• Article

The version store has reached its maximum size because of unresponsive transaction

 

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

623

Event Source

ESE

Alert Type

Warning

MOM Rule Path

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

MOM Rule Name

The version store has reached its maximum size because of unresponsive transaction. Updates to database are rejected until the long-running transaction is omitted or rolled back.

Explanation

This Warning event indicates that the ESE version store has reached its maximum size because of an unresponsive transaction. Updates to the database are rejected until the long-running transaction is omitted or rolled back. You may also receive an MSExchangeIS event 1022 that will provide the name of the database that reported a logon failure.

The ESE version store is where the Information Store service keeps records of transactions that are not yet finished, giving ESE the ability to track and manage current transactions. The version store has a list of operations performed by active transactions. This is an in-memory list of modifications made to the database.

The primary use of this list is for rollback. If a transaction needs to roll back, it looks in the version store to get the list of operations it performed. If two sessions try to modify the same record, the version store will notice and reject the second modification. In other words, the version store keeps track of what version of a transaction that ESE is actively using.

If there are very long-running or unresponsive transactions, the version store can grow quickly. Ultimately, it is possible that the store will log out of memory errors. If this occurs, ESE event 623 is logged in the Application log, and an associated MSExchangeIS event 1022 is logged with error -1069 or Jet_errVersionStoreOutOfMemory. A transaction that takes a long time to run can cause the Exchange store to run out of space because it cannot flush more recent transactions from the version store. When the version store is full, any updates to the database are rejected until the long-running transaction is completely committed or rolled back. This causes a service interruption for users.

Error -1069 indicates that the version store has reached its defined size. No more transactions can continue until this is clear. Because the version store is where transactions are held in memory until they can be written to disk, if something is preventing ESE from completing transaction or writing to disk, then ESE will consume this cache and the store will stop responding to requests until there is room in the cache again.

Note

Error -1069 is not the result of the system running out of physical memory. If there is a failure to allocate more memory and NT refuses to provide it, there will be a failure with a different error. Increasing the RAM in the server will not fix this problem.

User Action

To resolve this warning, do the following to resolve the issue:

  • Make sure that you are running the most current Exchange service pack.

  • Install any publicly available ESE and Exchange store hotfixes that have been released since the current service pack.

  • Search the Microsoft Knowledge Base for the following: Event ID 623, Error -1069, and Jet_errVersionStoreOutOfMemory. Known resolutions with the version store include turning off write-back caching on the physical disk instead of the controller, and making registry changes if using instant messaging or heavily using POP3 and IMAP4 clients against the server. Other issues will be documented as they arise.

  • If the issue is still not resolved by the above methods, contact Microsoft Product Support Services to continue troubleshooting the problem. For information about how to contact support, visit the Contact Us page of the Microsoft Help and Support Web site.

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

For More Information

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.