NI: Rebuilding the Mail.box and BTExchange.box Files (4375445)

NI: Rebuilding the Mail.box and BTExchange.box Files

The Binary Tree service is crashing continuously or / and there is a substantial mail delay with messages backed up not being processed.
 

This behaviour can be caused by a malformed message or messages in BTexchange.box or on occasion in Mail(*).box.

It sometimes happens when a Notes client freezes / crashes midstream during sending of an email or an application creates a message header that is malformed.

For example, in the TO: fíeld you may have xxmon_xx@xxxxx.com. While processing the message Notes Integration would not fínd the end delimiter for the TO: fíeld and continue processing and reading the message body as part of the TO: or CC: fíeld. Domino would then exceed the 32k / 64k limit and crash with an NSD or hang.

To verify access the BT log, if the BTLOGLEVEL=2 is used, and go to the last entries. This will be an indication of what BTCal last processed. If the "with 255 characters" is found then there is a confirmed problem with a message To:, CC:, or BCC: fíeld
 

Steps to rebuild the BTExchange.box and Mail.box.
Step 1. Create New Domino Application.
Step 2. After the new database is created, shut the server down.
Step 3. Rename the existing (*).box files for later processing.
Step 4. Rename the new (*).box files as a replacement.
Step 5. Copy /move the saved (*).box files locally for processing.
Step 6. Recommended to not copy the last few messages, most recent 20 messages.


Step 1. Create New Domino Application
Domino will automatically rebuild the system Mail(*).box files if they do not exist. However, Domino will not create a new Foreign Domain (*).box file automatically. This step creates a database based on a template that can be renamed as required. It is important to create this file when the Domino Server is online to ensure the file is local with the correct access and need not be transferred to the server via the network.

1) Within Domino administrator, go to File>Application>New.
 

 

2) Under the top section entitled Specify New Application Name and Location, select your (2) Domino Coexistence Server for the Server field
3)  For the Title field enter (3) "Foreign Domain Mailbox"
4) For the Filename field enter (4) "btexchangeNEW.box" (as defined by the BTEXCHANGEDB= parameter in the notes.ini)
5) In the bottom section of the window entitled Specify Template for New Application, for the Server field select the (5) Domino Coexistence Server
6) At the bottom of the window, check the (6) Show Advanced Templates check box
7) For the Template selection box, scroll through the list and select (7) "Mail Router Mailbox (10)" or "Mail Router Mailbox (x)" template (version Domino is on)

At this point, you can click OK and the administrator client should go through the process of creating the new mail router database.

Step 2. After the new database is created, shut the server down.
It is important to shutdown the Domino server in an organized manor to ensure that a consistency check is not performed on key databases when the server restarts as it will slow down the startup process. This step is optional but highly recommended.
1) Tell BTCal quit
2) Tell BTFreeBusy quit
3) Tell smtp quit
4) Tell router quit
5) Tell replica quit
6) Dbcache flush
7) Dbcache flush
8) Dbcache flush
9) Quit
 

Step 3. Rename the existing (*).box files for later processing.
It is of utmost importance that the existing (*).box files are saved for later processing. If these files are deleted then all mail not processed will be lost. The steps below shows an example way of renaming the files so that they can be copied to a workstation for further processing. If these steps are not followed and the server is restarted processing will restart, the database(s) will be locked and the server will crash.

**Btexchange.box (as defined by the BTEXCHANGEDB= parameter in the notes.ini).
Not all installations follow the standard methodology of naming conventions for the Foreign Domain Documents. If unsure please check the Notes.ini file for the name of the file.
 

**Mail.box (there may be more than one listed as mail1.box, mail2.box, etc)

For any of these files found, rename them as follows:
Btexchange(*).OLD
 

Mail.OLD (if there is a mail1.box, etc, rename those to mail1.OLD, etc)
 

 

Step 4. Rename the new (*).box files as a replacement.
1) Next step is to find the newly created mail router file, btexchangeNEW.box. When you find this file, rename it to btexchange.box (as defined by the BTEXCHANGEDB= parameter in the notes.ini)
2) There is no need to recreate the mailx.box files as the server will create them automatically at restart.
3) After you have renamed BTExchange.box complete, start the Domino server service again

The server should come back online, it may take a few moments to initialize the new databases. When it completes, everything should process normally again.

Step 5. Copy /move the saved (*).box files locally for processing.
The renamed databases "BTExchange.OLD" and "Mailx.old" can then be opened in the local Notes client and documents not processed can be copied and pasted back into the corresponding database, BTEchange.box and Mailx.box, for routing by the Domino Server.

Step 6. Recommended to not copy the last few messages, most recent 20 messages.
It is recommended that the last few, 20 or so (most recent), documents are not copied as they may have caused the server to fail. These can be investigated after the server is recovered.

Please advise if the issue recurs after following the above steps or if you have questions about the above process.