Update Rollup 6 for Exchange Server 2007 Service Pack 3

By Gulab | Thursday, January 26, 2012 | Leave a comment

Download Update Rollup 6

Description of Update Rollup 6 for Exchange Server 2007 Service Pack 3
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=2608656

Cheers,

Error "Cannot bind argument to parameter 'Identity' because it is null.

By Gulab | Sunday, December 25, 2011 | 2 Comments

I was upgrading Exchange 2010 SP1 to SP2, Hub Transport and Client Access Server upgrade completed successfully but it failed on Mailbox Server Role. See the below figure.

Deleted the Public Folder Database and continued installing the server and it failed with the below error.

Went into registry on the exchange server and deleted the Action and WaterMark key from the below location. HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\ExchangeServer\v14\MailboxRole
Started the installation of Mailbox Role and it failed again with previous error message.
Checked and found that when ever I run the installation it creates the Mailbox Database and those database are not mounted. One more thing is, after the installation fails MS Exchange Information store service is not running and I had to restart it manually.

Deleted all dismounted database and dismounted the Public Folder Database and took the copy of .EDB file and deleted the Public Folder Database. Replicated the domain controllers.
Started the upgrade and it completed successfully.

After the successful installation, everything is working fine except OWA. I am able to login to to mailbox using OWA but getting the below error message when doing a check name and composing or checking emails.


1: Start IIS Manager.
2: Expand the local computer, expand Sites, and then click Default Web Site.
3: At the bottom of the Default Web Site Home pane, click Features View if this option isn't already selected.
4: In the IIS section, double-click HTTP Redirect.
5: Select the Redirect requests to this destination check box, and then type /owa.
6: Under Redirect Behavior, select the Only redirect requests to content in this directory (not subdirectories) check box.
7: In the Status code list, click Found (302).
8: In the Actions pane, click Apply. 
9: Close IIS Manager
10: Find the Outlook Web App Web.config file on the Client Access server. The default location is <drive>\Program Files\Microsoft\Exchange Server\<version>\ClientAccess\Owa.
11: Make a backup copy of the file.
12: Open the original file using an editor such as Notepad. Don't use IIS Manager to edit the Web.config file.
13: Find httpCookies httpOnlyCookies="false" requireSSL="true" domain="" and change the requireSSL flag to false.
14: Save and close the file.

Checked the OWA and it's working fine without any error.
Reference article: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa998359.aspx

Cheers,



Initialization failed when opening EMC after updating Exchange 2010 to SP2

By Gulab | Saturday, December 10, 2011 | Leave a comment

My first post on Exchange 2010 SP2 :)

I was upgrading Exchange 2010 SP1 to SP2. I extended the schema successfully without any error message and  upgraded the server to SP2 successfully.
But when I started the EMC I got the below error message.


To fix the issue you just need to restart your exchange server and everything will be fine.
I am still working on this behavior to find out that why it happened and what was it which was causing this issue....and once I get it I will update this post...

Update....

At the location C:\Program Files\Microsoft\Exchange Server\V14\RemoteScripts

Rename the file ConsoleInitialize.ps1 to ConsoleInitialize.OLD. Create a new one ConsoleInitialize.ps1. Send me email and I will send you the text file. Unfortunately I can't save file on Blogger :(

Note: It's a workaround, Microsoft is working on this issue. We hope that MS will release permanent fix  for it soon.
Cheers,

You cannot create Virtual Machines in Hyper V on Windows Server 2008 R2

By Gulab | Monday, December 5, 2011 | , Leave a comment

I was working on the LAB and had Windows Server 2008 R2 installed on the base machine. I installed Hyper V Role and restarted the machine.
While installing domain controller on windows server 2003 using the iso in the LAB and i got the error message.

I tried with multiple iso's thinking that it could be issue with iso but it gave the same error for all the iso.
Checked the current windows version and it was running.

Installed SP1 on R2 and rebooted the base machine.
Now creating the LAB virtual machine and now it's working fine without any error.

Moral of the story, you can't create virtual machine on Windows 2008 R2 host. It has to be with SP1.

Cheers,

Lesson learned, never run BETEST on Windows Server 2008

By Gulab | Tuesday, November 1, 2011 | , Leave a comment

One thing I would like tell everyone that never run BETEST on Windows Server 2008. I was working on backup failing issue. Exchange writers were failing when running vssadmin list writers.

C:\Users\Admin>vssadmin list writers
vssadmin 1.1 - Volume Shadow Copy Service administrative command-line tool
(C) Copyright 2001-2005 Microsoft Corp.
Writer name: 'Microsoft Exchange Writer'

   Writer Id: {76fe1ac4-15f7-4bcd-987e-8e1acb462fb7}
   Writer Instance Id: {3e9411d9-6bbb-455a-8150-2ba5925c2a98}
   State: [8] Failed
   Last error: Inconsistent shadow copy

I am using Net App Backup (Snap Manager for Microsoft Exchange). Backup is failing when testing the vss hardware provider, in this case it's Net App hardware provider.
Deleted the Net App vss provider from registry and rebooted the server.
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\VSS\Providers\{ddd3d232-a96f-4ac5-8f7b-250fd91fd102}
Ran the command vssadmin list providers to check if the NetApp Hardware provider is not there:

C:\Users\Admin>vssadmin list providers
vssadmin 1.1 - Volume Shadow Copy Service administrative command-line tool(C) Copyright 2001-2005 Microsoft Corp.
Provider name: 'Microsoft Software Shadow Copy provider 1.0'
   Provider type: System
   Provider Id: {b5946137-7b9f-4925-af80-51abd60b20d5}
   Version: 1.0.0.7

Tried backup again and it failed again with the same vss error.Now I am fighting to get the Exchange writer state in Stable and without any error. To check if the exchange writers are find I was running BETEST which was failing. The point is, you should never ever run BETEST on Windows Server 2008, because BETEST is for Windows Server 2003 not for 2008. In place of BETEST there is tool call DiskShadow.

Ran the DiskShadow on the server and checked the exchange writer state by running vssadmin list writers and its showing stable without any error:

Writer name: 'Microsoft Exchange Writer'
   Writer Id: {76fe1ac4-15f7-4bcd-987e-8e1acb462fb7}
   Writer Instance Id: {e87db07c-b876-4ef7-affe-5b8ae968cf30}
   State: [1] Stable
   Last error: No error

Ran the backup and it failed again with error in Log.
[18:16:12.038]  [ExchangeServer] Asynchronous call DoSnapshotSet timed out!

[18:16:42.570]  [ExchangeServer] The call for DoSnapshotSet was cancelled.
[ExchangeServer] Failed to perform VSS snapshot, aborting...
[ExchangeServer] Backup is aborted.

Imported the delete registry of NetApp vss provider. Ran VSSREPORT Tool on the server and found that there is one registry key "819e04d3-809b-4657-aee0-778ca24470da" of Net App Hardware provider which is missing. That key is at the below location on the server.
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\819e04d3-809b-4657-aee0-778ca24470da.

Now there are two option to get that key 1: Remove and Re-install Snap Manager for Exchange and Snap Drive 2: Repair Snap Manager for Exchange and Snap Drive. Ran the repair on both the application and ran the backup and it completed successfully.

Reference articles:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc772172(WS.10).aspx
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee221016(WS.10).aspx
http://blogs.technet.com/b/josebda/archive/2007/11/30/diskshadow-the-new-in-box-vss-requester-in-windows-server-2008.aspx
http://blogs.technet.com/b/enterprise_admin/archive/2009/11/19/diskshadow-xcopy-backup-of-hyper-v.aspx


Cheers,

EXCHANGE RANGER