Exchange log files deleted

anything I don't mind · 5 Mar 2013 at 12:10

One of the 2nd line guys at one of the sites i work at has gone and deleted exchange log files from the last two days thinking they were non essential log files.

What are the options?

Exchange is still up and running and generating new log files. From what i understand the backup will fail until we recreate the log files.

I think we will try and enable circular logging and see if that resolves it.

Will this invalidate all previous exchange backups and make them non usable?

I tried using a file recovery tool but some of the log files had already been over written and i don't want to reinsert corrupted log files back in to the folder. But the log files that were recovered have the incorrect file name anyway so i can't use them. We are going to see if we can recover exchange log files using our netapp snapmirror but other than that it looks like the only option is to recreate the log files?

anyone have any advice?

edscdk · 5 Mar 2013 at 12:20

see if the backs fail... your suggestions to rectify the situation will likely destroy the planet

I have never had an issue from deleting exhcange logs...

edscdk · 5 Mar 2013 at 12:22

that was run a full backup of exchange..

anything I don't mind · 5 Mar 2013 at 12:27

Ok from what i have read is that exchange logs are deleted the backup will fail because it won't have the correct log files.

I will do nothing and run a full backup tonight and see if it works or not. If it does not work then i will look at solving the issue. We only ever do a full backup of exchange, mon-fri.

Thanks for the advice.

Nikumba · 5 Mar 2013 at 20:09

Quick and dirty way, create a new mailstore, move all mailboxes to it, delete bad store, create new store with correct name and move back.

HungryHippos · 5 Mar 2013 at 21:12

If the log files are already committed to the Database, then yes they can theoretically be deleted, but I would have course normally say you should use the backups to truncate the log files. Deleting the logs manually is a bad move.

In your case, if the full backups don't work, I would enable Circular logging, let that truncate the log files for you. Then you can disable circular logging, and run a full backup after that to ensure the sequence is refreshed and any subsequent backups run properly.

Creating a new Database and moving users is fine if you don't have much data, but that entirely depends on how much data is in the database, and moving users also generates log traffic so could be limited by how much space you have for the log files.

Well played to your 2nd line guy!

Swarfega · 6 Mar 2013 at 13:44

Should be fine. Go slap the tier 2 guy though.
How can anyone look at a file that has a current date stamp on it and presume they are safe to delete?

ecksmen · 6 Mar 2013 at 19:04

Swarfega said:
Should be fine. Go slap the tier 2 guy though.
How can anyone look at a file that has a current date stamp on it and presume they are safe to delete?

Whats even more worrying is that it appears Groen is expected to fix the situation whereby he seems equally clueless...

HarryPainful · 10 Mar 2013 at 20:40

"One of the 2nd line guys at one of the sites i work".... Meaning ... "Him".

I feel so sorry for the companies that this guy has a hand in supporting, he has threads like this pop up now and then.

anything I don't mind · 10 Mar 2013 at 23:02

The backups went through ok, we ran the command to check which log files had been committed, the guy got in trouble for it. It was not actually me who would have fixed it, but I was trying to find a solution as well.