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Exchange 2010 Database copy on server has content index catalog files in the following state: Failed

  • Article

From time to time i have issues with my Content index catalog files. in my Exchange 2010 SP1 DAG
environment.

When Activating my LabDatabase1

Environment setup.

EX1 and EX2 part of the DAG
EX3 Hub Transport & Client Access server

The following message is shown when Activating the LabDatabase1 on the second Node.
In this case node EX2.

Activate-Error

 

The Move-ActiveMailboxDatabase indicates that database “LabDatabase1” on server EX2.repro.com
has issues with the Content index catalog files.

I connected to EX2 and started Exchange Powershell window.

I ran the following command:

Get-MailboxDatabaseCopyStatus –Server EX2 | fl Name,*Index*

FL Index

ContentIndexState : failed
ContentIndexErrorMessage : Catalog needs a reset for database {GUID}

I ran the following command to suspend LabDatabase1 on server EX2

Suspend-MailboxDatabaseCopy – Identity LabDatabase1\EX2

suspend

When LabDatabase1 is in suspended mode on server EX2. I connected to server EX1

On server EX1, i started an Exchange Powershell window.

I went to the scripts folder “c:\Program files\Exchange Server\V14\Scripts\”
In the \Scripts folder i ran the following script file.  ResetSearchIndex.ps1 –force LabDatabase1

image

ResetSearchIndex.ps1 does the following

1. MSExchangeSearchService on EX1 is stopped
2. It deletes the Catalog for LabDatabase1
3. MSExchangeSearch Service is Started

Upon restart of the MSExchangeSearch Service the Catalog {GUID} folder for LabDatabase1 is recreated.

On server EX1 i ran the following command to update the CatalogOnly for node EX2

Update-MailboxDatabaseCopy -Identity LabDatabase1\EX2 -SourceServer EX1 -CatalogOnly

image

To check the the ContentIndexState for LabDatabase1 on server EX2 i ran the following command

Get-MailboxDatabaseCopyStatus –Server EX2 | fl Name,*Index*

Get-Status

ContentIndexState : Healthy
ContentIndexErrorMessage :

I went back to Exchange Management Console. And was able to activate the LabDatabase1 successfully on server EX2

image 

Additional information.

Reseed the Search Catalog
https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee633475.aspx

Comments

  • Anonymous
    August 26, 2011
    I have a similar situation. however, the index is in failed state on both ex1 and ex2. can I still use the same steps? will it affect production, ie. dismount database? The database is mounted on ex1 and healthy on ex2. thanks Raj

  • Anonymous
    December 04, 2011
    very useful - worked for me. thanks

  • Anonymous
    December 08, 2011
    Excellent article, I was able to update the catalogonly. Thanks

  • Anonymous
    December 17, 2011
    Ok I think in my case using -DeleteExistingFiles instead of -CatalogOnly will do the trick.

  • Anonymous
    December 17, 2011
    Ok in the end I was able to use your method but I had to run the Reset search script on my broken server (= your EX2) to delete catalogs there as catalogs were too old for the db.  After that I could update EX2 copy with -catalogonly from EX1 and then resume and activate the copy.

  • Anonymous
    October 08, 2012
    We have restarted Microsoft Exchange Search Indexer service. After restarting service all mailbox content indexes are Healthy.

  • Anonymous
    April 18, 2013
    It just solve the problem in one shot.   tones of thanks

  • Anonymous
    October 23, 2013
    I followed your instructions. The content index on DB1EX2 (passive) went from a failed state to healthy. However the content index state on DB1EX1 (active) went from healthy to crawling.

  • Anonymous
    November 26, 2013
    can we right way do the following -catlogonly swith, insteda of doing suspend and delete catlogs etc .. Update-MailboxDatabaseCopy -Identity LabDatabase1EX2 -SourceServer EX1 -CatalogOnly

  • Anonymous
    June 22, 2014
    Thank you for that information. br, Markus

  • Anonymous
    August 14, 2014
    Great info that helped me out.  Thank you!

  • Anonymous
    December 08, 2014
    Restarting the Exchange Search Service resolved my issue.

  • Anonymous
    December 30, 2014
    Abi, you can do the update-mailboxdatabasecopy -catalogonly command without suspending but I'm not sure the consequences. Even changes state to 'healthy' when all copies of DB were 'failed', which doesn't seem logical given the command (copies from one DB copy to another... if all are failed...?)

  • Anonymous
    February 26, 2015
    The comment has been removed

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    June 23, 2015
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  • Anonymous
    July 02, 2015
    That did the trick, Thank you.

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    July 05, 2015
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  • Anonymous
    November 03, 2015
    Will give you the description. DB's are having 3 copies. One is Mounted second one is in passive and third one is mounted on DR site. So we had issue with indexing, I have reset the CI, currently half of the mounted DB's CI status is showing "Crawling" state. this almost 10 days, still another 5 DB's to complete. but let me know any alternative way to speedup this Content indexing, or any article or anything Really appreciate your help