Troubleshooting Exchange Databases

When the Exchange databases become corrupt, administrators are typically guided toward two utilities that are shipped with Exchange 2003: ISINTEG.EXE and ESEUTIL.EXE. ISINTEG and ESEUTIL are powerful tools for ensuring the health of your Exchange information store and to recover from database engine errors. Use these tools with caution when you want to repair your information store and Exchange databases. Be sure a good backup is on hand before using these utilities to check the information store and repair database corruption. Typically, both utilities are located in the \Program Files\Exchsrvr\Bin directory.

Using ISINTEG

This tool is used to check and repair the integrity of offline information stores. ISINTEG performs integrity checks on more than 15 database tables searching for logical errors in the information store. The common command-line parameters used for ISINTEG are as follows:

 isinteg -s SERVERNAME -test allfoldertests 

Using ESEUTIL

This tool is used for offline defragmentation and compaction of a database, database integrity verification, database repair, and extraction of database file information. ESEUTIL may remove sections of a database in the attempt to repair the database. Use ESEUTIL only as a last resort after trying to restore from backup. The common command-line parameters used for ESEUTIL defragging and repairing are

• Defragmentation ESEUTIL /d <database name> [options]

  that is, ESEUTIL /d priv1.ebd

• Repair ESEUTIL /p <database name> [options]

  that is, ESEUTIL /p priv1.ebd

Caution

The /p repair command is a brute force repair method and deletes sections of the database to repair the integrity of the database. The ESEUTIL tool will prompt and require administrators to understand the severity of performing this command. If unsure when prompted, do not click OK. Get assistance from someone more experienced before proceeding.