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Corruption in Exchange server database is an undesirable scenario, but whenever it happens, the Information Store Service in the database is the most affected component. The Exchange database files, Pub1.edb, and Priv.edb get damaged, and the users will see that critical emails, notes, contacts, and other data is inaccessible. Whenever data is unavailable, it gives a particular warning or error message, where it becomes undeniable to repair the corrupt Exchange and restore to its original state.
What happens when Exchange database gets corrupted?
Whenever Exchange database faces corruption, you might come across symptoms or errors as mentioned below:
- Information Store Service won’t start.
- If it starts, you can’t stop the Information Store Service.
- Unable to initialize Exchange Information Store Service.
- Information Store becomes unresponsive, and CPU usage reaches 100%.
- Users are unable to send/receive emails even on restarting ISS.
When you try restoring Exchange Server Database from an offline backup and run ISINTEG (Information Store Integrity Checker) utility, you may face an error message that says:
Error 4294966746: JET_errDatabaseInconsistent
- While mounting mailbox store using Exchange System Manager, an error message appears that says:
Unable to Mount the Mailbox Store with error c104173c “The Information Store is Busy.” - Also, those using Exchange System Manager for the mounting database might receive an error message given below:
An internal processing error has occurred. Try restarting the Exchange System Manager or the Microsoft Exchange Information Store service, or both.
How to resolve information store corruption on Exchange Server?
The reasons behind these errors messages may be a virus infection, improper shutdown, oversized Exchange databases, operating system failure, etc. To overcome these errors, you can either use the inbuilt ESEUTIL or ISINTEG tool or take assistance from a professional tool. Let’s understand how to use them and remove corruption from Exchange Information Store Service.
1. ESEUTIL tool
The ESEUTIL tool is present in the bin folder of your Exchange Server. There are various switches which allow you to defragment, copy, repair or restore the database. The usability of the Eseutil tool is quite broad, and you can perform the following actions using multiple switches. Here’re some of the commonly used switches with explanations describing how to use Eseutil for Exchange Server.
- ESEUTIL /D – To defragment the database.
- ESEUTIL /R – To run a software recovery process on database.
- ESEUTIL /G – To check the database integrity.
- ESEUTIL /K – To verify checksum in the database.
- ESEUTIL /P – To repair the database.
- ESEUTIL /C – To restore the database using hard recovery.
- ESEUTIL /M – To diagnose and troubleshoot database errors.
- ESEUTIL /Y – To copy database files.
Even though Eseutil helps to store corruption on Exchange server, there are some limitations associated with it too. It can even sometimes lead to even more data loss and take numerous hours to complete.
2. ISINTEG Tool
ISINTEG is another inbuilt tool within the Exchange server which checks database integrity. It also repairs the errors after finding them. It uses the following switch to check and repair the database –
- -pri – Check Private Information Store.
- -pub – Check Public Information Store.
- -fix – Repair Information Store.
- -patch – Offline backup restore patch.
- -s – Server name (applicable to Exchange version 2000 only).
When you are performing Exchange recovery using ESEUTIL and ISINTEG, it’s important to understand that the procedure has the tendency to cause data loss. These utilities require ample free space on the disk to run successfully.
Professional Exchange Server Recovery software
Scenarios where all the manual methods or in-built utilities fail, third-party tools prove to be efficient at repairing the corrupt Exchange database. A professional tool can remove any level of corruption and bring all the data back to you. Kernel for Exchange Server recovery is one such tool with all the features for quick Exchange database recovery. It can recover the Priv.edb and Pub1.edb databases easily. Along with recovery, it can migrate EDB to Live Exchange with files and folders intact. It has a friendly user interface that makes accessing the tool easy even for non-technical users.
Let’s go through its recovery procedure briefly and see the outcome.
- Launch the software and click Offline EDB under “Recover or Migrate from any of these Sources.”
- Select Offline EDB file as the source type. Click Next.
- Select the dismounted or offline EDB file from your local storage.
Note: You can also search for EDB files using the Search button within a drive or folder.
- Select from Standard Scan and Deep Scan. Select the checkboxes if required and click Next.
- Now, source is added, go to any mailbox folder and click on emails from the right pane to preview the content before saving.
- Click on Add Destination to select where you want to take the repaired data.
- Choose the destination from: PST, Live Exchange, Outlook profile, Office 365, and Public folder.
- Select Create New PST File or Existing PST file. Browse the destination to save the PST.
- A new PST file is created. Go to source mailbox and right click to select Copy Selected Mailbox.
- Go to destination to the desired mailbox or folder and right-click to select Paste folder.
- After saving the files within the PST file, a confirmation message will appear. You can check the moved emails in the destination.
Conclusion
This article includes all the necessary methods and techniques to handle multiple types of Exchange database corruption. You can use any of these methods for handling information store corruption on Exchange Server. But if you want a 100% recovery with complete data integrity, then utilize Kernel for Exchange Server Recovery to recover and repair EDB files. It is a feature-rich, readily usable, and highly effective software. It can repair corrupt EDB files of any size. Additionally, it can easily migrate Exchange EDB to Office 365 in the original hierarchy.
Frequently asked questions
Ans. If Exchange Server is slow, crashes frequently, or missing emails from user mailboxes, this might be a sign of corruption. Event Viewer logs and failed database mount errors also reflects potential corruption.
Ans. Use the Microsoft’s built-in utility “ESEUTIL” to scan the Exchange database and detect errors (if any). Running ESEUTIL /MH checks the database header, while ESEUTIL /K perform checksum tests. Apart from this, Event Viewer logs also show corruption-related errors.
Ans. First, try running a soft recovery using ESEUTIL /R to replay transaction logs. If that fails, perform a hard recovery with ESEUTIL /P (repair mode). Always back up the database before running repairs, and if everything goes mess up then use third-part solution.
Ans. Yes. With the appropriate measures like database defragmentation, proper shutdown, check disk space, and Exchange Server backups, you can prevent corruption.
Ans. If manual repair fails, restore the server using a clean backup with the Exchange’s built-in recovery optiosns. However, third-party recovery tools like Kernel for Exchange Server can also help extract data from severely corrupted databases.
