Resetting The Exchange Mailbox Database Without Loss of OST Data
If you have an email account on a Microsoft Exchange server, there can be situations in which you may have to reset the information database that stores all the data associated with the mailbox. There are two common scenarios when this may happen.
" You may suspect that some symptoms seen in the Exchange server are because of problems in the database. Typically, in such situations, all the database folders are renamed and database folders that are empty created in their place. This forces a new information database to be created and you can conduct some simple troubleshooting to understand if the database has any problems. Make sure that all connections are disable during troubleshooting; once the trouble shooting is over, you can rename the folders so that the original database is being used and the local offline folder files - OST files - are not affected. (If new items were to be sent to the test database, this could cause corruption in the local OST files and an ost recovery would have to be initiated.)
" If you suspect the database of being damaged or unusable, you could choose to restore the service of the Exchange server, so that a user can continue to send and receive messages, by simply resetting the exchange mailbox database. You can then work on recovering data from the damaged database at the same time.
However, resetting the exchange mailbox database often happens without the knowledge of the user and this often leads to inaccessible OST files. It is important that the user takes precautions while in an offline mode and backs up the data stored in the OST file so that even if the OST file becomes suddenly inaccessible, ost recovery is possible with the old data.
As all Outlook and Microsoft Exchange server users are aware, these applications support working in both the online and offline mode. When the user is working in the online mode, they are connected directly to the mailbox stored on the Exchange server so that any changes that they make such as editing, moving messages, sending replies are all immediately reflected in the Exchange mailbox database. On the other hand, if the user is working in an offline mode, all changes are stored in the local offline folders file or OST files. When the user goes online the next time, these changes are synchronized between the local copy and the mailbox database.
The main feature of the synchronization process is a key that is encoded both in the mailbox stored on the Exchange server as well as in a profile stored on the local computer. If the key is lost from either of these places, the OST file can become unreadable and is said to be orphaned, which makes an ost recovery too very difficult. When the Exchange mailbox is reset, a new key is generated for each new mailbox and thus the current OST becomes unreadable. So long as the user uses Outlook only in the offline mode, the OST files are still accessible.
Since users working offline are not aware that a mailbox has been reset, they tend to logon to the server only to find that the OST files have been orphaned. They can still attempt to recover data from these files by using specially designed software such as Advanced Exchange Recovery from DataNumen that help restore items from orphaned OST files.
" You may suspect that some symptoms seen in the Exchange server are because of problems in the database. Typically, in such situations, all the database folders are renamed and database folders that are empty created in their place. This forces a new information database to be created and you can conduct some simple troubleshooting to understand if the database has any problems. Make sure that all connections are disable during troubleshooting; once the trouble shooting is over, you can rename the folders so that the original database is being used and the local offline folder files - OST files - are not affected. (If new items were to be sent to the test database, this could cause corruption in the local OST files and an ost recovery would have to be initiated.)
" If you suspect the database of being damaged or unusable, you could choose to restore the service of the Exchange server, so that a user can continue to send and receive messages, by simply resetting the exchange mailbox database. You can then work on recovering data from the damaged database at the same time.
However, resetting the exchange mailbox database often happens without the knowledge of the user and this often leads to inaccessible OST files. It is important that the user takes precautions while in an offline mode and backs up the data stored in the OST file so that even if the OST file becomes suddenly inaccessible, ost recovery is possible with the old data.
As all Outlook and Microsoft Exchange server users are aware, these applications support working in both the online and offline mode. When the user is working in the online mode, they are connected directly to the mailbox stored on the Exchange server so that any changes that they make such as editing, moving messages, sending replies are all immediately reflected in the Exchange mailbox database. On the other hand, if the user is working in an offline mode, all changes are stored in the local offline folders file or OST files. When the user goes online the next time, these changes are synchronized between the local copy and the mailbox database.
The main feature of the synchronization process is a key that is encoded both in the mailbox stored on the Exchange server as well as in a profile stored on the local computer. If the key is lost from either of these places, the OST file can become unreadable and is said to be orphaned, which makes an ost recovery too very difficult. When the Exchange mailbox is reset, a new key is generated for each new mailbox and thus the current OST becomes unreadable. So long as the user uses Outlook only in the offline mode, the OST files are still accessible.
Since users working offline are not aware that a mailbox has been reset, they tend to logon to the server only to find that the OST files have been orphaned. They can still attempt to recover data from these files by using specially designed software such as Advanced Exchange Recovery from DataNumen that help restore items from orphaned OST files.