Hello, we have a client running Exchange 2010 on a windows 2008 server. They weren't backing up their exchange database so the transaction logs were not getting purged/flushed and eventually the entire partition filled up. They then moved some of the logs to another partition - they also deleted some of the logs. They weren't extremely recent logs as far as I can tell. Now we are in the situation where we can't seem to backup exchange through the Windows 2008 Server Backup. It runs a consistency check and then eventually tell us that "excchange application not available for recovery". I assume it is because the database might be in a dirty state? Some people have advised to turn on circular logging just get the logs cleared out. I need to know our best course of action. I'm not completely sure which logs were actually deleted. Please advise. Thank you.

You could start a new DB on a new drive with plenty of space and move the mailboxes over. However, some e-mails mights not be restored since the logs were deleted. Microsoft does not recommend turning on circular logging; let Exchange commit the logs onto the DB on its own so everybody goes home happy at the end of the day.

So are you saying if we wait this out, everything will eventually commit to the database - even though some of the logs were deleted and some were moved?

You could start a new DB on a new drive with plenty of space and move the mailboxes over. However, some e-mails mights not be restored since the logs were deleted. Microsoft does not recommend turning on circular logging; let Exchange commit the logs onto the DB on its own so everybody goes home happy at the end of the day.

First step is to check which logs have been committed to database. You'll need to run eseutil /mh against the chk file to check that. Neill

HI. Your current log files are no good as you cannot do much with them after some were deleted. Therefor you can delete other old log files to free up disk space and then start backing up the server regularly. Did you try also to restart the server and then try backup again?Yizhar Hurwitz http://yizhar.mvps.org

Hi, If your DB are online and your backup is not working .. Then Check to see if it is Clean shutdown.. if it dirty Shutdown.. and u are not able to mount it .. Then the option is to repair the DB ( Eseutil /p) , after repair you do not need the old logs as sigure changes,,., you can deletm if system does not and start the backup. If your databases are offline and clean .( Run Eseutil /mh .. should state CLEAN SHUTDOWN). Also check for COMMITTED LOG FILES.. . If the Db is in Clean shutdown state , Move the Log files ( which are not needed anyway) to another location creating space and mount the database and start backup. If you have time then you can also run eseutil /d ( defragmenting the DB, it will shrink the DB and delete the files.