i have stopped the Exchange search service, deleted the index folder associated with the database, restarted the search service, and waited over night. there is no other database copies of this database.

the content index is still crawling.

appreciate any help to get this database to a healthy state.

Hi

Crawling can take a while. Do you see any errors in the logs?

hi,

sorry where would this log file be located?

The application log in event viewer :-)

yup got that :)

the only errors related the Exchange that i can find are those when i stopped the search service. other errors are like event 1006

Log Name:      Application
Source:        MSExchangeDiagnostics
Date:          7/2/2015 1:54:41 PM
Event ID:      1006
Task Category: Triggers
Level:         Error
Keywords:      Classic
User:          N/A
Computer:      server1.ACME.com
Description:
The performance counter '\\SERVER01\LogicalDisk(HarddiskVolume1)\Free Megabytes' sustained a value of '61.00', for the '15' minute(s) interval starting at '7/2/2015 10:39:00 AM'. Additional information: None. Trigger Name:DatabaseDriveSpaceTrigger. Instance:harddiskvolume1

also event 4023

Log Name:      Application
Source:        MSExchange ADAccess
Date:          7/2/2015 1:54:39 PM
Event ID:      4023
Task Category: General
Level:         Error
Keywords:      Classic
User:          N/A
Computer:      server1.ACME.com
Description:
Process w3wp.exe (AirSync) (PID=18372). The budget for user 'ACME\14033_SEC1E163FDB10911_SAMSUNGSMN910C' is locked out until 7/2/2015 10:59:39 AM.  Max Burst: 240000, Recharge Rate: 360000, CutoffBalance: -600000

• Edited by Reno Mardo 20 hours 14 minutes ago additional

yup got that :)

the only errors related the Exchange that i can find are those when i stopped the search service. other errors are like event 1006

Log Name:      Application
Source:        MSExchangeDiagnostics
Date:          7/2/2015 1:54:41 PM
Event ID:      1006
Task Category: Triggers
Level:         Error
Keywords:      Classic
User:          N/A
Computer:      server1.ACME.com
Description:
The performance counter '\\SERVER01\LogicalDisk(HarddiskVolume1)\Free Megabytes' sustained a value of '61.00', for the '15' minute(s) interval starting at '7/2/2015 10:39:00 AM'. Additional information: None. Trigger Name:DatabaseDriveSpaceTrigger. Instance:harddiskvolume1

also event 4023

Log Name:      Application
Source:        MSExchange ADAccess
Date:          7/2/2015 1:54:39 PM
Event ID:      4023
Task Category: General
Level:         Error
Keywords:      Classic
User:          N/A
Computer:      server1.ACME.com
Description:
Process w3wp.exe (AirSync) (PID=18372). The budget for user 'ACME\14033_SEC1E163FDB10911_SAMSUNGSMN910C' is locked out until 7/2/2015 10:59:39 AM.  Max Burst: 240000, Recharge Rate: 360000, CutoffBalance: -600000

• Edited by Reno Mardo Thursday, July 02, 2015 11:13 AM additional

Hi,

Those event log isn't related to Exchange search service. Please search event log which source is SExchangeFastSearch or MSExchange Search Indexer.

For your question, I recommend run Get-MailboxDatabaseCopyStatus | FL *index*,*ma*ser*,*database* to check the result of content index state and error message.

If the issue persists, please try to Restart the MSExchange Search service on the node which has the active database. And then run below command for the passive database: update-mailboxdatabasecopy -catalogonly.

Meanwhile, here's an article about Diagnose Exchange Search issues: https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb123701(v=exchg.150).aspx

Thanks

hi,

i filtered the event log for MSExchange Search* but nothing there.

so i followed the steps provided in the link above. was able to do the perfmon and it shows the Crawler: Mailboxes Remaining to be 102. after a few minutes, the content index state changed to failed. on its own. so i waited. then it went back to crawling.

the updateDatabaseCopy command i can only do on the other copy which i tried by suspending the second copy first. but the copy queue length shot up! is it supposed to do that? so i cancelled it.

now, the active copy is crawling and the passive copy is failedAndSuspended with the copy queue length increasing.

i'm thinking should i remove the passive copy and do another database copy? because seeding from a crawling database seems to be not working.

• Edited by Reno Mardo 23 hours 56 minutes ago

Reno - one thing I'm not following: in your initial post you mentioned there is no database copy, but in the latest there's a mention of a database copy. Are we talking about the same database, or have you added a mailbox database copy since the original post in order to work around the crawling issue against the original DB ?

Once a database copy is suspended, its copy queue length will start growing, since essentially you're telling Exchange not to replay any log files against that specific copy. Also, the log files won't be removed from the other DB copies as well ("In Exchange 2013 log truncation doesn't occur on an active mailbox database copy when one or more passive copies are suspended" in Database Copies and Log Truncation in this article).

Did you try seeding without the catalog data ? "To seed just the mailbox database copy without seeding the content index catalog, use the DatabaseOnly parameter when running the Update-MailboxDatabaseCopy cmdlet" in the same aforementioned article, section "Seeding a database copy".

hi,

yes i made a database copy because i'm unable to fix the crawling issue.

on your second paragraph, how can i resume the database copy?

regarding third paragraph, i seeded using "Update-MailboxDatabaseCopy Identity DATABASE\SERVER CatalogOnly" command.

Resume-MailboxDatabaseCopy DB\<servername> will resume the DB copy.

Once resumed and once the copy/replay queue length drops to zero, can you check the Content Index State for the DB copy ? If that's healthy, the active DB can be failed over to the mailbox server hosting the copy, and the content index files copied over from the now-active DB to the former-active one. This would probably need the DB dismounted however. Not really the "right" solution, but just thinking of something that will change the "state" and get the Exchange Search service running correctly against this DB on the first mailbox server.

hi,

i filtered the event log for MSExchange Search* but nothing there.

so i followed the steps provided in the link above. was able to do the perfmon and it shows the Crawler: Mailboxes Remaining to be 102. after a few minutes, the content index state changed to failed. on its own. so i waited. then it went back to crawling.

the updateDatabaseCopy command i can only do on the other copy which i tried by suspending the second copy first. but the copy queue length shot up! is it supposed to do that? so i cancelled it.

now, the active copy is crawling and the passive copy is failedAndSuspended with the copy queue length increasing.

i'm thinking should i remove the passive copy and do another database copy? because seeding from a crawling database seems to be not working.

• Edited by Reno Mardo Sunday, July 05, 2015 7:32 AM

i will be moving all mailboxes to a new database. enough time have passed and the database is still in crawling state.

• Marked as answer by Reno Mardo 21 hours 43 minutes ago