Exchange backups fail with Error returned from an ESE function call (d) (4044220)

Date: 10/12/2005
Affected NV Version: NetVault:Backup 7.4 and greater
OS Version: Microsoft Windows 2000 & 2003
Plugin version: Exchange Server 2000 & 2003, Release 3.0 and greater
Application version: Microsoft Exchange Server 2000 & 2003

Description: Exchange backups fail with log Error returned from an ESE function call (d)

Symptoms: Backups of the Exchange Server fails almost immediately.
The binary log shows:
2005/03/09 15:27:23 30 Data Plugin Backup mail store 'Mailbox Store (exchserver)'
2005/03/09 15:27:23 30 Data Plugin Failed to read file: Error returned from an ESE function call (d)..
2005/03/09 15:27:23 30 Data Plugin Database 'Mailbox Store (exchserver)' might be dismounted

The trace shows:
EXCHBACK:4368 573 0 091353 ExchangeEtkBackupOpenFileEse: file 'E:\Exchsrvr\mdbdata\priv1.edb', open successfully ready for backup
EXCHBACK:4368 696 0 091353 Method ExchangeEtkBackupOpenFileEse: ends, bSuccess = 'TRUE'
EXCHBACK:4368 700 0 091353 Method ExchangeEtkBackupReadFileEse: starts
EXCHUTIL:4368 640 0 091353 Method: ExchangeEtkCheckHrIfSuccess, starts.
EXCHUTIL:4368 642 0 091353 Message return value: 'Error returned from an ESE function call (d).'
EXCHUTIL:4368 643 0 091353 Method: ExchangeEtkCheckHrIfSuccess, ends. bSuccess = 'FALSE'

This error message is a generic error message returned by the Exchange server when it encounters problems reading from its database. There are several reasons for it:

1) The database might indeed be dismounted, as indicated in the message.
2) The problem might be due to an issue with a Microsoft patch. The Microsoft installer doesn't update the Exchange backup and restore DLL esebcli2.dll correctly.
This file resides in both the winnt/system32 and exchsrvr/bin directories.
When Microsoft’s patch KB870540 is installed, only esebcli2.dll in the Exchange bin directory gets updated. The esebcli2.

1) Mount the database or don't try to back up an unmounted database.
2) To fix this issue, you need to copy esebcli2.dll from the Exchange bin directory to the system32 directory (overwriting the existing older esebcli2.dll) .
This means that both files will have a version number of 6.0.6603.0
Once you have done this, backups will start to work again.
We have seen this issue before with previous support packs for Exchange.
3) In this case, the Exchange engine will most likely log additional information in the System and Application Event Logs of Windows - check these for information. In case of a corrupt Exchange database, you can try running eseutil to check and fix it, but you should refer to Microsoft for further assistance as that is a Microsoft utility.