Microsoft KB Archive/185577

= XADM: Error 1120 and 5000 Occurs When Starting Information Store =

Article ID: 185577

Article Last Modified on 10/28/2006

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APPLIES TO


 * Microsoft Exchange Server 5.5 Standard Edition

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This article was previously published under Q185577



SYMPTOMS
The Information Store service in Microsoft Exchange Server may not start and the Server Specific Error 4294966746 occurs. Events 1120 and 5000 are recorded in the Event Log with MSExchangeIS as the source.



CAUSE
This behavior can occur when the Information Store stops abnormally and the Eseutil.exe hard repair option (/P) is run against the Priv.edb file to return it to a state in which it can be started. In addition, the previous transaction log files were deleted, as recommended in the Eseutil dialog box, but hard repair was not run against the Pub.edb file.

At this point, the Priv.edb file is returned to a consistent state through the repair process, but the Pub.edb file is not. A consistent database does not require the presence of previous transaction log files to start, but an inconsistent one does.



WORKAROUND
Use either of the following solutions to resolve this behavior.

Remove Pub.edb
Remove the Pub.edb file. This removes all public folder data on the server.

IMPORTANT: If you choose to remove the Pub.edb file, rather than repair it, do not remove the Edb.log file that was just created during the previous startup attempt.

That failure marks the Priv.edb file as inconsistent and Priv.edb requires the presence of its log file so that it can start successfully.

If the Edb.log file is removed, the only way to return the Priv.edb file to a consistent state is to run the "eseutil /p" command again.

Run Eseutil /p
Run the "eseutil /p" command (without the quotation marks) against the Pub.edb file.



MORE INFORMATION
The symptoms described in this article also occur if Pub.edb is repaired, but Priv.edb is not.

IMPORTANT: Note that using the Eseutil's hard repair functionality is a last resort option. Using that option may result in data loss if there is no current backup or if circular logging is enabled, thus preventing restoration of Exchange data to the time of failure. First try a soft recovery by using the eseutil /r command. If this does not work, try the eseutil /p command for a hard repair; this may be the best current alternative.

In the application event log, a series of events similar to the following accompany this behavior:   Event ID: 100 Source: ESE97 Type: Information Category: General Description: MSExchangeIS (() ) The database engine started.

Event ID: 108 Source: ESE97 Type: Information Category: Logging/Recovery Description: MSExchangeIS (() ) The database engine is  initiating recovery steps.

Event ID: 109 Source: ESE97 Type: Information Category: Logging/Recovery Description: MSExchangeIS (() ) The database engine is  replaying log file \MDBDATA\edb.log.

Event ID: 110 Source: ESE97 Type: Information Cateogory: Logging/Recovery Description: MSExchangeIS (() ) The database engine has successfully completed recovery steps.

Event ID: 1120 Source: MSExchangeIS Type: Error Category: General Description: Error Database is in inconsistent state initializing the Microsoft Exchange Server Information Store database.

Event ID: 5000 Source: MSExchangeIS Type: Error Category: General Description: Unable to initialize the Microsoft Exchange Information Store service. Error Database is in inconsistent state. A Microsoft Exchange Server database is considered consistent only after it has been shut down normally. At all other times, including during normal operation, there is a flag in the database marking it as inconsistent. Thus if the database service is terminated abnormally, Exchange Server knows on the next startup that something went wrong in the previous session. Exchange then initiates "soft recovery" steps to back out or commit necessary transactions to the database and restore its integrity.

You can check a database for consistency with the following command:

eseutil /mh | more

The State line in the screen output from this command may contain Consistent or Inconsistent.

NOTE: Exchange 2000 Service Pack 2 and later, do not report the database state as "Consistent" or "Inconsistent" but as "Clean Shutdown" or "Dirty Shutdown." The meaning of "Clean Shutdown" is the same as "Consistent", and the meaning of "Dirty Shutdown" is the same as "Inconsistent".

Keywords: kbprb KB185577

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