In Exchange Server, you might encounter a number of issues, such as databases are suddenly dismounted, server performance is down, and others. You can check the Event Viewer to get the detailed information about the issues. In the application event log, you might see the ID 40013, stating that the tombstone table has reached its limit. The complete message would be like:
The tombstone table has reached an excessive number of entries and/or total size. A maintenance task has been dispatched to perform urgent clean up. Database: database (database ID) Number of entries (estimated): [number] Total size of entries (estimated): [size in bytes]
Apart from the above message, you might also see the Event ID 1034 in the Application log, which indicates that a non-fatal exception has happened on the database.
If the event log is not seen, you can look for the following symptoms that indicates this issue:
- Random dismount of mailbox databases, where the users will not be able to access their mailbox and incoming emails will not be delivered.
- Excessive number of entries in the tombstone table can cause performance degradation on the server and might put the server in an unresponsive state.
Causes of the Event ID 40013 in Exchange Server
You cannot determine the exact reason or cause of such issues. There might be a number of factors, like server structure, setup, etc. that can lead to such issues. Below are some common factors that can cause the tombstone table to reach its limit:
- There are a large number of mailboxes and activities by several users, and a large number of items in mailboxes, shared mailboxes, archives, public folder or other resources are deleted. If the tombstone table is not maintained by the system due to performance of the server or huge flow of operations is directed to the server, the table records will accumulate and grow excessively.
- If the server’s performance is being degraded or the server is not handling the load, it can also cause the tombstone table to not being cleaned and purged fast enough.
- Lack of maintenance on the database will also impact the server’s performance and might also create this issue. If the regular maintenance tasks, like defragmentation, clean-ups, and others are not completed, then this will fill the tombstone table.
- If there is corruption or any error in the mailbox database, then this might also cause the Event ID 40013.
What is the impact of Event ID 40013?
When the tombstone table reached its limit, there are a number of things that you might encounter during the normal operation of the server, which might cause interruptions and even catastrophic failures.
If a database is dismounted without proper shutdown procedure, transaction logs and the database file can get corrupted and the Exchange Server will not be able to mount, until the corruption is fixed or the data is recovered. Moreover, users will be unable to see the emails or data in public folders and also not able to receive or send emails.
Possible Solutions to Fix the Event ID 40013 in Exchange Server
As there are a lot of factors that could result in the Event ID 40013 in Exchange Server, you can follow the below solutions to fix the issue.
1. Check the Server Performance
The performance of server might have a say in the error. So, you should check the server performance and monitor the usage of CPU, Memory, Storage I/O, and Network Output. These should be checked during peak hours and also during off-business hours to ensure that any scans or backup procedures are not impacting the server.
2. Manage Storage and Databases
When you have large number of mailboxes and users, you should consider splitting the data to improve performance. You can create databases, depending on the size of mailboxes, to balance out the performance. You can also introduce faster drives, such as SSD or SAS and move the heavy users to those drives.
Splitting the database will reduce the maintenance work and also increase the performance of large databases. It can also reduce the impact when there is a problem with a particular database. Reducing the storage used on the mailboxes is also another way to improve and fix the situation. This can be done by introducing in-place archive of the mailboxes and storing the archive on separate drive. This will reduce the size of the main mailboxes while reducing the load on the database.
3. Run ESEUtil Soft Recovery
You can perform a soft repair of the database. Before performing the soft recovery, you must dismount the database. Run the command as given below:
Dismount-Database <database name>
After the operation is complete, you can run the ESEUtil Soft Recovery (see the below example).
eseutil /r <log_prefix> /l <log_file_path> /d <database_path>
In the above command,
- Log Prefix can be E00.
- Log file path is the location of the log files (for example M:\DB01\Logs).
- Database path is the location of database, including the EDB file (for example M:\DB01\DB01.edb).
Once the operation is complete, you can mount the database by using the below command.
Mount-Database <database name>
Note: If the above process is not successful, you need to either restore database from backup or repair the database with a specialized Exchange repair tool.
Drawbacks of Above Solutions
There are some challenges you may face when trying to fix the problem using these solutions, such as:
- There are several points of failure and trying to find the root cause of the problem might take a considerable amount of time.
- The recovery process would involve dismounting the database and there is no guarantee that corruption can be fixed.
- Restoring the database from backup can take time and effort, and also result in data loss.
To Conclude
If you’re encountering the error “The tombstone table has reached an excessive number of entries and/or total size” with Event ID 40013, you can follow the above solutions to fix the issue. However, if the database is corrupted, then using third-party Exchange repair tool, like Stellar Repair for Exchange can help to recover in the least possible time and impact. With this tool, you can easily open damaged database or orphaned databases from any version of Exchange Server and with no size limit. You can easily and granularly export the mailboxes, user archives, disabled mailboxes, shared mailboxes, public folders, and deleted and purged items to PST and other file formats. In this case, you can easily create a new mailbox database and export the data directly to a live Exchange Server, another Exchange Server, or even a Microsoft 365 tenant.
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