Database recovery failed because it encountered references to a database which is no longer present

 

Topic Last Modified: 2007-11-16

The Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 Management Pack for Microsoft Operations Manager (MOM) monitors the Windows Application log on computers that are running Exchange Server 2007 and generates this alert when the event or events specified in the following Details table are logged.

To learn more about this event, do one or more of the following:

  • Review the description of the event that includes the variables specific to your environment. From the MOM Operator Console, select this alert, and then click the Properties tab.

  • Review all events that have been logged that meet the criteria of this MOM alert. From the MOM Operator Console, click the Events tab, and then double-click the event in the list for which you want to review the event description.

Details

Product Name

Exchange

Product Version

8.0 (Exchange Server 2007)

Event ID

494

Event Source

ESE

Alert Type

Warning

MOM Rule Path

Microsoft Exchange Server/Exchange 2007/Common Components/Extensible Storage Engine

MOM Rule Name

Database recovery failed because it encountered references to a database which is no longer present. The database was not in a consistent state before it was removed, moved, or renamed.

Explanation

Database recovery failed because it encountered references to a database that is no longer present. The database was not in a consistent state before it was removed (or possibly moved or renamed). You may experience the following symptoms:

  • You may not be able to mount an Exchange store database.

  • You receive an ESE event 494.

There is an error -1216 in the Description section of the event that states: Database recovery failed with error -1216 because it encountered references to a database path\database name that is no longer present. The database was not brought to a consistent state before it was removed (or possibly moved or renamed). The database engine will not allow recovery to complete for this instance until the missing database is reinstated.

If the database is truly no longer available and no longer required, contact Microsoft Product Support Services for additional instructions about what must be done in order to enable recovery to continue without this database.

This behavior occurs because the Extensible Storage Engine (ESE) tries to bring all databases in a storage group to a consistent state during recovery. To accomplish this, ESE keeps track of all databases in the log files for the storage group. If a database is missing, ESE returns error -1216 and does not start the storage group. Error -1216 is equivalent to Jet_errAttachedDatabaseMismatch. Error -1216 indicates that Exchange has determined that files in the running set of the database are missing or have been replaced with different versions. This error can also be represented in hexadecimal notation as 0xfffffb40. When this error occurs, Exchange exits the soft recovery of the database before it makes any changes to the database that might prevent the integration of the missing files that have the data set.

The location of the database(s) has been changed by using Exchange Management Console or ADSIEdit, or manually, and ESE thinks the database(s) are on one drive but they are actually on another drive. Only the .stm database file is missing or has been deleted.

User Action

To resolve this warning, do one or more of the following:

  • Find the missing database files and put them in the appropriate locations. If this is not possible because the missing database was deleted or lost, restore the missing database from a backup.

  • Correct the location of the database files in Exchange Mangement Console or ADSIEdit.

  • Use Eseutil /P createstm if the .stm file is missing and there is no backup available.

A -1216 error can also indicate missing transaction logs. You can force recovery to ignore the missing files by running Eseutil /R /I.

There is a second error -1222. This error may be seen in the Description section of event 494 and translates to a 0xfffffb3a error code, or Jet_errDatabaseSignInUse (a database with the same signature is in use). This can mean another copy of the same database is already running, or it can mean that the log files consider that the database is one drive, whereas it is on another drive, or that an attempt was made in ESM to move the database to another drive, but the move was not completed. If Error -1222 is received, you may be able to run Eseutil /R /I, or you may have to restore from an online backup.

For More Information

For information about ESE error codes other than the ones explained in this topic, see the following Microsoft Knowledge Base articles:

To search the Microsoft Knowledge Base articles based on criteria that generated this alert, visit the Search the Support Knowledge Base (KB) Web site.

To review Exchange 2007 event message articles that may not be represented by Exchange 2007 MOM alerts, see the Events and Errors Message Center.

If you are not already doing so, consider running the tools that Microsoft Exchange offers to help administrators analyze and troubleshoot their Exchange environment. These tools can help you make sure that your configuration is in line with Microsoft best practices. They can also help you identify and resolve performance issues, improve mail flow, and better manage disaster recovery scenarios. Go to the Toolbox node of the Exchange Management Console to run these tools now. For more information about these tools, see Toolbox in the Exchange Server 2007 Help.