Clean and dirty shutdown of Exchange database
In an Exchange server environment, the database (also known as EDB file) holds user mailboxes, folders, attachments, notes, tasks, journals and other mailbox data. The Exchange server transactions like update, delete, edit are written to the log files and finally committed to the Exchange database. When these transactions are up-to-date and are in sync with the transaction logs, the database is said to be in the Clean Shutdown state. In this state, the EDB file is mounted to the server and is free from errors or any corruption.
On the other hand, when the database becomes severely corrupted or when the transaction log files are deleted before the entries are committed, the EDB is said to be in the Dirty Shutdown state. It is common for the EDB to dismount when it is in the Dirty Shutdown. However, in some situations, the Exchange database can also dismount when it is in the Clean Shutdown state. In this article, we look at the common reasons of mounting failure when the EDB is in the Clean Shutdown and the steps to resolve the issue.