Exchange Database Not Mount – Access Desired Mailbox
In their daily work, it is not new for Exchange Administrators to stumble upon the Exchange Database not mounting error. Losing access to the EDB file while an attempt is made to mount or connect the database to the Exchange server can feel dreadful. Therefore, we have come up with this write-up where readers will find reasons behind the issues and their solutions. In the latter section of this post, readers can solve issues occurring when the database fails to connect with the Exchange Server.
Table of Contents
We list together most of the common problems and divide the tutorial into three sections. The first section covers the Hardware issues of the environment where the Exchange Application is installed. In the second section, we try to find issues related to the Active Directory problem. Finally, we deal with corruption issues of the Exchange Database itself.
Exchange Database Not Mounting – Issues and Solution
Hardware-Related Issues: Despite being available digitally, all of the information on the Exchange Server has a physical address. When the same drive is being used by multiple applications rather than just the Exchange Server the chance of corruption increases drastically. Moreover, if there is a lack of space on the drive the server might dismount the database to prevent any more incoming mail from attaching to it.
There have been scenarios where people who recently got an Exchange Server tried to bulk import Lotus Notes NSF files to PST format and put it to use via Outlook App. Only to end up overfilling the available space.
Power Outage: If the power supply to an exchange database stops abruptly, the database will shut down. The next time when it is switched on, it may not function properly due to the corruption led by the sudden shutdown.
Space Shortage: In every Exchange Server, there is a limit to how much data the server can store. When the data size reaches that limit, problems start to occur. It can also create issues while users try to mount the database. Even sometimes after adding space while working on the VM (Virtual Machine), the Administrator is not able to access the mailboxes and gets an error related to Shutdown after running the Powershell Commands to check the state of the Database.
Active Directory-Related Issues
In order to mount a database, the Information Store needs the machine account to have read permission to the Information Store. Lack of permission may also lead to the appearance of an Exchange Database Not Mounting error. “When you alter any inherited or explicit Server permission or remove a machine from the DS group, it affects database mounting to Exchange. Overall, if a server is absent in a particular Active Directory, it can cause trouble in database mounting.
Solutions: Make sure that some of the important objects like CN=AdminGroupName, CN=Services, CN=InformationStore, CN=Servers, etc., are present in Active Directory. To check, users can run the Exchange setup in DomainPrep mode or use the ADS Edit Tool. This editing tool can also be used when the Security Principals container is removed.
Exchange Database Not Mounting Due To Corruption-Related Issues
Like every other component of Computing, the Exchange Server database is also prone to corruption. These corruptions can occur at different levels and hamper the mounting process of the database to the server.
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Follow to Solve Exchange Database Not Mounting via Powershell
1) Run command: eseutil /mh “Path of Database”
Ex: eseutil /mh “C: Program Files\ MDB DATA \ Priv.edb”
2) If In the Result you get “Dirty Shut-Down State” then Check the Status of whether the log file is required or not: If “Yes” then make sure that the required logs file should be in “Clean State”.
3) For that, Run Eseutil Command “mh” Such as
Ex: eseutil /mh “C: Program Files\ MDB DATA \ e00”
4) IF the Result you find “ No Damaged to Log Files” then you proceed further:
Now we follow the procedure for “Soft Recovery” for that we use “Eseutil /r Command”
Ex: eseutil /r <Log Prefix> / Path of Log files / d “Path of Database”
5) Such as eseutil /r e00 /l ““C: Program Files\ MDB DATA” /d “C: Program Files\ MDB DATA”
If you get Error Code -1216, most users face this event id error issues then it causes due to “ JET_ errAttached DatabaseMismatch”.
Then you need to use Eseutil /i Command In Soft Recovery Case.
For Hard Recovery: The Exchange Administrator can run commands “Eseutil /cc” if the logs are not in “Clean State”
Other Indicators to Watch Out For
Antivirus Interfering to Modify Transaction Log Files: Antivirus programs often have a clash with different essential components of a system and database. For example, if an antivirus program wants to scan transaction log files, it might end up detecting some of the files as viruses. Subsequently, the antivirus will modify or delete the flagged log files, causing database corruption. During database corruption caused by antivirus interference, these two error messages can occur:
Event ID: 455 : Description: The following message is usually accompanied by the event (Information Store (1892) b2a6f816-2baf-462e-918c-eda5d1fb24d3: Error -1811 (0xfffff8ed) occurred while opening log file C:\Program Files:\Exchsrvr\mdbdata\E00.log)
Event ID: 9518: Description: (Error Current log file missing starting Storage Group
/DC=COM/DC=EXAMPLE/CN=CONFIGURATION/CN= SERVICES/CN=MICROSOFT EXCHANGE/CN=FIRST ORGANIZATION/CN=ADMINISTRATIVE GROUPS/CN=FIRST ADMINISTRATIVE GROUP/CN=SERVERS/CN=COMPUTERNAME/CN=INFORMATIONSTORE/CN=FIRST STORAGE GROUP on the Microsoft Exchange Information Store. Storage Group — Initialization of Jet failed.
Solution: Prevent Exchange Server Log file scanning inside the Anti Virus program. Even this small mistake doesn’t allow the user to mount the database in Exchange.
Event ID 474: An error message with this event ID signifies page-level corruption in the Exchange database. Usually, a page checksum mismatches the main cause for this error.
Solutions Format the hard drive and then restore the backup data. Otherwise, they can take the help of eseutil/P, eseutil/d, and isinteg –fix Powershell commands to repair the Exchange Database.
Event ID 517: When the Exchange database corruption occurs due to missing log files, event ID 517 may appear. These missing log files can be the result of human error or a backup application.
Solution: To get rid of this problem, copy the log files and save them to another directory. Turn on “circular logging” to remove all the log files. Now the database should not have any problem mounting. At this point, users can switch off circular logging and back up the complete database.
Bringing It All Together
Here we saw what to do if the Exchange database is not mounting and the user can’t access their mailboxes. So to fix it, the Exchange Administrator needs to know the exact problem that can be related to the above-mentioned issue and use the above solutions regarding Exchange database mounting. However, the causes of not accessing the Exchange Database issues can occur due to other issues as well.
Frequently Asked Questions
I tried the methods in their entirety, I still can’t mount the Exchange Server, why is that?
No matter what repairing or remounting techniques you try, you still won’t be able to mount the database if it is more than 1024 GB.
This is the maximum size acceptable in the Exchange Server. So you must first find the largest mailbox in the Exchange Server and continue from there.
Are the PowerShell code-based methods case-sensitive, do I have to use them exactly in the manner they are prescribed?
The PowerShell scripts that we have are not case-sensitive, if you decide to use them to fix the not mounting issue on your Exchange Server, then all you have to do is add the name; the rest of the code remains the same.