Backup and log problem + disk full

[jfguilmard]

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

 

[BWilson77080]

i woulda answered if i saw the post before, but if it ever happens again, do a normal backup of the system state and all storage groups, this will commit the transaction logs to the database and delete all the excess files, as well as back up the IIS Metabase and all otehr important crap liek the registry.
Normal backups of the storage groups will delete the transaction new transaction logs, and so will incremental,
diffrential wont delete logs though

you also need to check, this database can be overwritten by a restore, checkbox in system manager
you can enable circular logging but then you could only use normal backups of the entire storage group
also, when you restore you must check the 'last backup set' checkbox or the databases cannot be remounted


sorry i didnt get to ya earlier


just so you know, the best practice is to keep your transaction logs on a seperate disk (RAID1 array if possible)to allow for better performance and fault toelrance

 

[de1458]

just hope you got this resloved, sorry didn't see this post earlier,

**never attempt to move transaction logs, unless you know how to recover them*

if you have disk space on other disk/patition, use the system manager to move the log to other disk/patition, to do that, right click on the store -> properties, then you will see the option to relocate the transaction log, is actually recommanded to locate them on a fast disk system such as raid 0+1, then run a full backup with the exchange option on,
--while moving the logs though user will be disconnected without warning

good luck