It is fairly interesting to observe that how plenty of the organizations work on the Exchange server but still it is not free from errors. There can be various causes of Exchange disasters such as Missing log files, Exchange Dirty Shutdown State, Corrupt Exchange Database or not enough free space on the Exchange server. To fix these issues Administrator performs Soft Recovery and Hard Recovery in Exchange 2016 / 2013 / 2010 and below versions using Eseutil commands.
In Microsoft Exchange Environment, Database corruption occurs due to various reasons, but to recover Exchange EDB mailboxes items without mailbox items loss becomes a challenging task. If you don’t know how to repair Exchange Mailbox, Eseutlity in Exchange environment helps Exchange Administrator to fix minor corruption level Exchange mailboxes and database with Esesutil commands – eseutil /r for soft Recovery, /p for Hard Recovery, and Eseutil / mh Command
Note: If you are new to Microsoft Exchange Server Environment then it is very difficult for you to resolve soft and hard recovery in Exchange using commands because it needs technical knowledge and hands-on experience to work on it. Instead of using this cmdlet, you can use the SysTools Exchange Recovery Tool is used by various IT experts & Naive users to repair Exchange mailbox and EDB file from major and minor corruption with no loss of data.
In Exchange Environment, ESEutil PowerShell Command to perform minor corruption issues due to unexpected shutdown or minimal corruption. In another case, if an Exchange external event stops suddenly but logs files remain the same, then Soft recovery cmdlet in Exchange can be performed.
Once the Exchange Database is mounted, admin can recover the lost data from checkpoints of the transaction log file. If there is no checkpoint exists, you can start the Soft recovery in Exchange 2010 with the help of the oldest log file available in the transaction log folder.
In case, if the transaction log file is removed then it will not possible to perform Soft Recovery.
Now find the location of Eseutil.exe to run Eseutil /R Command: C:\Program Files\Microsoft\Exchange Server\V15\Bin
ESEUTIL /r enn /L[path to log files] /s[path to checkpoint file] /d[path to database file] /i
For example: ESEUTIL /r e01 /Lf:\mdbdata /sc:\exchsrvr\mdbdata /dg:\mdbdata /i
There are various ESEUTIL commands used in soft recovery:
If still, corruption occurs after running Eseutil /r Command, then Administrator can run Eseutil /p Command.
The Hard Recovery is performed through the Backup file, for that we can restore the last backup again into Exchange production again. On another hand, we can use Eseutils Command /p to perform Hard recovery in Exchange 2013 / 2010 environment.
If you have selected the “last backup set” option then hard recovery processed automatically. Moreover, it does not need any checkpoint file; it only required a restore.env file for recovery.
Basically, hard recovery is the transaction log file replay process that is quite similar to the Soft Recovery process, but there are some differences between them. In hard recovery:
To know more about Restore.env File: Visit Link
Structure of Restore.ENV File
We can use Eseutil/ CC Command to replay the logs stored in a restore.env file using Exchange Management Shell:
Use Command: C:\Program Files \Exchsrvr\bin>eseuitl /cc “C:\Temp\First Storage Group”
Basically, this file holds information about the Source and Target Database and restore options details. This information used to adjust the file names so that data can be selected targeted storage group.Exchange Administrator also uses eseutil / p Commands to perform Hard Recovery in Exchange Environment. Try to use Command as last options, as this commands can lead to data loss.
Use Command:
ESEUTL /P <path_to_the_database>
Ex: C:\Program Files \Exchsrvr\bin>eseuitl / p “ “C:\program Files\Exchangesver\1643455454.edb”
Now, you can view from the above screen, the integrity of the database checked. Now to Remove White / Disk space between the Database, need to defrag Exchange mailbox database.
After that, you need to check the integrity of the Database again using the Inisteg Command in Exchange 2010 environment.
Isinteg –s <server_name> -fix –test alltests
For Above Exchange 2010 versions, “New-MailboxRepairRequest cmdlet“ is used to check the integrity.
Repair Exchange 2016, 2013, 2010 Database Via Eseutil or Isinteg
While working with Eseuitl Soft & Hard Recovery PowerShell Commands, sometimes process failed and lead data loss when Exchange Administrator does not follow the steps carefully. Some Image of errors are given below:
To avoid Database & Corruption error while working with PowerShell Command of Eseutil Soft / Hard Recovery in management shell. Try an Automated Solution offered by SysTools for Exchange Environment.
No PowerShell Commands, just User-friendly Interface with the Advance option to for Soft & Hard Recovery of Database Items but without any Data Loss. Tool Supports Exchange Database File (.EDB) of Exchange 2019 and Below environment. Quick & Advance Scanning option of the professional software recover and repair EDB file, as well as mailboxes from corruption.
The Exchange Administrator use this advanced software and perform recovery according to corruption level and after that use Export option to move again data into Live Exchange Environment.
Eseutil Command can be used to perform Soft recovery and Hard Recovery in Exchange 2013 / 2010 Environment via Management Shell. In the Soft Recovery process, ESEUTIL /r command used and Eseutil /p command used in Hard Recovery but can lead to data loss. To avoid loss of mailbox details of Exchange user, an automated solution such as SysTools Exchange Recovery Tool can be used. For Soft recovery, “Quick” Scanning can be used and for large corruption, use Advance Scanning option.