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Tuesday 30 September 2014
9/30/2014 03:25:00 am 0

How to solve Notes Error: “The database is being taken offline and cannot be opened”?

Replication is the process of keeping copies of the same database that are kept synchronized with each other. The Lotus Notes mailbox data on server can be kept as a copy of the local user system that is known as local replica.

If you are going to recreating a replica copy of the Notes database from the server then first ensure that the size of the database is not too large. Otherwise the database replication process will take a very long time or you may have to face several other issues. You can have to face several issues associated with the local database replica while the server replica is perfectly fine and everything is working as expected. You can get a corrupt local replica copy and various related error messages may be prompted to the user screen while accessing it.

Whenever your database replica gets corrupt and you try to open it you have to face several error messages.

The common error messages that occur due to corrupt Local Replica are:

"Database is corrupt Cannot allocate space"
 OR
“The database is being taken offline and cannot be opened”

Error: "Database is corrupt Cannot allocate space" 

The error "Database is corrupt Cannot allocate space" indicates corruption to a local replica. 

Follow the given steps to solve the error:

1.    Remove the database from the workspace.

To remove a database icon from the Notes client workspace, follow the given method:

This can be done manually or programmatically using Formula language. The sample formula to remove a database icon from the Notes client workspace is:

@Command([AddDatabase]; "Server Name":"DBname.nsf");
@Command([WindowWorkspace]);
@Command([FileDatabaseRemove]);

2.    Compact the workspace.
  • Right-click on an empty bit of the Workspace. Open  its properties> click on the Advanced tab,
  • Finally click Compact 
3.   Recreate local replica.

Error: “The database is being taken offline and cannot be opened”.

Another error that occurs due to corruption in Notes database replica is: “The database is being taken offline and cannot be opened”.

The above error can occur in several scenarios such as: while launching the notes client. Restarting the notes client can help you. You may be able to launch the client but the error will occur again in next attempts.

You can have to face the error “The database is being taken offline and cannot be opened” while opening the mailbox database. This can occur if some domino tasks are running that prohibits the access to the database.

Resolution:
  • Exit Notes application.
  • Delete the local cache.ndk
  • Restart Notes
Note: Cache.dsk file: This file contains the design elements of Notes server database. It stores the design elements forms, subforms, and LotusScript libraries as well as cross-replica journaling information. This file speed up the process when the notes client requires accessing Notes server database. You can compact the cache.ndk file to recover unused space. In the Notes 6.x Client, the Cache.dsk file has been renamed to CACHE.NDK.

If the above methods don’t fix the errors then follow the given steps to resolve corruption issues with the local replica:

1.    Open command prompt. Go to Notes installation folder:
C:\Program Files\notes

2.  Run nfixup.exe, ncompact.exe, nupdall.exe to recover the corrupt database.

  • nfixup -J -F [database name]
[J] Fixup transaction-logged databases
[F] Scan all documents
  • ncompact -c -i [database name]
[c] Copy-style
[i] Ignore errors and proceed

  • nupdall -R [database name]
[R] Rebuild all used views


 
Note: Nfixup without any options will perform fixup to all Notes databases in the folder where it was executed. You can either run the fixup using the Fixup tool or from domino administrator > Task > Start tool.

You can also run Fixup using a console command or using a Program document. There are various command line switches available with the Fixup command while using a console command. Such as: nfixup -L, -l, -F, -Q,-V, -N, -U,-J,-O,-Z,-C,-Y,-y switches.


Description of the various command line switches is given below: 

  
Conclusion:

These Notes inbuilt repair utilities possess limited functionality. In case of severe corruption they may fail making the data corruption issue more critical. If these utilities don’t fix the Notes database corruption issues then you require a powerful Notes recovery solution. Such tools are capable of performing a quick an easy recovery as compared to the lengthy process involved with these inbuilt tools. Besides speed the tools are enriched with powerful features to make the Notes recovery process more efficient and let recover every piece of your mailbox data i.e. emails, contacts, calendar entries, notes, journals, etc.