Circular logging in Exchange Server is just about overwriting the transaction files when the disk space reaches the maximum limit. It is not a recommended one in production environments as the Circular Logging reduces the storage space. On the other end, you cannot recover data more recent than the last full backup by enabling circular logging, which raises the chances of database corruption. However, you can utilize Eseutil or third-party tools like EdbMails Exchange recovery tool to recover corrupt EDB files and restore mailbox items. 

Possibilities when circular logging is disabled

When the circular logging is disabled, every log file goes into the transaction log database without any limitations for the maximum size of the database. This consumes the disk space and in addition causes the chances of losing the data.

Possibilities when circular logging is enabled

When the circular logging is enabled, the limitation for the maximum size of the transactional log files is 1 megabyte (MB). It is maintained by overwriting the previous log files automatically when it reaches the maximum limit. It avoids the further growth of the transaction log database.

Things to be aware

1. Can’t recover fresh data without a complete set of transactional log files and hence circular logging is not recommended in production environments.
2. Enabling circular logging on Exchange database is not recommended when you perform backups (For incremental backups too)

Methods to Enable circular Logging in Exchange 2010

Enable circular logging in Exchange Management Console

Enable circular logging in using Exchange Management Shell

Enable circular logging in Exchange Management Console

Follow the below steps to enable circular logging in Exchange 2010 in Exchange Management Console

Launch the Exchange Management Console (EMC).

Select ‘Organization Configuration’, expand and then click Mailbox

Choose the database to configure on ‘Database Management’ tab

Click ‘Properties’ under database name, in action pane

Click ‘Maintenance’ tab , choose ‘Enable circular logging’ check box and click ‘OK’

Enable circular logging in using Exchange Management Shell

Run the below cmdlet to enable the circular logging in Exchange 2010

Set-MailboxDatabase -Identity “Name of the database” -CircularLoggingEnabled $true

Note: Either restart the Microsoft Exchange Information Storage Service or dismount and mount the databases to reflect the circular logging settings.

Demerits with enabling the circular logging

Issues with data management are common while working with the Exchange servers. It can be easily resolved by taking back-up and mounting the data in the database.

An Exchange server can manage a large volume of log files that are transacted during the data traffic. When these log files are updated on a single location, the disk space reaches the limit. Thus, it requires more space for the mounting of the log files.

Here it requires to free up the disk space and take the back up to handle the data overflow.

Circular logging in Exchange Server is limited to full database backup only and does not support incremental backup, resulting in extra logs in disk.

Any third-party solution to handle the situation of Exchange data loss?

There are various solutions available for Exchange server recovery when you face an Exchange data loss, EdbMails Exchange recovery is one of the highly demanded solutions in the market to recover the corrupt, damaged Exchange EDB files.

It doesn’t demand the Exchange log files for the recovery process. You can easily recover Exchange EDB and export to PST with simple steps. Also, it supports directly migrating EDB to Office 365 and EDB to live Exchange server.

Also check: sentinelalert.org

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