Exchange Management Shell » cyberfella ltd, since 2012.

Some useful client-side commands to run in the Exchange Management Shell on the MBX (Mailbox Server) when diagnosing failed Exchange backups in emc Networker or other product (due to VSS Writer issues) and examples of the expected output.

Get-MailboxDatabase GB-DAG* -Status | select Server,name,LastFullBackup

Server Name LastFullBackup
—— —- ————–
Server1 DAG1-MDB01 23/05/2013 14:10:32
Server1 DAG1-MDB07 28/05/2013 00:06:25

Get-MailboxDatabase GB-DAG* -Status | select Server,name,LastIncrementalBackup

Server Name LastIncrementalBackup
—— —- ———————
Server1 MDB01 04/07/2013 19:44:04
Server1 MDB07 04/07/2013 19:44:04

Get-MailboxDatabase GB* -status | sort-object name | ft name, server, lastf*, lasti*, backupinprogress -auto

Name Server LastFullBackup LastIncrementalBackup BackupInProgress
—- —— ————– ——————— —————-
MDB01 Server1 02/07/2013 14:45:11 04/07/2013 19:44:04 False
MDB02 Server1 02/07/2013 14:38:56 04/07/2013 19:42:35 False

Get-MailboxDatabase -Identity GB-DAG1* -Status | sort-object name| ft server,name,backupinprogress -auto

Server Name BackupInProgress
—— —- —————-
Server1-MBX001 DAG1-MDB01 False
Server2-MBX002 DAG1-MDB02 True

Get-MailboxDatabase GB* -status | sort-object name | ft name, server, activationpreference, lastf* -auto

Name Server ActivationPreference LastFullBackup
—- —— ——————– ————–
DAG1-MDB01 Server1-MBX001 {[Server1-MBX001, 1], [Server2-MBX001, 2]} 23/05/2013 14:10:32
DAG1-MDB02 Server2-MBX002 {[Server2-MBX002, 1], [Server1-MBX002, 2]} 28/05/2013 00:06:26

Get-MailboxDatabaseCopyStatus “*\GB*” | sort-object name

DAG1-MDB01\Server2-MBX001 Healthy 0 2 30/05/2013 07:50:56 Healthy
DAG1-MDB01\Server1-MBX001 Mounted 0 0 Healthy

vssadmin list writers
vssadmin 1.1 – Volume Shadow Copy Service administrative command-line tool
(C) Copyright 2001-2005 Microsoft Corp.

Writer name: ‘Task Scheduler Writer’
Writer Id: {d61d61c8-d73a-4eee-8cdd-f6f9786b7124}
Writer Instance Id: {1bddd48e-5052-49db-9b07-b96f96727e6b}
State: [1] Stable
Last error: No error

Writer name: ‘VSS Metadata Store Writer’
Writer Id: {75dfb225-e2e4-4d39-9ac9-ffaff65ddf06}
Writer Instance Id: {088e7a7d-09a8-4cc6-a609-ad90e75ddc93}
State: [1] Stable
Last error: No error

See the active/passive status of each mailbox database how Networker will see it prior to backing it up (or ignoring it if it’s active and passive option is set)

nsrsnap_vss_save -v -?

To reset databases that have backups “In Progress” and reset any “Restartable errors” on VSS Writers, restart the Microsoft Exchange Replication Service on all servers in the DAG.

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