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Rebuild Exchange Server 5.5

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by calves 1 view

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I have an Exchange server 5.5 SP3 that needs to be rebuilt. There have been corruptions with the Information Store, some of the public information does not display on OWA, the rules from Outlook do not always work, to say a few. Very Flaky!
Because I'm not sure exactly where my problem lies within Exchange (I get at least 15 different errors every time I reboot the server, chased them on Technet and no joy. I'm surprise the email still works), I'll not chase ghosts. Rebuild it is the best answer. I need to get this machine working trouble free, with very little time to spare: 1 day, 2 max.
After a lot of reading, I?m not sure what is the best way to save and restore the information, especially the mailboxes. I thought of trying re-installing Exchange, and then using the backup software to restore the mailboxes only. Don't know if it will work. Also, thought of Exmerge, but every time I run it, I get errors. Not sure it is the best solution. I need an experienced answer for which I'll be very grateful. If 1000 points not worth your trouble, email me and I?ll make you happy.
Thanks!

6 replies

by mckaytech

I have had to rebuild a few Exchange servers for reasons much like those you described for your server. Typically, those servers have a couple gigs of mailbox (priv.edb) and only a marginal amount of public folders (pub.edb) and the typical number of users is around 100. Also, most of these are in a multi-server, multi-site organization so I have the option of re-homing the public folders and then just replicating them back afterwards.

I use the on-line restoration from a known good on-line backup made using NT Backup but I hedge my bets by making sure I have an off-line backup of the priv.edb, pub.edb, dir.edb databases as well as any log files (and I run eseutil before backing them up to make sure I'm not creating yet another copy of garbage. I also make sure circular logging is disabled and has been for awhile, and that I have documented all the file locations (that will be important for an off-line recovery if everything goes poorly with the original plan), connector parameters and configurations. It is also critically important to know the exact name and password of the Exchange service account. If the number of public folders is small, I will often export those to a *.pst file as an added safety measure.

Everything except the offline defrag and backup can be done live so those tasks don't cut into your down time.

That having been done, I take a deep breath, take the server down, format the hard drive, re-build the server with the same network parameters as before. Bring up Exchange and then run an on-line restore from NT Backup and choose the option to overwrite existing data.

Most of the time it works very well.

paul

by mckaytech

One other comment I almost forgot... make SURE the service pack levels are the same BEFORE you do the restore. The recent service packs have modified the database structure so things get unpredictable when trying to restore an SP2 database to an SP3 engine or vice versa.

paul

by calves

Hi Paul,

Thanks for the extra time helping me out. Unfortunately, nothing that you suggested brought me positive results. The Information Store was corrupted and at Technet, checking the error codes, the solutions provided by Microsoft, didnot work, in which case Microsoft recommends a rebuild of the server. The forklift could not be applied because the very files that are moved over, are the ones that presented problems. the points are for the extra moral support, dealing with thisissue. So you know, I had the users cleanup the mailboxes which nocked 1 GB right off the bat, then I applied the Exmerge. Everybody happy!

Thanks again!

I'll be soon back on the Q&A...

by stephen mynhier

But that doesn't explain why ExMerge wouldn't complete... restoring that online backup is a great solution if you can be certain that the database isn't corrupt and damaged. First, I would look at what events Exchange is logging to the Ap Log. That could help avoid some trouble that might be waiting for you when you try to bring this up on a new server. Second, why won't ExMerge complete? What error is it returning? ExMerge is a great solution for removing corruption from a database that has managed to start up, although it obviously will cause the IS to swell in size. So let's see what these errors are, and maybe we can better isolate the cause.

by calves

Hi Sthephen,
Thanks for your reply. Unfortunately, by the time I got your response, I had already rebuilt the server.

Thank you anyways!

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