SBS2k Exchange recovery - HELP!
Phil Partridge
SBS2k, Exchange has hit the end-stops bigtime.
Ran offline defrag, and got system back up.. Client didn't have enough
time to offload anything before ISP did a 'Mail DB failover'. - This
resulted in the same emails coming in twice!
Exchange lasted 16 hours between the end of defrag to keeling over
again.
This time, there was also an event log entry saying that the disk with
Mdbdata on it had got to below 10MB free. - This not true.
Partitions set to run chkdsk, and server rebooted.
I presume there isn't a hack to increase the database size, as there is
in Exchange2003?
Is there a way to extract a mailbox from Exchange, when exchange won't
run?
If I did this, could I then uses eseutil to compact what was left, then
clear out a sizeable chunk, then get the extracted mailbox back in?
TIA,
Philip Partridge
Phil Partridge
<ph...@pebble.demon.co.uk> writes
Oh, and to make it *really* interesting..
I do not have physical access to the server over the weekend, but can
get in remotely.
AND, the MD needs his foreign trip reservation details by 10:00 Monday
morning!
Philip Partridge
Anna Clark
|
A new update to Exchange 2000 Server
Standard Edition has been developed. This update lets you temporarily
increase the database size limit by 1 GB. ...
support.microsoft.com/kb/813051 Regards:
Anna Clark
|
Phil Partridge
<an...@verizon.net> writes
>Hi Phil:
>
>See if this helps.
>
>You will need to be on SP3, and you should unplug from the net.
>
>How to temporarily increase the Exchange 2000 16-gigabyte database ... A new
>update to Exchange 2000 Server Standard Edition has been developed. This update
>lets you temporarily increase the database size limit by 1 GB. ...
> support.microsoft.com/kb/813051
>
>
> Regards:
>
> Anna Clark
>
Brilliant!
Am clearing space to run eseutil... (slow) :-(
Will read up, and increase space, then run eseutil. - Have already
disabled collecting of email.
Will see how this goes.
If not, I will be back to get help with exmerge.
Thanks for the info.
Regards,
Phil.
>
>
>"Phil Partridge" <ph...@pebble.demon.co.uk> wrote in message news:S$PdFBA4z7SFFw
>v...@pebble.demon.co.uk...
Philip Partridge
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Cris Hanna[SBS-MVP]
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"Phil Partridge" <ph...@pebble.demon.co.uk> wrote in message
news:HZV4sDAS...@pebble.demon.co.uk...
Phil Partridge
Hanna[SBS-MVP] <crisnos...@computingnospampossibilities.net> writes
>Guess he'll be doing the upgrade to SBS 2k3 soon?
>
I suppose this *might* tip things my way a little.
Still clearing enough space to run eseutil..
Then need to find 'what' level of SP Exchange is running..
Then download/apply sp/hotfix to increase by 1GB..
Then (gently) run Exchange, and clear out some cr*p!
Then eseutil, and reset to 16GB I guess. - Just in case it happens
again.
Thanks all..
Will report back.........
Philip Partridge
Phil Partridge
<ph...@pebble.demon.co.uk> writes
>In article <eiy30v5$GHA....@TK2MSFTNGP03.phx.gbl>, Anna Clark
><an...@verizon.net> writes
>>Hi Phil:
>>
>>See if this helps.
>>
>>You will need to be on SP3, and you should unplug from the net.
>>
>>How to temporarily increase the Exchange 2000 16-gigabyte database ... A new
>>update to Exchange 2000 Server Standard Edition has been developed. This update
>>lets you temporarily increase the database size limit by 1 GB. ...
>> support.microsoft.com/kb/813051
>>
>>
>> Regards:
>>
>> Anna Clark
>>
>
>Brilliant!
>
>Am clearing space to run eseutil... (slow) :-(
>Will read up, and increase space, then run eseutil. - Have already
>disabled collecting of email.
>
>Will see how this goes.
>
>If not, I will be back to get help with exmerge.
>
>Thanks for the info.
>Regards,
>Phil.
>
All,
A little more help please!
Post sp3 update do-da worked a treat..
Eseutil crunched it a bit..
MTA and SMTP are manual and stopped..
I can open OE (on server) and clear 'rubbish'..
I have tried to use OWA to access other mailboxes from IE on the Server.
I get 403 forbidden messages from ISA (I presume)..
Is there a fast (dirty?) way to enable OWA? - I can then go into some of
the mailboxes and start to clear them before the Staff get in Monday.
I am searching for the answer myself, but haven't got there yet!
TIA,
Philip Partridge
Anna Clark
Glad to see you are making some progress. In thinking about your present
situation I think I would worry about OWA after getting the mail system in
hand. If you need to ask permission, perhaps you could get it under control
and then ask forgiveness.
:-).
So I think I would hit this problem as follows:
From the servers console, using exchange manager, view the store to see if
there are any users who have unusually large amounts of items in their mail
boxes. Starting with the most likely suspects, go either to that users
workstation, (or to any workstation, create a profile for that user and move
chunks of messages to the local .pest file). Better to do it from the
users normal workstation, as then you would have that users "junk" in his
local system. I would probably sort by subject and try to take out the
duplicates, but you are closer to the problem and can see the details better
than I.
If you don't know all the passwords, you aren't going to have access from
OWE either, so I would, and have, changed all the passwords to something
simple, 123456, for a project like this, and then ticked the box that
required them to change them back on their next logon, presumably Monday AM.
Anna
"Phil Partridge" <ph...@pebble.demon.co.uk> wrote in message
news:sImiYDAZ...@pebble.demon.co.uk...
Phil Partridge
<an...@verizon.net> writes
>Hi Phil:
>
>Glad to see you are making some progress. In thinking about your present
>situation I think I would worry about OWA after getting the mail system in
>hand. If you need to ask permission, perhaps you could get it under control
>and then ask forgiveness.
>
> :-).
>
I only have remote access until Monday.. So far, all has been done
remotely with everything crossed!
>So I think I would hit this problem as follows:
>
>From the servers console, using exchange manager, view the store to see if
>there are any users who have unusually large amounts of items in their mail
>boxes. Starting with the most likely suspects, go either to that users
>workstation, (or to any workstation, create a profile for that user and move
>chunks of messages to the local .pest file). Better to do it from the
>users normal workstation, as then you would have that users "junk" in his
>local system. I would probably sort by subject and try to take out the
>duplicates, but you are closer to the problem and can see the details better
>than I.
>
>If you don't know all the passwords, you aren't going to have access from
>OWE either, so I would, and have, changed all the passwords to something
>simple, 123456, for a project like this, and then ticked the box that
>required them to change them back on their next logon, presumably Monday AM.
>
>Anna
>
I will be on the doorstep first-thing Monday, but hoped to be able to
remotely attack one or two of the worst mailboxes. - Worst user reports
3.6GB in size. She keeps a load of emails with marketing proofs as
attachments in Outlook! There is also a 'monitor' account which gets a
'copy' of everything. I know it is a single instance DB, so it shouldn't
make a difference, but monitor is pretty big as well.
If I could have got OWA working from the RDP into the Server (so only
local net, not Internet) I could have had a go at clearing some of the
rubbish.
Most I have found on the Net about OWA is way above my head, so it will
have to be cleared Monday via 'sneaker-net'.
Thanks again for the pointer to the KB to increase the mailstore limit.
One final question;
I presume changing the Registry entry to '0' will disable the extra
storage? - Then it is there if I need to do this again.
Many thanks again,
Phil Partridge.
Philip Partridge
Steve
As Cris suggested earlier I think you really need to convince this client
that they must move to SBS 2003 with Exchange 2003 SP2 so you can
permanently increase the database size.
"Phil Partridge" <ph...@pebble.demon.co.uk> wrote in message
news:9G0G7DAS...@pebble.demon.co.uk...
Phil Partridge
<news...@public.lan> writes
>Phil-
>
>As Cris suggested earlier I think you really need to convince this client
>that they must move to SBS 2003 with Exchange 2003 SP2 so you can
>permanently increase the database size.
>
I here what you are saying.. AND I think the Client IS getting the
message!
I was in there all day today.. Teaching how to save email to a folder..
Either as just a 'txt' or an 'eml' to retain the attachment(s).
Does anyone in the Group have experience of GFI MailArchiver?
This looks good, as it pulls mail out into a SQL database.
Further woe today.. 16:50 Users started complaining of very slow
response, and some Outlook timeouts..
The guy who monitors the 'monitor' mailbox (a feature of Exclaimer I
think - allows a 'copy' of every email in/out to be seen) had been
clearing 18,000 emails from it, and had many (500-ish) with a
?circle/red arrow? icon at the beginning. - These could not be deleted.
Some 'in use / owned by system' message I think.
Accounts had just performed a month end (Sage Line100, basically v7 with
windows-ish front end, and C:\ free space nose-dived.
Every thing s l o w e d d o w n t o a c r a w l . . . . . .
When c:\ got to 2.26MB free, I couldn't even open Event Viewer! ;-}
I discovered something else I didn't know about Exchange.. Mdbdata on
another partition, but the server engine in program files.. C:\
partition only 4GB, so not big enough anyway, and Exchange queues on
C:\..
Badmail had best part of 500MB in it.. - Is it really permissable to
just delete the contents of badmail??
Can I delete a few day old 'ifs' files from the mdbdata folder?
How can I discover how the raid array is working? - Disk manager just
sees a big disk partitioned into two, yet there are three physical
disks.
Cheers all,
Phil (Exchange isn't so scary, just complicated) Partridge.
Mind you, if it *really* breaks.. AARRGGH!
Philip Partridge
Steve
there.
"Phil Partridge" <ph...@pebble.demon.co.uk> wrote in message
news:EuhIhCAF...@pebble.demon.co.uk...
Phil Partridge
<news...@public.lan> writes
>I'll just answer about the badmail folder. Yes you can delete everything
>there.
Thanks Steve! Something else to keep an eye on.
Any comments on the other points from others in the Group?
Suggestions for another archiving option perhaps?
Thanks all!
Phil.
Philip Partridge
bonma...@gmail.com
For more information - http://www.exchangedatabaserecovery.co.uk