ExchangeIS

Exchange 2007 SP1– Exchange 2007 SP1 what’s in it for you?

ben.hoffman — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 04:45:00 GMT

Exchange 2007 SP1 which was released in November 2007 brings together improvements for Exchange 2007 in the following three main areas: Client Access Improvements, Protection & Availability improvements, Transport Improvements, Mailbox Role Improvements, and Unified Messaging Improvements....(read more)

Exchange 2007 Roles – An introduction to Exchange 2007 Server Roles

ben.hoffman — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 15:33:00 GMT

Exchange 2007 Server Roles – Exchange 2007 has expanded the concept in Exchange 2007 Server of server roles, which further extends the old 2 role front end back end topology, with a new 5 role model....(read more)

Using PortQry to troubleshoot Exchange rpc connection issues

ben.hoffman — Tue, 08 Jan 2008 04:56:00 GMT

In today’s secure corporate WAN networks one common issue I see on a regular basis is Exchange connected Outlook clients not working because of corporate firewall changes or misconfiguration. Properly the quickest way to check if a firewall is blocking...(read more)

Requirements for 64 bit Guest Virtualization - Repost from WindowsIS.com

Ben Hoffman — Sun, 03 Jun 2007 02:26:00 GMT

64Bit guest virtualization is becoming a requirement especially with the release of Exchange 2007 and the announcement that it will be 64 bit only for all server operating systems after Windows Server 2008. So to get a taste of 64bit virtualization just...(read more)

Using Eseutil /MH - How to check which Transaction log files are not committed

Ben Hoffman — Tue, 29 May 2007 02:31:00 GMT

You have been busy and have not had the time to check your backups recently, all of a sudden your all of the Exchange Databases go offline, after some investigation you realise your full backup has not ran for several weeks and the drive that houses these transaction logs is now full. This is an extremely common issue, and I see it in the real world on a regular basis, a lot often than I should. ...(read more)

Eseutil /R (Soft Recovery) – A Quick and Simple Tutorial

Ben Hoffman — Mon, 30 Apr 2007 15:01:00 GMT

Eseutil /R what does this mode do and when would you use Eseutil /R ? The Eseutil /R mode is used when you need to perform a soft recovery of your Exchange Database/s ( Information Store ). This mode of the tool should not be confused with the hard recovery mode Eseutil /C

What is the Difference between Hard and Soft recovery with Eseutil?

As mentioned above there are two recovery modes hard and soft recovery, the Hard recovery mode Eseutil /c is only used after performing an online restore (restore database because of corruption, or system failure; basically an online restore from media) and is used to playback to transaction log files so that you have a current database.

Normally Soft Recovery happens automatically after the Exchange Information store service starts and manual soft recovery using Eseutil /r is rarely required as it is run automatically, in fact manual soft recovery is not recommended at all with Exchange 5.5, yet there are some instances when you will need to perform a soft recovery manually, below are the scenarios where you would perform a soft recovery manually with Eseutil /r

· Database drive that contains one of a storage groups Information Store fails

This causes the storage group and other Exchange Information stores (on other drives) to go offline (Dirty shutdown)

o In this scenario if you intend on later restoring your missing database your can, still recover (soft recovery) the remaining Information stores with the use of the /r mode along with the /I (Ignore) switch.

· To perform an Out of Place Restore of an Information Store

Using the recovery mode together with the /D switch will allow you to recover an information store out of place, either to a Recovery Storage Group and would be particularly useful when you are ready to restore the missing database from the previous scenario above. The D switch basically allows you to specify an alternate locate (Other than the original) for the Exchange Database files

· After a restore you see Event ID 494, 454, 101, 904, 903 the following description: Information Store (1352) ….. as outlined in the following Microsoft Kb Article: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/843092

The valid options and syntax for use with Eseutil /R is as follows:

Eseutil /R <E00>	This is normally E00 but in different scenarios may be different
	/L<Path>	Path to the log file location
	/s<Path>	Location of the System files (Checkpoint file, etc)
	/I	Ignore errors missing/mismatched database files (Exchange 2003 and above only)
	/D [Path]	Path to the location of the database files, if switch is not specified path will use the original local of database files, if switch is specified without a path the current working directory is used, if switch and path is specified the path specified is used.
	/8	Set 8k database page size (the default is 4k)
	/o	Suppress logo

Now that you have seen the options that can be used with Eseutil /R let’s look at it in action:

Suppose we had a scenario as one above where a drive failed that contained one of your storage groups databases, and this failure caused the storage group and remaining databases (located on another drive)to go offline. Now you want to get these remaining information stores back online ASAP and worry about restoring the missing database later. Figure 1 below show the Eseutil /R command and its output.

Figure 1: Eseutil Soft Recovery

The inclusion of the /D switch makes it possible to run this command against your database/s file in just about any location, it no longer needs to be in the original location. You can see how this switch can make Out of Place Restores and restores/recoveries of Recovery Storage groups possible. This feature however is only available in Exchange 2003 and above.

Before running Eseutil /R with the /I option is highly recommended that you make a backup copy of your transaction log files, especially in a scenario when you are recovering databases but you plan to use these log files in the future after you have restored the missing database file, as the use of Eseutil /r makes changes to your Transaction log files and may change them so that future recovery of your missing database files is impossible.

I highly recommend looking at the Microsoft document on running Eseutil /R:

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa998075.aspx

Please feel free to leave comments or questions I am always happy to answer!

Eseutil /P – A Quick and Easy Tutorial

Ben Hoffman — Thu, 29 Mar 2007 16:49:00 GMT

Eseutil /p - This article is the second part of my original article titled Eseutil – A quick and easy tutorial, in which I gave readers an overview of the Eseutil tool, some basic guidelines along with a look at Eseutil /d (defrag). In this article I will talk about Eseutil /p, the mode that can get you in the most trouble if correct procedures are not followed. So if you have not already please read my previous article where I outline some basic safety steps.

The Eseutil /p command is known as the repair mode and is used to repairs a database at the page and ese table level of the database. It should be noted that this repair process may leave your database incomplete, as to repair it may be required for Eseutil to delete rows and tables to repair the database.

Eseutil /p should be used as a last resort, so if you cannot restore and replay or fully replay your transaction log files, and if possible the database should be restored from backup to the most recent date then the corrupt database repaired and merged into the restored database using a recovery storage group. If possible never put only a repaired database back into production.

When using Eseutil /p you should always follow up the use of this tool with the use of the following two commands Eseutil /d to rebuild the indices and defrag the database ISInteg to repair the database at the application level.

If the database that you want to run Eseutil /p against is in a dirty shutdown state the Eseutil /p cannot be performed, and the database must be shutdown cleanly if this is not possible then the Eseutil /r switch (recovery) must be ran to perform a soft recovery and put the database back into a clean shutdown state.

Now for the syntax of Eseutil /p

ESEUTIL /p <database name> [options]

/s<file> Streaming file location (Optional default is not to use)

/t<db> Temporary Database Location and name default is: TEMPREPAIR*.EDB

/f<name> Prefix for database report files, the default is: <database>.integ.raw)

/i bypasses the mismatch error check on database and streaming file

/g To run the integrity check before repairing database

/createstm Creates and empty stm streaming file if this is missing

/8 To set the 8k database page size (default: auto-detect)

/o suppress logo

Running the eseutil /p command with only the basic default options looks like this:

eseutil /p "C:\Program Files\Exchsrvr\MDBDATA\priv1.edb"

Figure 1 below shows the command running, and the warning says that this command should only be ran against a corrupt database and may cause data (pages and tables) to be deleted.

Figure 1: The Eseutil /p command (Repair) warning

A screenshot of the completed output of the tool is shown in figure 2 below:

Figure 2:The output of the completed Eseutil /p command

As stated above Eseutil /D should be ran followed by Isinteg, the database should now be backed up.

I hope this article enlightened you to the use of Eseutil /p, if you have any questions, comments or suggestions about this tool please post a comment. You could even start a new post in the forums above.

My next post will be on the /r mode of this tool the recovery mode.

To purchase or transfer a domain name look here:

Eseutil - A Quick and Easy Tutorial

Ben Hoffman — Mon, 26 Mar 2007 17:34:00 GMT

Eseutil some feel comfortable with this tool others don't; Eseutil should not be taken lightly, some modes of Eseutil that can reak havock if not used in the correct situation or with the correct procedure, which is why I am outlining some simple rules and steps, so that you can use Eseutil without fear and know exactly how it use it in a certain situation.

Eseutil is used in the majority of situations when you experience issues with your Exchange Information Store not starting or misbehaving but there are some senarios were this migh not be the case as you will see in the first example of the switch Eseutil /d below:

Firstly let's look at the what this tool does, Eseutil.exe can be used to analyze/verify and then modify/repair your exchange Information Store database files, these files in a default setup are named priv1.edb priv1.stm pub1.edb pub1.stm. It should be noted now with the release of Exchange 2007 (only with the Exchange 2007 version of the tool) eseutil can be used to perform these tasks against the ESE database files on the Exchange 2007 Edge Transport and Hub Transport servers along with the mailbox and public folder stores.

So now that you know what eseutil does I am now going to outline the switches that Eseutil uses and then give an overview of the defragment mode (eseutil /d), I will save the rest of the switches for another article.

Eseutil

Defragment                      /d <database name> [options]
Recovery                             /r <logfile base name> [options]
Integrity                               /g <Database name> [options]
Checksum                           /k <file name> [options]
Repair                                   /p <database name> [options]
File Dump                            /m[mode-modifier] <filename>
Copy File                              /y <Source file> [options]
Restore                                /c [mode-modifier] <path name> [options]

So as you can see there are a few commands/modes to this tool; before using Eseutil I along with Microsoft recommend follow these simple rules and you cannot go wrong:

When using Eseutil the information store must be offline
You can only run eseutil on one ESE database at a time
If using Eseutil on a production database you should first make a copy of any files that you might touch, this includes all .edb .stm as well as transaction log files .log and .chk, put these aside and don't touch them unless you need to get back to the original state, and in this case copy the backup files don't move, so you always have this safety net.
If you have a test lap virtual or physical use it, practice and write down each of the steps before performing on a production system.

Eseutil /d Defragment (Offline Defragmentation)

This switch is equivalent to your disk defragment, but a little different, what eseutil /d does is removes empty pages in the database file and rebuilds its indices. This procedure is commonly known as the offline defragmentation because the information store database is offline when the defragmentation occurs, as opposed to the regular nightly online defragmentation (maintenance) that occurs when the information store is online.

The additional options for Eseutil /d are as follows:

Note None of these additional options are required

/s<file>   - set streaming file name (default: NONE)
/t<db>    - set temp. database name (default: TEMPDFRG*.EDB)
/f<file>   - set temp. streaming file name (default: TEMPDFRG*.STM)
/i         - do not defragment streaming file
/p         - preserve temporary database (ie. don't instate)
/b<db>     - make backup copy under the specified name
/8         - set 8k database page size (default: auto-detect)
/o         - suppress logo

In general the eseutil.exe /d is used with the default options as below:

eseutil.exe /d "C:\Program Files\Exchsrvr\MDBDATA\priv1.edb" /s "C:\Program Files\Exchsrvr\MDBDATA\priv1.stm"

Figure 1: Running the eseutil /d command

Unless you wanted the temp database created in a different location, with a different name or did not want the original database to be overwritten by the defragmented version of the database.

In general you would not use the eseutil /d switch unless, you have removed/moved a lot of mailboxes from an Exchange database file or there are -1018 errors in your event logs, or you have just performed an Eseutil /p or there has recently been a mail storm.

Personally if I have say moved X% of the mailbox from one database to another database or server, or deleted a significant amount of mailboxes I prefer defragment using the mailbox move method. All you need to do this create a new blank database and move the mailboxes to the new Information store, this has the advantage of giving you a free defragmented database, and users are not impacted as much, because you are moving a single mailbox at a time and only that user is impacted during the mailbox move process, whereas with an offline defragmentation, all mailboxes on that information store are offline until, the entire Eseutil /d process completes.

To see how much free space you have in an Exchange Database file/s just check in the event logs and look for recent occurrences of event 1221 or you can run eseutil /ms (with database offline)

When you run eseutil /d you should ensure you have at least 110% of the database files size available in free disk space on volume that the defragmented copy of the database file is being created.

Microsoft does not recommend running Eseutil /d as a regular maintenance practice, as the online maintenance takes care of this. In addition if your Exchange database is not in a consistent state you should not use eseutil /d.

In the next few days I will outline and give tips on each of the other switches or modes of Eseutil.

How did you like this article? Please add any comments or suggestions, I am always willing to answer any questions and love feedback, you might have a great idea that can be added.

Just a quick addition: I have posted the following addition/follow up to this article, please see them here:

Eseutil /P – A Quick and Easy Tutorial
Eseutil /R (Soft Recovery) – A Quick and Simple Tutorial

AD and Exchange InterOrg Migration - A Real World Example Part 1

Ben Hoffman — Sun, 30 Jul 2006 16:18:00 GMT

In part one of this two part series I will discuss the process of installing configuring running the Active Directory Migration Tool V3 (ADMT) with the objective of performing and Exchange Interorg migration which is what I was outline in the second part to this series. At least once in the life of a IT Administrator you will be faced with the situation of an Active Directory and Exchange Inter-org migration, this could be because a company is taking over another company, a business unit ne...(read more)

Office 2007 Beta released as a public beta

Ben Hoffman — Thu, 25 May 2006 12:15:00 GMT

This news might be a little old, but I am going to mention it anyway! The beta that everyone has been waiting for has been released to the public, Office 2007 Beta 2 has been released. You can find all the information about the beta as well as the beta...(read more)