What is the best method to rebuild an exchange server with a corupt database?

Hi,
Here you go http://www.amset.info/exchange/migration.asp
Let me know
Thanks
Nitin

Thanks but that assumes you have a working DB and I'm more concerned about what I can/should do if I have nothing to restore from.

Oh....Thats a scary situation to be in. Do you have Backups? If yes, then Dial Tone is the way forward without any issues. Till the time you have a proper backup, use RSG to being it back and then as a part of dial tone, merge it into the new DB

The backups are also corrupt since they were backing up corrupt databases.......I have installed a second exchange server and now trying to figure out a way to get mail flowing to users.....I only have 13 or so users....and some other email/groups....

Hi,
In that case, use your exisitng server itself. Delete the DB and create new with same name, thats it. This is if - you do not care aboutold mails? Else before that use ExMerge to export userwise mails to PST and give them on their desktops/laptops

I need to be able to mount the database to exmerge emails, correct?

currently I am running the repair.....taking forever...

I brought up a second exchange box but having trouble getting outlook clients to connect to it...

Well you will have to take the 1st server offline. If second server is part of same org and mailboxes have been moved, then Outlook should connect

OK, both servers are online and in the same org......mailboxes can't be moved since the database can't mount yet (right?)

Thanks for your help....I feel lost here.

With event 474 was the database mounted ?

What makes you think that eseutil /p wont work and it will not mount the databse
it does the job in maximum cases with event 474 i think the error you would be getting is -1018 or -1019 which are easily recoverable.

were the backup taken using VSS then again in a backup copy try to run eseutil /p if doesnt work in this one try in another one it may work because the level of corruption may not be same in all the backups

still if you give up

Use ontrack it will recover the mails in to PST even if you cannot mount the database.

i have used it numerous times with the databases that were beyond repair and it worked.

what about eseutil /p is it stillin the process ?

OK, I am back after a lonnnng night.

-The eseutil /p finished successfully
-I backed up the database to tape before proceeding further
-tried mounting the database after running eseutil /p just to see if it would mount. I know there are more steps but time was running out. It did not work. Returned error c1041722
-now on to trying again to get the dial tone database up
-information store service still won't start but what I noticed was that it would start when I moved the server to my trusted network (where it's not affected by firewall rules. Yes exchange is in DMZ and this is the mess I inherited
-So I made a rule on the firewall to allow all traffic from the mail server and DCs back and forth
-Placed the exchange server back in the DMZ and the information store service started and I could bring up the dial tone database. Mail is once again flowing
-visited each users machine (running cached mode) and exported their email to a pst and then opened outlook in which they got a empty inbox and had them mount the pst for now.

Here is what I am looking at now:

-need to finish repairing the priv1.edb which consists of running the eseutil /d and isinteg

Can I repair this database else where, like on another mail server and copy is back once complete?
Is there a way to recover mail from it if it's corupted?

Let it go on where it is going on ! New Mails will continue to arrive in new DB for time being, later on once old one is corrected, you can merge both.

Yes you can defrag on anyother machine just copy t he bin folder along to run eseutil from or those five dlls required to run eseutil .

if you going for dialtone you dontneed to run ISINTEG cuz when you merge mailbox from RSG to live data the corruption is left behind.

if you put your old repaired data in to RSG and then merge to new data remember outlook rules will be left behind.

Or you could run isinteg on old DB and then put in production and put the new DB (currently in production) in RSG and the merge new mails.

Those five Dlls are mentioned here;
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/244525

OK, do I am still running the eseutil /d, had to move it to another faster server. So can you refresh my memory.....regarding the RSG

I know how to create it but it wants to create it's own priv files. How do I mount my recovered priv to it?

Oh by the way....how much $$ does Ontrack cost?

Cost not sure you can find it in their website ?

RSG will create its own priv1.edb and STM which you can modify later.the only i know is to do from Adsiedit.

Start > run > adsiedit.msc > configuration > services >microsoft exchange > exchaneg orgname > administrative group > first admin group > Servers >server name > information store >Recovery storage group > mail bopxdatabase that you mounted in RSG
Go to propeties > look for msExchEDBFile >edit and give apath to your repaired .edb file
and find msExchSLVFile for STM file.

See this for reference :
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/822676

yeah I just created the RSG then went to the folder where it's databases where and replaced them with my old database

This was a combined effort of brainstorming so I will be splitting the points. I brought up a new server and was able to mount the old DB and exmerge email and import into new mailboxes.

Sorry I forgot about this question.

I accidentally gave all points to Narayan singh when I wanted to split them with gupnit. How can I fix this?