jfguilmard
IS-IT--Management
Hi,
i have experienced a lot of problems with my exchange 2000 server, and i haven't found a post answering exactly to my questions.
So, here are the difficulties i encountered and the steps i have followed to solve them:
Problems:
* One day, my exchange server stopped. The MTA stacks services was not running, and the event log of windows 2000 server reported that the disk was full. The problem came from a lot of log files E000*.log in the MBDBATA folder. I was not really aware of exchange tricks, so i first reboot the server. This one was also an active directory server, thus the boot failed and i didn't manage to access the recovery console. Then, i used the Repair Active directory boot mode, and because the disk was totally full with only exchange on it, i had to move some of the E000*.log in an another disk. ( removing badmail in Mailroot folder was not enough )The server restarted well, with exchange, but the all the free space i made was soon full again. I realized then that the only way to remove the *.log was a backup.
* The backup i started with NTbackup ( accessories=> system tools => backup and then expand the exchange server folder and select Microsoft information....) didn't work. Some base were corrupted. Thus, i did a lot of things, like launching an mtacheck.exe, restarting the server and so on. and by miracle the backup finished by being accepted.
* After this successfull backup, the log files still remains in the folder. An event explained me that the backup stopped because some of the log files was not there. ( i you remember, i had moved some of them to restart exchange and the computer ) ... So one of the solution would have been to remove them manually ... but, the location were it is said to NTbackup how much log files had to been deleted wouldn't have been updated.... so each future backups wouldn't have deleted the log files. ( i guess)
* Then i have tried to move back the moved log files.... but the disk was full. Any tentative to move some mailbox to free the disk is impossible ( i guess ) because some log files are generated. What i did is tricky: i have created some empty log files with the correct name, and launch a backup again. And it works well !!!
WARNING!!! i am (was?) an exchange newbie, and i inherited a configuration from a previous administrator without any skills on that topic. Thus, i don't ensure you that all what i did was a good/the best solution. I just didn't receive any answer to my questions.
THANKS a lot for all the posts i have read on that subject and it seems this is a recurent topic. My advice is to read them before trying to follow me: i'm surly not as skilled as the guys who wrote them.
Good luck !!! My conclusion is that exchange is as complex in case of trouble as it is confortable when everything works well.
Jeff
jfguilmard@easyplanet.com
i have experienced a lot of problems with my exchange 2000 server, and i haven't found a post answering exactly to my questions.
So, here are the difficulties i encountered and the steps i have followed to solve them:
Problems:
* One day, my exchange server stopped. The MTA stacks services was not running, and the event log of windows 2000 server reported that the disk was full. The problem came from a lot of log files E000*.log in the MBDBATA folder. I was not really aware of exchange tricks, so i first reboot the server. This one was also an active directory server, thus the boot failed and i didn't manage to access the recovery console. Then, i used the Repair Active directory boot mode, and because the disk was totally full with only exchange on it, i had to move some of the E000*.log in an another disk. ( removing badmail in Mailroot folder was not enough )The server restarted well, with exchange, but the all the free space i made was soon full again. I realized then that the only way to remove the *.log was a backup.
* The backup i started with NTbackup ( accessories=> system tools => backup and then expand the exchange server folder and select Microsoft information....) didn't work. Some base were corrupted. Thus, i did a lot of things, like launching an mtacheck.exe, restarting the server and so on. and by miracle the backup finished by being accepted.
* After this successfull backup, the log files still remains in the folder. An event explained me that the backup stopped because some of the log files was not there. ( i you remember, i had moved some of them to restart exchange and the computer ) ... So one of the solution would have been to remove them manually ... but, the location were it is said to NTbackup how much log files had to been deleted wouldn't have been updated.... so each future backups wouldn't have deleted the log files. ( i guess)
* Then i have tried to move back the moved log files.... but the disk was full. Any tentative to move some mailbox to free the disk is impossible ( i guess ) because some log files are generated. What i did is tricky: i have created some empty log files with the correct name, and launch a backup again. And it works well !!!
WARNING!!! i am (was?) an exchange newbie, and i inherited a configuration from a previous administrator without any skills on that topic. Thus, i don't ensure you that all what i did was a good/the best solution. I just didn't receive any answer to my questions.
THANKS a lot for all the posts i have read on that subject and it seems this is a recurent topic. My advice is to read them before trying to follow me: i'm surly not as skilled as the guys who wrote them.
Good luck !!! My conclusion is that exchange is as complex in case of trouble as it is confortable when everything works well.
Jeff
jfguilmard@easyplanet.com