Exchange Server Error Guide: Failed to Mount Database
In this post, we will see the root cause and solution of Exchange Server Error “failed to Mount Database”. Also, this post covers a manual method of resolving the unable to mount database in Exchange which is recommended by Microsoft itself. So, let’s get started with the problem itself.
Problem “Failed to Mount Database/Could not Mount the Database”
Failed to mount the Exchange database ‘Mailbox Database’ Mailbox Database < Some Number> Failed
Error: Couldn’t mount the database that you specified, The database action failed, Operation failed with message: MapiExceptionCallFailed: Unable to mount the database.
Specified database: Mailbox Database;
Error code: An Active Manager operation failed.
Root Cause of Failed to Mount Database
There are two main possible causes for this problem in Exchange Server:
- Due to Corrupt Database or,
- Corrupt logs
Solution
To confirm the issue behind the error. We need to perform some troubleshooting methodologies mentioned below:
Check the Database State: Dirty Shutdown Problem
Dirty Shutdown problem in Exchange Server is root problem for most the issues. So, what is Dirty Shutdown actually? For Exchange Server to work fine it is very important that it should be shutdown properly.
How to find your Exchange Database suffers from Dirty Shutdown Problem?
Simply type the command: eseutil /mh “database name” in command prompt. This will give you the status whether or not your database suffers from dirty shutdown.
Syntax:
Output:
How to Change Database State: From Dirty Shutdown to Clean Shutdown?
You can use ESEUtil /r command in order to perform soft recovery of your database. If this works then you can easily mount the database.
Syntax:
In case soft recovery (using ESEUtil /r) doesn’t work then you need to perform hard recovery. To perform Exchange database hard repair / recovery use ESEUtil /p command.
Syntax:
Repair Database Logs Files
First of all check the Exchange Logs using the command ESEUtil /ml (with E00 as starting sequence for the logs).
eseutil /ml “<Mailbox Path>\E00”
After running the above command you will be presented full detail of errors (if present) and database state (clean or dirty shutdown).
ESEUtil fails to Repair the database: What to do?
In case the above method fails to resolve the issue “failed to mount Database” then you can try EDB Converter which repair corrupt Exchange mailbox and EDB file from when ESEUtil fails to repair the database.