Error When You Run the Startdagservermaintenance.Ps1 Script?

In Exchange Server, if you need to do some maintenance work on a node and need to stop the services provided by, restarting the server, or shut down the server, it’s important to set the Exchange Server in maintenance mode. This allows you to stop and start the server with no effect. In the Exchange Server, the StartDagServerMaintenance.ps1 Script is used to run various commands to put the Exchange server in maintenance mode.

Symptoms Of Error When You Run the StartDagServerMaintenance

Consider the following scenario:

You have a database vacancy group (DAG also known as database availability group) that has more than two DAG members in a Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 scenario.
You try to start the StartDagServerMaintenance.ps1 Script to put a DAG organizer out of service for maintenance.
The mailbox database started by the DAG member has only two database structures.

Cause Of Error When You Run the StartDagServerMaintenance

If only two mailbox database copies are present on the DAG member servers, the script fails to validate their redundancy.

Here are some useful things that you can try to fix the problem:

Verify database copies: Make sure that at least one other non-lagged copy of each replicated database is in good condition.
Run Exchange Management Shell (EMS) commands: Move all databases off the server, move the cluster core resources to another node, suspend all copies on the server, pause the cluster node, and prevent databases from failing over to the node.
Run the script as administrator: Open the script in PowerShell ISE as an administrator and change the value of $pauseClusterNode from $false to $true.

What is a Ps1 File Error in StartDagServerMaintenance?

A PS1 file error can occur for a number of reasons, including:

Running scripts are disabled: The system may have disabled running scripts for security reasons. To fix this, you can open PowerShell as an administrator.

Execution policy: The execution policy may be enforcing script signing, which can’t be overridden on the command line. You can check the execution policy using the cmdlet Get-Execution Policy.
Untrusted publisher: The script may not have been signed by a trusted publisher. You can try signing the script, changing the execution policy, bypassing the policy, or unblocking the file.
Incorrect spelling or path: The script file name may be misspelled, or the path may be incorrect.
File interpretation changes: You may have changed how files are interpreted

When using a DAG, there is no need to replicate all databases that exist on DAG members. It is not uncommon to have freestanding databases (databases that exist on a DAG member but are not replicated to another member) on a member where the StartDagServerMaintenance.ps1 Script will be run. Unfortunately, when the script is used in its current form in this setup, it fails to complete its tasks and cannot fully place the node into maintenance mode. (Only databases are successfully transferred from the member).

Alternate Solutions to Resolve the Error

When an Exchange Server is set to maintenance mode, this means that the services of the Exchange Server are running but are idle and not processing any data or databases. The administrator sets the Exchange Server to maintenance mode to perform maintenance or repair on the server, such as:

Hardware upgrade
Operating system upgrade
Installation of Updates and operating system updates
Power testing or failover testing

This allows them to do the maintenance work with no issues or chance to affect the business flow.
If you’ve put the server in maintenance mode, then you have to take it out of maintenance after the tasks have been finished. Below, we will be going through the process to reactivate a server (in the Database Availability Group) that was put in maintenance mode and verify that the server is out of maintenance.

Stellar Repair for Exchange allows you to open offline or damaged databases from any Exchange version, with no size restrictions. If you only have the EDB file, the software will be able to open it. Following a quick/deep scan, you will have access to the whole structure of the database(s).

You must also evaluate the impact on the active servers and ensure that they are adequately prepared to handle the increased traffic. The performance of the servers and storage must be evaluated. When putting up many servers in maintenance mode, you must guarantee that the remaining servers can handle the additional traffic.

You can select the individual user mailboxes, user archives, shared mailboxes, disabled mailboxes, and public folders and export them to a new Exchange Server mailbox database or another Exchange Server, with automatic mailbox matching. You can mainly use the application to export EDB data to PST or Exchange Online.

View all the objects that are found in the maintenance mode

To view all objects of a specific class that are in maintenance mode by using the Operations console, follow these steps:

Open the Operations Manager console.
Create a state view titled Maintenance Mode in the Monitoring pane, either in the specific unsealed Management Pack folder or the Monitoring folder at the view tree’s base. Creating the view in the Monitoring folder at the root of the view tree saves it to the Default Management Pack. Under the Name field, enter Maintenance Mode.
Change the value under Show data related to Entity to the class of objects that you want to view.
Under Select conditions, select the is in the Maintenance Mode check box.
Select OK to create the view.

This will eventually allow you to view all the objects there are to view of that specific class given by the user and which are now at the instance currently in the maintenance mode.

Conclusion

If there is an issue with the server or database, the StartDagServerMaintenance.ps1 script may not run. If the commands are run manually and not correctly, the server or database’s health may suffer as a result. In this instance, you can use Stellar Repair for Exchange to recover the data and migrate to a new Exchange Server database. The application facilitates quick recovery with no data loss.