Exchange Mailbox Corruption

[Dave Nickason]

When trying to delete items from a subfolder of my Inbox, I get an error
that the items have already been moved or deleted. The server's application
log shows the following errors at the time I try to delete the message.

Never having run eseutil, and having been warned that it can cause database
damage, I'm a little gun-shy about running it. However, I'm assuming it's
safe to run in report-only mode? I don't think I have widespread
corruption, because no one else has complained and no other errors are
logged.

I'm wondering if anyone has any experience or comments about how risky this
is, and the exact procedure for repairing the database if eseutil does find
corruption (which seems to me almost certain, given the error). After
running eseutil, do I then have to run isinteg? With what switches? I
haven't been able to find much documentation for this process.

Thanks in advance.

Event Type: Error
Event Source: ESE
Event Category: Database Corruption
Event ID: 467
Date: 3/14/2002
Time: 12:17:18 PM
User: N/A
Computer: NTSERVER
Description:
Information Store (3656) Index MsgFolderIndex7 of table b-1B88 is corrupted
(0).

Event Type: Warning
Event Source: MSExchangeIS Mailbox Store
Event Category: General
Event ID: 1115
Date: 3/14/2002
Time: 12:21:34 PM
User: N/A
Computer: NTSERVER
Description:
Error 0xfffffae2 returned from closing database table, called from function
JTAB_BASE::EcCloseTable on table 1-1398.

[Jeff Middleton [SBS-MVP]]

Let me suggest this to you.

No matter how scary the Exchange utilities are, if you take the server
offline by disconnecting the web interface, and prevent the users from
accessing their email, you can shutdown the Exchange Services, duplicate the
Exchange datafiles in the MDBDATA folder, then follow whatever util
instructions you want. If you screw up something, you reverse the process,
put the old files back in place of the botched ones, restart the services
and you are back where you started.

My experience has been that if you feel pretty confident that you have only
one user with a corruption, you are just as well off to either use Outlook's
export to .PST, or Exmerge to export the entire mailbox contents, other than
the corrupt folder, then delete the mailbox, recreate it, then import the
data again. As often as not, this is like a shattered coffee cup, it's just
easier to replace it than fuss with nifty tools that may or may not really
succeed in accomplishing a bunch for you.

The downside to not using the repair tools, rather exporting the files then
importing them, is that you break the relationships in "single instance
storage" that Exchange uses. That means that attachments that would be
stored only once otherwise, even if they are routed to everyone in the
company when originally sent, would now reoccur again in the storage
database. That can expand the size of the databases a bit, but for most SBS
based businesses, this is just a trivial issue. If you are a really
sophisticated Exchange organization, you might get bent out of shape about
this, but I doubt that applies here.

Okay, about that message "can cause damage". That's just like those warnings
in the KBs that say "improper changes to the registry can cause significant
damage to your world, spinning the earth off axis, igniting the stars, and
lowering TV sitcom family values". The cause damage part is mostly related
to, no pun intended, the relationship of entries in the database structure.
If corruption is found, the corrupted items are going to be whacked out of
the database, likely breaking the relational chain of single instance
storage, or other such things.

This is why I suggest the full, offline backup in advance, as does MS,
because you can play with it, and decide if you are better off
afterwards.....or not. Don't forget to turn off AV scanners, Exchange AV in
particular, as well as any integrated backup programs like Veritas so that
they don't get weird on you.

"Dave Nickason" <gwdi...@frontiernet.net> wrote in message
news:#sMuzlDzBHA.1444@tkmsftngp03...

[Dave Nickason]

Thanks Jeff, I'm going to go ahead and give that a try (if there's ever a
minute when I can unmount the store). I wish eseutil and isinteg were
better documented, unless of course I'm looking in the wrong places.

"Jeff Middleton [SBS-MVP]" <je...@cfisolutions.com> wrote in message
news:uBFQJiRzBHA.2660@tkmsftngp05...