can be used in times of database corruption in future. This article would be helpful in guiding your way to successful Exchange restoration after any catastrophic disaster or damage or corruption in the database.

If you are having Windows backup of that damaged database then it becomes easy to restore Exchange. As a first step for restoring an Exchange Server, dismount any database that you want to restore, and then restore its backup. Read more about Restoring Exchange Using Windows Backup »

In Exchange server transaction log files are used to backup volatile data that is originally stored in memory. Exchange server transaction log file prove helpful in cases of system crash, as with them you can recover data for last transaction before system crash. To keep safe even in the situation of system crash, log files are normally stored on a dedicated hard disk. Read more about How to remove Exchange Server transaction log files manually »