We all know that issues might occur with an Exchange Server setup, where anything can go wrong at the wrong time and without notice. In this post, I will discuss an issue with Exchange Server that one of my clients had experienced and how I helped them retrieve the data using the Exchange repair tool, named Stellar Repair for Toolkit, with no complications, no stress, and with minimum impact on the business.
The Setup, Scenario, and Issue
The client has a standalone Exchange Server 2019 Standard hosted on Windows Server 2016 operating system. It resides on a VMWare server where the virtual machines are stored on a SAN storage device with two controllers. The VMware server is set with multipath where one optical fiber channel is connected to one SAN controller and the other to the second SAN controller for redundancy. The storage is set up with RAID 5.
The client witnessed a failure on one of the hard drives. The drive was replaced and rebuilt with no repercussions. The only problem was that the mailbox databases were not reachable.
As soon as this was noticed, the client executed the chkdsk command on C and M drives. In the M drive, the mailbox databases are set up. The C drive has no issues, but on the M drive, Windows reported that it replaced bad clusters on the maindatabase.edb – the Exchange Server database that held most of the mailboxes.
When the client tried to mount the databases, they failed to mount with the JET 1206 error, as given below.
Operation terminated with error -1206 (JET_errDatabaseCorrupted, Non database file or corrupted db) after 631.407 seconds.It was a panicky situation for the client as it was a busy week for the business. The client wanted to get back the data as soon as possible. I instructed them to take a backup of the server as it is. Then, run the ESEUtil with a smooth recovery and try to mount the database after that.
Unfortunately, the client executed the hard recovery which I had strongly recommended not to perform. This ended up with no disk space, apart from data loss. Also, the database not being able to mount.
Then, I helped the client to restore the server from the backup. The server booted with no issues, but the database was still not mounting. The other databases were working fine. So, I instructed the client to purchase the Stellar Toolkit for Exchange. This is a combination of 5 tools:
- Stellar Repair for Exchange – Repairs corrupt EDB file
- Stellar Mailbox Extractor for Exchange Backup – Repairs corrupt bkf and vhdx files
- Stellar Converter for OST – Converts OST into PST
- Stellar Converter for EDB – Migrates mailboxes to PST, Live Exchange, or Microsoft 365
- Stellar Password Recovery for MS Exchange – Resets lost or forgotten Windows Server passwords
At first, the client was a bit skeptical to use a third-party software and wasn’t confident that Stellar Toolkit for Exchange would suite the job. But I told them to trust the application and comment after the operation.
Steps to Repair Corrupt Mailbox Database with Stellar
First, a new database was created to replace the corrupted one. Then, the Stellar Toolkit for Exchange was installed. The installation was fast and easy. The installation took about 5 minutes.
After installation, I opened the tool and selected “Repair EDB” to repair the corrupt mailbox database.
Then, I selected the corrupted database file (maindatabase.edb).
After that, executed the quick scan.
It took about 20 minutes to scan the database of about 20 GB. After the scan, I could see all the database data, including all the user mailboxes, user archives, disabled mailboxes, shared mailboxes, and public folders.
The next step was to export the recovered mailboxes to the new live Exchange Server database (created above). I have selected all the mailboxes and clicked the Export to Live Exchange option.
I selected the automatic mailbox mapping as the application has done it already and started the recovery process.
Once the client started seeing the data and was able to access it, they got really impressed. It was a great experience for me.
Verdict
As you can see, Stellar Toolkit for Exchange recovered all the data with minimal impact, minimal resources, and less administrative effort. It helped in restoring all the mailboxes from the corrupt database. After that, the Exchange Server was running fine, the database was mounted, and users were not reporting any problems. Stellar Toolkit for Exchange is truly the best tool to have in such situations.
