Topic Last Modified: 2010-11-11

The Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 Management Pack for System Center Operations Manager includes a performance data collection engine that is used to query performance counter objects on computers running Exchange 2010. For this Operations Manager rule, data is collected by using the performance counter specified in the Details table.

To review the value of the performance counter that generated this alert, in Operations Manager, double-click this alert, and then click the General tab. Review the description of the alert that includes the variables specific to your environment.

Details

Product Name

Exchange

Product Version

14.0 (Exchange 2010)

Object Name

MSExchangeIS Mailbox

Counter Name

ExchangeSearch Zero Results Queries

Sample Interval

180

Server Role

Ex14. Mailbox

Rule Path

Microsoft Exchange Server/Exchange 2010/Mailbox/Database Copy Searchable

Rule Name

ExchangeSearch Zero Results Queries: greater than or equal 100

Explanation

This alert indicates that the content indexing catalogs on a passive mailbox database copy may be corrupted in a particular Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 database availability group (DAG).

A database availability group (DAG) is a set of Mailbox servers that provide automatic recovery from failures that affect individual databases. Any server in a DAG can host a copy of a mailbox database from any other server in the DAG. When a server is added to a DAG, it works together with the other servers in the DAG to provide automatic recovery from failures that affect mailbox databases.

The MS Search (Exchange) and Microsoft Exchange Search Indexer services provide content indexing functionality for the Exchange databases. One instance of the Content Indexing component runs on the active server to create a catalog of the information on the mounted mailbox database. Additionally, an instance of the Content Indexing component runs on each passive server to create content indexing catalogs of the dismounted mailbox databases.

System Center Operations Manager monitors the indexing process to determine whether an indexing problem occurs. An alert is generated when more than one hundred search queries have returned zero results. This may indicate that a corruption or other problem affects the content indexing catalog.

User Action

To resolve this error, do one or more of the following:

  • Review the Application log and System log on your Exchange 2010 servers for related events. For example, events that occur immediately before and after this event may provide more information about the root cause of this error.

  • Review the Operations Console in Operations Manager for detailed information about the cause of this problem. For more information, see the "Introduction" section in this article.

  • Run the Troubleshoot-CI.ps1 PowerShell script to determine whether a problem affects content indexing on the server. This script is located in the Scripts folder under the Exchange installation folder. In this scenario, check for the following items:

    • Corruption - This is indicated by a CatalogHealth error code of CatalogNeedReset.

    • Stalled indexing - This is indicated by a The Time Since the Last Notification was indexed value of more than two hours.

    • Deadlock issues - This is indicated by a CatalogHealth time stamp that is more than two hours old for each catalog entry.

    • Backlogged indexing - This is indicated when the Age of the Last Notification Indexed counter is more than 48 hours old.

  • For deadlock issues and stalled indexing issues, restart the MS Search (Exchange) and Microsoft Exchange Search Indexer services.

  • For corruption problems, reset the search index, and then reseed the indexing catalog. To do this, follow these steps:

    1. Start the Exchange Management Shell, and then run the cd $exscripts command to change to the Scripts directory.

    2. Run the ResetSearchIndex.ps1 script by appending the name of the Exchange mailbox database. For example, run .\ResetSearchIndex.ps1 DB1. The following results appear:

      • WARNING: Waiting for service 'Microsoft Exchange Search Indexer (MSExchangeSearch)' to finish stopping

      • MSExchangeSearchService stopped

      • Deleting catalog for DB1

      • Removing: C:\ProgramFiles\Microsoft\ExchangeServer\V14\Mailbox\DBX1\CatalogData-<GUID>

      • Control-C to quit or Enter to continue

      • MSExchangeSearchService Started

    3. Allow sufficient time for the new search catalog to be updated. To determine whether the catalog is up-to-date, examine the value of the Full Crawl Mode Status performance counter. This counter is located in the MSExchange Search Indices performance object. When you configure this counter, select the database on which the catalog has been created. When the database is being crawled, Full Crawl Mode Status has a value of 1. When the full crawl has completed successfully, Full Crawl Mode Status has a value of 0 (zero).

    4. To reseed the search catalog on other nodes in the DAG, use the following command:

      Copy Code
       Update-MailboxDatabaseCopy -Identity DB1\MBX1 -SourceServer MBX2 -CatalogOnly
      
      In this command, the SourceServer value represents the server on which you ran the ResetSearchIndex.ps1 script. For more information, see Update a Mailbox Database Copy.

  • Examine the current replication status for each replica database. To do this, use the Get-MailboxDatabaseCopyStatus cmdlet. This cmdlet returns information about all copies of a particular database, information about a specific copy of a database on a specific server, or information about all database copies on a server.

For more information, see the following topics in Exchange 2010 Help:

  • Understanding Mailbox Database Copies

  • Understanding Database Availability Groups

For More Information

If you are not already doing so, consider running the Exchange tools created to help you analyze and troubleshoot your Exchange environment. These tools can help make sure that your configuration aligns with Microsoft best practices. They can also help you identify and resolve performance issues, improve mail flow, and better manage disaster recovery scenarios. To run these tools, go to the Toolbox node of the Exchange Management Console. To learn more about these tools, see Managing Tools in the Toolbox.