Repair failed content index in Exchange

A database shows as failed content index in Exchange Server, and you like to fix that. It can be one or more databases. Good to know is that when you repair a failed content index in Exchange Server, it can cause high CPU utilization on the Exchange Server. It’s essential to enable search indexing after working hours or at an off-peak time as it can impact performance. In this article, you will learn how to rebuild Exchange search index.

How to rebuild Exchange search index

Follow the steps below to rebuild the Exchange Search index and fix the search indexing issues.

Note: The below method works for pre-Exchange Server 2019. This behavior changed since Exchange Server 2019 and will show the ContentIndexState as NotApplicable when you run the commands in Exchange Management Shell.

1. Get Exchange content index status

Let’s get the status of the content indexing. Run Exchange Management Shell as administrator. Run the following command.

[PS] C:\>Get-MailboxDatabaseCopyStatus * | Sort Name | Select Name, Status, ContentIndexState

Name            Status ContentIndexState
----            ------ -----------------
DB10-2016\EX01 Mounted           Healthy
DB10-2016\EX02 Healthy           Healthy
DB11-2016\EX01 Mounted           Healthy
DB11-2016\EX02 Healthy           Healthy
DB12-2016\EX01 Mounted           Healthy
DB12-2016\EX02 Healthy           Healthy
DB13-2016\EX01 Mounted            Failed
DB13-2016\EX02 Healthy            Failed

[PS] C:\>Get-MailboxDatabaseCopyStatus * | Sort Name | Select Name, Status, ContentIndexState

Name            Status  ContentIndexState
----            ------  -----------------
DB10-2016\EX01 Mounted            Healthy
DB10-2016\EX02 Healthy            Healthy
DB11-2016\EX01 Mounted            Healthy
DB11-2016\EX02 Healthy            Healthy
DB12-2016\EX01 Mounted            Healthy
DB12-2016\EX02 Healthy            Healthy
DB13-2016\EX01 Mounted             Failed
DB13-2016\EX02 Healthy FailedAndSuspended

You will see one of the following outputs. The database DB13-2016 ContentIndexState shows Failed or FailedAndSuspended.

Let’s rebuild the index.

2. Stop services

Stop the services first by running the two commands.

[PS] C:\>Stop-Service MSExchangeFastSearch
WARNING: Waiting for service 'Microsoft Exchange Search (MSExchangeFastSearch)' to stop...

[PS] C:\>Stop-Service HostControllerService
WARNING: Waiting for service 'Microsoft Exchange Search Host Controller (HostcontrollerService)' to stop...
WARNING: Waiting for service 'Microsoft Exchange Search Host Controller (HostcontrollerService)' to stop...

We can stop both services with a one-liner.

[PS] C:\>Get-Service -Name "HostControllerService","MSExchangeFastSearch" | Stop-Service
WARNING: Waiting for service 'Microsoft Exchange Search Host Controller (HostControllerService)' to stop...
WARNING: Waiting for service 'Microsoft Exchange Search Host Controller (HostControllerService)' to stop...
WARNING: Waiting for service 'Microsoft Exchange Search (MSExchangeFastSearch)' to stop...
WARNING: Waiting for service 'Microsoft Exchange Search (MSExchangeFastSearch)' to stop...

Both services stopped. Proceed with the next steps.

3. Identify mailbox database

If you know the database location, go to that folder in Windows Explorer. If you don’t know, you can run the following command. It will show the database folder path.

[PS] C:\>Get-MailboxDatabase "DB13-2016" | Select EdbFilePath

EdbFilePath
-----------
F:\DB13-2016\DB13-2016.edb

4. Remove Exchange indexing folder

Go to the folder F:\DB13-2016 in Windows Explorer. Delete the Global Unique Identifier (GUID) folder.

The next step is to start the services.

5. Start services

Start both services with the first two commands or use the third command as a one-liner.

[PS] C:\>Start-Service MSExchangeFastSearch

[PS] C:\>Start-Service HostControllerService

[PS] C:\>Get-Service -Name "HostControllerService","MSExchangeFastSearch" | Start-Service

Both the services started. It will create a new GUID folder in the directory F:\DB13-2016.

6. Check Exchange index status

Give it a few minutes before checking the content search indexing status.

[PS] C:\>Get-MailboxDatabaseCopyStatus * | Sort Name | Select Name, Status, ContentIndexState

Name            Status  ContentIndexState
----            ------  -----------------
DB10-2016\EX01 Mounted            Healthy
DB10-2016\EX02 Healthy            Healthy
DB11-2016\EX01 Mounted            Healthy
DB11-2016\EX02 Healthy            Healthy
DB12-2016\EX01 Mounted            Healthy
DB12-2016\EX02 Healthy            Healthy
DB13-2016\EX01 Mounted           Crawling
DB13-2016\EX02 Healthy FailedAndSuspended

The mailbox database DB13-2016 shows the content index state Crawling. It can take some time before it finishes crawling.

Note: Do you like to have an estimate of the remaining mailboxes that it needs to crawl? Read more on how to monitor Exchange database index state crawling.

7. Final results

After it finishes crawling, the database copy will change to a Healthy status. The FailedAndSuspended content index state will also change to Healthy.

[PS] C:\>Get-MailboxDatabaseCopyStatus * | Sort Name | Select Name, Status, ContentIndexState

Name            Status ContentIndexState
----            ------ -----------------
DB10-2016\EX01 Mounted           Healthy
DB10-2016\EX02 Healthy           Healthy
DB11-2016\EX01 Mounted           Healthy
DB11-2016\EX02 Healthy           Healthy
DB12-2016\EX01 Mounted           Healthy
DB12-2016\EX02 Healthy           Healthy
DB13-2016\EX01 Mounted           Healthy
DB13-2016\EX02 Healthy           Healthy

That’s it!

Read more: Add database copy Exchange Server »

Conclusion

You learned how to repair failed content index in Exchange Server. It’s important to repair the search indexing after working hours or at an off-peak time, as it can impact performance.

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