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Q259751: XADM: How to Recover from a Full Transaction Log File Drive

Article: Q259751
Product(s): Microsoft Exchange
Version(s): 5.5
Operating System(s): 
Keyword(s): exc55
Last Modified: 06-AUG-2002

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The information in this article applies to:

- Microsoft Exchange Server, version 5.5 
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SYMPTOMS
========

The Exchange Server directory service and information store service may shut
down if the drive space for the associated transaction logs or the drive space
for the database drive falls to 10 megabytes (MB) or less.

CAUSE
=====

The Exchange Server directory service and the information store log the changes
that are made to the databases in transaction logs for recovery purposes.

If you have circular logging disabled, logs are left on the drive until a full or
incremental online backup (that uses Exchange Server-aware backup software) is
performed.

If your database is not backed up and excessive changes are made to your server
or data is added to your databases, the drive that holds the transaction logs
may fill up, which causes the Exchange Server services to stop.

WORKAROUND
==========

To work around this issue, determine which log files you can safely move to free
up disk space, and move them.

The Edb.chk is the checkpoint file for the logs, which keeps track of the last
committed log to the Dir.edb, Pub.edb, or Priv.edb databases. This file is
usually located on the same drive as the <x>:\Exchsrvr\Bin folder under
the <x>:\Exchsrvr\Dsadata folder (for the directory service), and
<x>:\Exchsrvr\Mdbdata (for the information store).

To find out what the last committed log is, run one of the following commands:

- For the directory service:

  ESEUTIL /mk x:\exchsrvr\dsadata\edb.chk

- For the information store:

  ESEUTIL /mk x:\exchsrvr\mdbdata\edb.chk

The output of this command is similar to the following example:

  Microsoft(R) Windows NT(TM) Server Database Utilities
  Version 5.5
  Copyright (C) Microsoft Corporation 1991-1999. All Rights Reserved.

  Initiating FILE DUMP mode...
  Checkpoint file: c:\exchsrvr\mdbdata\edb.chk

  LastFullBackupCheckpoint (135,5422,45)
  Checkpoint (255,5582,406)
  FullBackup (135,5422,45)
  FullBackup time:4/15/2000 00:34:05
  IncBackup (201,4231,62)
  IncBackup time:4/17/2000 00:30:15
  Signature: Create time:4/5/2000 17:48:47 Rand:721684 Computer:
  Env (Session, Opentbl, VerPage, Cursors, LogBufs, LogFile, Buffers)
  ( 168, 25200, 4440, 8400, 84, 10240, 32622)
  Operation completed successfully in 0.50 seconds.

To find out which log files are safe to move:

1. In the output from the command, the first number in the parentheses next to
  the Checkpoint field is the last committed log in decimal. In this example it
  is 255. Use the Calc.exe utility in windows in scientific mode to convert 255
  to hexadecimal FF. The last committed log to the database in this example is
  therefore Edb000FF.log.

2. When you examine your log directory, if there is one number down from this
  log, in this example Edb000FE.log, then your Edb.log is actually
  Edb000FF.log, internally, or the next log in the sequence.

3. Count back five logs and move (IMPORTANT: move, not delete) the logs that are
  older or lower in numerical value. Therefore in this example it is safe to
  move all of the numerical value transaction logs before Edb000F0.log.

IMPORTANT: Do not move Edb.log, Res1.log, or Res2.log. Only move logs that have a
numerical value, such as EdbXXXXX.log. If you move the wrong logs, your service
does not start and returns a -1811 0xFFFFF8ED JET_errFileNotFound or a service
specific error 4294965485.

The following errors may also be displayed if logs are missing:

- -509 0xFFFFFE03 JET_errMissingPreviousLogFile SSE 4294966787

- -515 0xFFFFFDFD JET_errInvalidLogSequence SSE 4294966781

- -528 0xFFFFFDF0 JET_errMissingLogFile SSE 4294966768

- -550 0xFFFFFDDA JET_errDatabaseInconsistent SSE 4294966746

MORE INFORMATION
================

For additional information, click the article number below to view the article
in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

  Q240145 XADM: How to Tell Which Transaction Log Files Can Be Safely Removed

  Q246272 XADM: Service Specific Error 4294966767 Appears, Information Store
  Stops with Low Disk Space

  Q163913 XADM: IS or DS Stops Due to Lack of Drive Space for Log Files

For additional information about this procedure in Exchange 2000 Server and how
it differs from the procedure described in this article, click the article
number below to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

  Q182961 XADM: Using Eseutil to Determine Which Logs Have Been Committed

Additional query words:

======================================================================
Keywords          : exc55 
Technology        : kbExchangeSearch kbExchange550 kbZNotKeyword2
Version           : :5.5
Issue type        : kbprb

=============================================================================

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