Monday 5 December 2016

Exchange Server 2013 CU13 Can't mount mailbox database "Unable to mount database. (hr=0x80004005, ec=1108"

Exchange Mailbox Database won't mount with the error "Unable to mount database. (hr=0x80004005, ec=1108" it turns out the transaction logs in this case are also corrupt, so the only option is to perform a hard database recovery. 

The /mh will show you the status of the EDB file, in my environment it was "dirty shutdown" which basically means not all the transaction logs were committed properly. 
  • ESEUTIL /mh ".edb path" - with quotes.
  • cd .edb location (the next command does not work unless you do this)
  • ESEUTIL /p ".edb file"
This perform a hard recovery on the Mailbox Database, in other words it does not attempt to copy in the old transaction logs it simply disregards that data and concentrates on repairing the EDB file. 

Before you try and mount the database it's important you remove the old transaction logs, I recommend moving them to a folder called "old" in their original location. If you do not do this the database will not mount.
  • Mount-Database "database name"
After this the db mounted without any issues.