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Microsoft Exchange Server 2000 Problem

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Just recently, our users in the intranet have been complaining about the behavior of the Microsoft Outlook when, from time to time, it displays “Requesting data from Microsoft Exchange Server”. It will timeout and eventually freeze.

At first, I thought it was purely a DNS issue when several clients cannot resolve the server hostname. That has been fixed already but the problem remains.

I checked out several knowledge bases and came across issues with disabled accounts (that’s been fixed by giving rights to self), black hole router (complaints are coming from within the intranet, same network segment as the exchange server).

Access to OWA at this stage (since nobody can open MS Outlook) is also a failure.

Also at this point Dismounting the private mailbox store (hoping to run isinteg.exe) will stop at 66% and freeze.

When trying to restart the Microsoft Exchange Information Store service, status will remain to “stopping” and will never reach the “stopped” status.

Running the Performance Monitor before the problem yields the following observations (during the time the mail service fails):

Microsoft Exchange RPC request = 2 (across time!)
Microsoft Exchange RPC operations/sec = 0

Network bytes received/sent, %Processor Time, Paging is normal.

Looking at the Event Log, I usually see 7011 events.. DNS and BINLSVC both times out waiting for a transaction response. Netlogon returns a warning: Dynamic registration of DNS records fail because no DNS servers are available.

Running a Netdiag /v /test:dns will yield a PASSED report for the dns server. Further verification at the DNS snap-in will yield an online and active DNS server.

(cont.)

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Microsoft Exchange Server 2000 Problem

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My only recourse at this point is to restart the server. As soon as I can dismount the mailbox store successfully, I ran isinteg.exe and from time to time, discover folder errors which ISINTEG was able to fix. There were no ACLs error.

Any helpis appreciated. I’ve been battling this problem for a few weeks already and I’ve ran out of options (aside from constant server restart whenever this happens). Any suggestions? I can provide you with more info for diagnosis later.

Thanks in advance.

Server specs:
Dell Poweredge 4400, Intel XEON 1000 Mhz.
512 MB RAM,
RAID 5, Windows 2000 Server, Backoffice server 2000.
Around 30+ users.

Microsoft Exchange Server 2000 Problem

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Point value changed by question poster.

Microsoft Exchange Server 2000 Problem

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We had to use ESEUTlL, and run ISINTEG numerous times to get one Exchange database back to a consistent state. In the end we lost some Contacts for Outlook users, but that was all. “When situations like these develop, the first step is to shut down all Exchange services and restart the server.” http://www.microsoft.com/exchange/techinfo/tips/DB_Corrupt.asp
Hope you find relief, I feel your pain!

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Thank you for your suggestion.

Microsoft Exchange Server 2000 Problem

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This is an interesting problem, so I did a little search for a possible solution. I ran across an article titled, “Network Manager Challenge: solving Exchange’s requesting data problem”. Several solutions were offered.

One solution suggested, “…Log on locally to the computer. Add the computer to your Active Directory domain. Restart the computer. Log on to the computer locally, open the Outlook Client; you will notice that the email opens up much faster. Close Outlook. Remove the computer from the Active Directory domain. Restart.”

But it seems the best solution stated the following:

“According to an obscure Knowledge Base article, with a TCP/IP-based wide area network, communication over some routes may fail if an intermediate network segment has a maximum packet size that is smaller than the maximum packet size of the communicating hosts – and if the router does not send an appropriate Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMP) response to this condition. Such a router is sometimes known as a “black hole” router. Basically, you have to go in and hack your registry (never for the faint of heart) and tweak the packet size. It’s all described the article #Q314825. To read it, go to http://support.microsoft.com, select Knowledge Base, and enter the Q-number listed.”

Read the whole article at:

http://www.outlookpower.com/issues/issue200210/challenge001.html

or

http://tinyurl.com/h01o

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Thank you for your suggestion.

Microsoft Exchange Server 2000 Problem

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Ok, I will check the suggestion by Answer 1. About Answer 2, I’ve read the article, but the in the Network Manager Challenge’s scenario, the client is at a remote location and passes through router to get to the Exchange server. We, on the other hand, have the Exchange server on the same network segment in our intranetl; there is no intermediate network segment. I will look at the other suggestions given by the article.

Will post updates soon. Thanks for the suggestions.

Microsoft Exchange Server 2000 Problem

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I remember such an Problem with Exchange and ScanMail. The Reason for this behavior wasn’t the Exchange as more the antivurs Software on the Server. question: could it be that U are using Scanmail or anything like that ?

Regards

frobo

Microsoft Exchange Server 2000 Problem

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I am sorry but we are not using a mail filtering/virus scanning software as of the moment.

Microsoft Exchange Server 2000 Problem

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I get a similar error message on a WiFi connectged laptop. It randomly drops its link to the network and then shows the “Requesting data from Microsoft Exchange Server” message. Extropolating, I would suggest you either replace/check the server’s NIC and also the Switch / Hub. You could be getting bad packets through the NIC or may have power/data issues with the LAN devices.

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Dont skip the step below:

1) Uninstall all IIS from ur Win2k server on the ADD AND REMOVE PROGRAM.
2) Installed back IIS.
3) Update Win2k SP4.
4) Re-install Ms Exchange 2000 server
5) Update Ms Exchange 2000 server SP3.

Hope this works

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A) The stuff is not set-up
Get up a version of Access, Clear the window in the Start-up, hit the enter on the adding machine face, then go to Veiw and click; now go to toolbar and click;go to web and click, then hit the enter on the adding machine face – this is the only enter on the keyboard that is only enter – use the search on the toolbar and and where it asks for ‘what’ put “DOS”; where it asks for ‘where’ put “Home”; when the search is done select Two-Byt DOS and then hold down control and hit enter on the adding machine face.

What is not commonly known now or even in the past is that the computers had to have a lot of set-up work done before they were considerable as ready to use.

Next, there is a need to look intoand seriously address the fact that none of the people in that Company may have any training on how to use the stuff there and are just muddling along, so a training and basic computer instructional course needs to be initiated.

This actually hurts – check the wireing in the building with SOMEONE YOU bring in and do the same with the TELEPHONE system. Common basic problems. You’ll have to do this to insure that you’ve covered the easy stuff, like fuses in the hardware and the fact that it isplugged up right, all these addressed then I’ll leave you to the hard stuff.

RIVER FREIGHT

Microsoft Exchange Server 2000 Problem

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Sorry, I think the answer is not related to the question.

Microsoft Exchange Server 2000 Problem

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How numerous do i need to do eseutil and isinteg? I’ve been doing it from time to time but the problem keeps on coming. And as soon as the database becomes consistent, how long will it remain consistent before it needs recovery again?

Microsoft Exchange Server 2000 Problem

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In the 7-23-2003 Comment you introduce a new problem; are your periodic system refresh parameters set so you don’t have to continually do Recoveries; Also you describe an unset-up system – not hardware, although that can be addressed too if necessary.

RIVER FREIGHT

Microsoft Exchange Server 2000 Problem

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Thanks for the suggestion, but I need specific solutions on Microsoft Exchange Server 2000.

Microsoft Exchange Server 2000 Problem

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In the 7-23-2003 Comment you introduce a new problem; are your periodic system refresh parameters set so you don’t have to continually do Recoveries; Also you describe an unset-up system – not hardware, although that can be addressed too if necessary.

RIVER FREIGHT

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Microsoft Exchange Server 2000 Problem

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Until you address the reality that your equipment – the Hardware – that you took out of the box is only running on the BIO’s & I/O’s Chips all your software isn’t going to work worth a darn. YOU TOOK IT OUT OF THE BOX PLUGGED IT IN AND TURNED IT ON; THEN WHAT DID YOU DO OR HAVE PAID TO DO???? I can pay for anything and still it won’t work well unless all the things also so are working correctly. GO LOOK IT UP: PHONE IBM anmd ASK THEM, tell them that River Freight sent you too.

RIVER FREIGHT

Microsoft Exchange Server 2000 Problem

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It was running for two straight years until this happened just recently. The DELL engineers helped set it up. All other softwares are working fine. And btw, it is DELL, not IBM.

Sorry, but I am looking for a more relevant answer.

Microsoft Exchange Server 2000 Problem

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I have a solution that may solve your problems, but I need some further information, and depending on the info the solution might be quite lengthy to type, if you wish e-mail mail me at a.grogan@flangemanifold.com.
Andy.

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i don’t know if you have tryed to reinstall over top of it, to try and fix what ever errors have caused it, or if you have tryed to save all that you can and do a clean install of it again? but you know what ever you can afford for downtime….

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Hi Ronald,

Your problem is likely not with the exchange databases. I suspect strongly there is something wrong with the exchange server’s communication with the DNS servers and/or the domain controllers. The event log messages are giving you a clue.

What you need to know is the following :

1. are you running DNS on your domain controllers with active directory integrated zones
2. if not, is it on a system that supports dynamic DNS? (event log indicates that the dynamic dns registration is failing)
3. if not, did you manually create the required entries in DNS to support LDAP and GC lookups
4. what DNS server entries are set in your network adapter’s TCP/IP settings
5. are your domain controllers up and running? (try rebooting them).
6. what about the network path to your domain controllers? Try a cmd window on your exchange server and run nslookup. Does everything look like it is responding properly?

Look at MS KB article 329817. Confirm the event log messages to see if that is your situation

Also 317411 – XADM: How to Gather Data to Troubleshoot Exchange Virtual Memory Issues. This is not as likely, but try it if you run out of options

You can send me an email through the peer directory.

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Thank you for your suggestion.

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Question: what sort of errors are showing up in the event viewer? Does your Dynamic registration of DNS records fail because no dns servers are available after a server reboot? If so this is just a error meaning that netlogon service needs to start first.

Are you running ArcServe? If so shutdown this as I have found that when suggesting down exchange I need to shutdown ArcServe first.

Are you getting any other errors? From the desktops of the machines in question can you ping the exchange server? Ping it I mean by it’s name e.g. exchange (no domain)

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Thank you for your suggestion.

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Hi,

I have seen the same error on most of our client machines at some point. We use Exchange 2000 and the Citrix Metaframe XP environment for our users.
Our messages wording is identical, but has a progress bar which completes and the machine carries on afterwards fine. It also has the option not to show this message again. It usually occurs at the point where our users start complaining that our network has slowed right down, usually because someone is copying a large file between servers, and at the point where they drag and drop an email to another folder or hit the Send button.

Our exchange server has reached its 16Gig limit, however I have managed to halt the flow of event logs informing me of this by doing some mailbox housekeeping.

We often get event log entries as below:
Information Store (4048) The database W:\Exchsrvr\mdbdata\priv1.edb has reached its maximum size of 16382 MB. If the database cannot be restarted, an offline defragmentation may be performed to reduce its size.

We also get the below event log entry fairly often:
The virtual memory necessary to run your Exchange server is fragmented in such a way that normal operation may begin to fail. It is highly recommended that you restart all Exchange services to correct this issue

My initial thoughts are that these error messages are generated because of poorly maintained exchange databases, specifically so bad that the performance is severely degraded.

Is it possible you’ve hit your limit as well? Are you running exchange 2000 enterprise? If no, it would explain why you may have trouble dismounting and restarting the information stores.

This may or may not help. In a selfish way I hope it doesn’t, if it does I have a feeling our fate will be along the lines of yours very soon…:(

Andrew.

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Thank you for your suggestion.

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Put up a packet capture box and ICMP traffic find out where broadcasts are echoing (if so) and make sure by MAC addressing NOT ip and fix it or turn off that one for now if not necessary Now if DNS works you can fix flurry that prevents you!

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Hi R.A.,

Check your nework cards and cables. If not the software you can always blame it on the hardware?

Don’t expect so much on software performance wise
hardware should count first.

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Hi Ronald…

Sorry you have had so much trouble with E2K. I have worked with XCH since it’s inception and yes, E2K is a different beast. I have found that ESEUTIL is not a complete fix. I usually have to run a repair and a defrag to solve severe issues such as yours.

Is your XCH behind a firewall? Are you using Exchange with AD? Do you have internal and external domains?

Ex.
private – internal.domain.com
public – domain.com

Is XCH on a member server or a DC?
Is DNS running on the Primary DC? If not, why not?
If there is a private DNS on the Primary DC, is the public DNS able to accept dynamic entries?

Are the clients pointing to the internal domain first, then public?
internal.domain.com
domain.com

Are DNS records for clients provided by DHCP? Is the DHCP running on a router or W2K?

All of these need to work together. Separate your domains by private and public. Point clients to see private DNS entries first, then public. Public DNS servers should never include any internal (private) records.

If your server has no DNS issues, perhaps it’s not the server but the clients?!

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Thank you for your suggestion.

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Had a similar problem in 5.5 recently and tracked it down to the fact that the MSBlast Virus uses port 135. Exchange also uses this port to comunicate between servers. |In the end our ISP closed port 135 for users not requiring it. This has helped but with all the virus traffic still flooding the internet its still a bit sluggish. Are you on a corporate network and are you properly patched , AV Protected.

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Congradulations. Given that you’ve tried all the above, you’ve probably got a hardware problem.

Check the temp of the CPU chips first. Try a check of the voltages on the MB as well, check the power supplies for heat and voltage.

Log into the switch the machine is connected to – make sure the network connection matches what the machine is seeing. A synch mismatch can corrupt a database faster than you can say squat. Be sure one isn’t set to 100 half, and the other to 100 full. Check for errors, both on the server NIC and for errors on the switch. Sometimes a card can simply go bad.

Finally, you need to monitor the network for any kind of network interference you might have. If you have a huge graphics dept, they may simply be taking up all the network bandwidth at certain times of the day. Outlook may simply be losing its connection by timing out, or the constant talk between server and client may be interrupted by this.

Intermittent troubles of this sort are very hard to diagnose. But recurrent database corruption on Exchange, with no sign of software failure is a clear pointer to a hardware or network problem.

Other possibilities include overheating anywhere on the MB support chips, bad UPS allowing voltage spikes into the system, a hard drive that isn’t spun up all the time, even too much dust on the MB contacts or a loose board inside the system.

Make sure the fans are all running.

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Thank you for your suggestion.

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As per Q311517, this event can show up when the Inetinfo.exe process may stop responding due to a conflict with Exchange 2000. A stack overflow in the Mailmsg.dll file might be the reason that the Inetinfo.exe process stops responding and that you may receive event ID messages that point to problems with disks or controllers.

Q179265 points to a potential conflict between Exchange and ARCserve, the solution being to stop manually ARCServe before shutting down Exchange.

Q238665 indicates that this may occur when changes made to the application, directory, virtual directory, or site are interrupted while they are being written to the metabase. This can, in certain condition, corrupt the metabase.

Maybe these articles can help?

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Do you have A Symantec antivirus for exchange installed on your system?
If you do stop the service and see if it is the source of the problem.

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Is this topic still open? I have a few questions and suggestions.

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