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Exchange Server is built with numerous small components integrated together. These components are responsible for carrying out a specific set of tasks and make sure the server is always running in an optimal state. Any issue in one of these components can prevent you from doing daily email communication tasks and may even lead to data loss. One such critical issue is:
“The tombstone table has reached an excessive number of entries and/or total size. A maintenance task has been dispatched to perform urgent cleanup.”
This issue indicates that your tombstone table is full, and the Exchange Server cannot insert new entries in it. Upon checking the log files, you will find multiple occurrences of the event ID 40013 due to this error. Moving forward in this blog, we will deep dive into what this error is, why you are experiencing it and how you can fix event ID 40013 in Exchange Server without losing any information.
What is Tombstone Table & Event ID 40013 in Exchange Server?
The event ID 40013 is added to the event log file when the Exchange Server tombstone table fails to add any new entries. This error is directly related to the Exchange mailbox database. In the Exchange Server, when a message, contact, calendar, etc., data object is deleted, a record of this deletion is inserted into the tombstone table. This table is important for critical operations like:
- The deleted object by the user is safely removed from every copy of the mailbox database in Database Availability Group (DAG).
- Helps the admins to easily recover the soft-deleted data item in Exchange Server within the retention period.
This tombstone table has a pre-configured size limit and needs to be cleaned periodically. However, sometimes an issue in the Exchange Server prevents the built-in online maintenance from cleaning up the tombstone table, and you get the event ID 40013 issue.
Reasons for the Event ID 40013 in Exchange Server?
The main cause of the issues is that the tombstone table cannot have more data entries. It can be due to:
Internal Issue in Server
Since the Exchange Server internal mechanism takes care of cleaning up the tombstone table, any issue within the server will result in table cleanup failure. This will ultimately lead to this issue.
Quickly Deleting a Large Quantity of Data Items
The entries in the table are not removed until the retention period is over. Therefore, when you delete large chunks of data in a short period while the old data entries are still on the table, the event ID 40013 can arise.
Low Performance Hardware
Poor Exchange Server hardware, such as low storage disk speed, insufficient RAM, etc., will prevent the Server maintenance operations from running efficiently or completing on time, leading to the event ID 40013 in Exchange Server.
Oversized Database
Large databases are difficult to manage. If your Exchange database is oversized, the built-in online maintenance task will take longer to complete. This will increase the chances of entries piling up in the tombstone table.
Database Corruption
A logical, physical, page-level, header-level, checksum, index, or even the transaction log corruption can introduce several unwanted Exchange issues leading to the tombstone table error.
Methods to Remove Event ID 40013 in Exchange Server
To fix event ID 40013 issues, we have to analyze the Exchange Server services and database state for any errors. However, before you run any operation on the Server, make sure to backup Exchange mailboxes and other data. After backup, try the following methods:
Method 1: Check and Fix Server Performance Issues
You can check the Exchange Server performance on multiple parameters using a tool like Windows Performance Monitor. It allows you to get real-time data about the operating system performance on which your Exchange Server is installed. Open the tool and look for system metrics like processor time, system queue length, available RAM, disk performance & latency, etc., data. If you found any lag or issues, fix them and restart the system.
Additionally, you can also look out for some Exchange-specific counters, such as how many active users are making requests and what the latency is (should be below 250ms). Examine other metrics like transport queue status and backlogs in mail flow. You can also check the Server health with the Test-ServiceHealth command in the Exchange Management Shell.
Method 2: Repair Database with ESEUTIL
If all the Exchange services are running fine and the event or application log files do not give any abnormal warnings, then the fault lies in the database. As we discussed above, corruption in the EDB file can break the internal working of Exchange Server, leading to the tombstone table error. In such a situation, you must repair EDB files to fix event ID 40013 in Exchange Server using the eseutil tool.
It’s a built-in utility to remove minor issues within the EDB file. With this tool, you can do soft or hard recovery of the database along with several other functions like defragmentation and integrity checking. System admins mostly use eseutil to repair the Exchange Server from corruption and critical errors.
An Advanced Exchange Recovery Solution to Repair Corrupt EDB File
The event ID 400 issue causes frequent database dismount issues. Abrupt database detachment for the Server can deeply damage the EDB file pages & headers. For high-level corruption, you cannot depend on the eseutil. The free method has a high data loss risk and cannot help with major corruption. A better alternative for fixing the EDB file is using an advanced Exchange data recovery tool like Kernel for Exchange Server. It’s a standalone tool that allows you to:
- Repair corrupt Exchange databases with no size & version limitations.
- Migrate EDB to Live Exchange or Office 365 without data loss.
- Allows saving Public folders to an Outlook PST file.
- Helps in fixing errors like Dirty Shutdown, Cyclic Redundancy Check, and more.
- Transfer mailbox between Office 365 accounts on the same or different tenants.
Tips to Prevent Event ID 40013 Issue
Prevention is better than the cure. Use these tips to avoid future occurrences of the tombstone table error.
- Manage your database storage to avoid an oversized EDB file. Delete obsolete data, archive non-essential emails, and save mailboxes to your offline system with an EDB to PST converter.
- Install a powerful antivirus tool and try robust security policies to avoid unauthorized data access.
- Avoid deleting a large quantity of data items in a short period. If required, modify the data retention rules for your mailboxes.
- Update software or upgrade the Server’s hardware to make sure it is always running at its optimal performance level.
Conclusion
In this blog, we discussed the working methods to fix event ID 40013 in Exchange Server, along with some preventive measures. Make sure to back up the complete EDB file to recover Exchange mailboxes in case of accidental data deletion easily. Use the eseutil tool for minor damages in EDB file and the Kernel Exchange recovery tool to fix severe corruption issues. This professional tool restores all the mailboxes with 100% data integrity while preserving the original folder structure.