Exchange DB Repair

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qyiet

454 posts

Ultimate Geek

Trusted

#136214 19-Nov-2013 07:32

Extended Power outage killed our exchange server 1/2 way through a backup.. This corrupted our mail store and the backup at once. I'm currently running the offline DB repair, but it is taking a very long time, and may take days.

Does anyone have any suggestions on how to get users back up and running in the meantime?

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Inphinity

2780 posts

Uber Geek

#937118 19-Nov-2013 07:42

Restore from previous backup?

gjm

808 posts

Ultimate Geek

#937119 19-Nov-2013 07:44

can you make a new mailbox database and then make users a new mailbox. At least then they'll be able to send and receive. Then once restore finishes export existing mailboxes into the new ones. Not pretty but it'll get you going

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qyiet

454 posts

Ultimate Geek

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#937125 19-Nov-2013 08:04

gjm: can you make a new mailbox database and then make users a new mailbox. At least then they'll be able to send and receive. Then once restore finishes export existing mailboxes into the new ones. Not pretty but it'll get you going

How much of a mess is that? What sort of issues can I expect?

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gjm

808 posts

Ultimate Geek

#937126 19-Nov-2013 08:13

dont know tbh, never tried it. Its called a dial up or dial tone or something like that restore. Suggest consulting the oracle / google.

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qyiet

454 posts

Ultimate Geek

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#937130 19-Nov-2013 08:28

Google says it's "Dial Tone" reading now.

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browned

636 posts

Ultimate Geek

#937140 19-Nov-2013 08:45

If you can rename the current corrupt DB restart exchange services and it should create a new empty DB that will use AD to recreate the users email accounts. Then when possible you can recover from backup.

Not sure you will be able to mount the old DB at the same time as the current new DB though.

We had the same issue with one of our 120GB DB's, it took a week to restore everything from backup after we had the new DB up and running.

Good luck.

mmlakeman

106 posts

Master Geek

#937154 19-Nov-2013 09:15

how many users? Are they all running Outlook 07 or newer with cache mode? You could export out their email from the clients to a PST and then use the dial tone to get them up and running then import email back in. (use Powershell if you have exch 2010 SP1 otherwise can be easier to just use a Outlook client logged in with an account that has permissions to all maiboxes)

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paulspain

417 posts

Ultimate Geek

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Lifetime subscriber

#937159 19-Nov-2013 09:23

It's worth noting that Exchange Server has had very robust recovery options for many years. What this means is in a few simple steps you should be able recover without any data loss in most cases. This because Exchange Server (when correctly configured) keeps a log of all database transactions until each backup is complete.

Therefore you can:
- You recover the Exchange database from the last full backup
- Using Exchange's database logs replay the transactions that have happened since the last backup

Following the above you're likely to have very little if any lost data. This is a good option if your Exchange Database isn't successful.

Paul Spain
Founder: Gorilla Technology, NZ Tech Podcast

qyiet

454 posts

Ultimate Geek

Trusted

#937223 19-Nov-2013 11:50

Got a dial tone in place, working on repairing the mailbox store at them moment.

@mmlakeman active users ~50-60 total mailboxes.. probably closer to 100. I'm discovering a few that are NOT on cache mode, and should be :(

@paulspain cheers.. I'll keep the repair ticking for the moment :)

Warning: reality may differ from above post

nunz

1421 posts

Uber Geek
Inactive user

#939559 23-Nov-2013 17:13

qyiet: Got a dial tone in place, working on repairing the mailbox store at them moment.

@mmlakeman active users ~50-60 total mailboxes.. probably closer to 100. I'm discovering a few that are NOT on cache mode, and should be :(

@paulspain cheers.. I'll keep the repair ticking for the moment :)

i have been known to use a second server (VM) to run the repairs etc on (dont put it on the same network / dhcp as normal network) and then migrate mail back across.
P2V (physical to virtual) by VMware will make the cloned version - and it is not expensive (ie free) if you use VMWare player to run the VM with.

Mail Store has been handy for things like this too as a data pump between different mail stores.

Shane

Zeon

3916 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

#939591 23-Nov-2013 19:22

Exchange seems to be quite susceptible to corruption... I'm surprised a power outage did it.

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