Error: MSExchange System Attendant Mailbox 4001 - A transient failure has occurred

Chris Morley

2007-11-28 16:10:33 UTC

Hi, i have an problem with errors showing in the exchange and unable
to access mailboxes from OWA not outlook o nworkstations, however can
reproduce it.

As i am running my DC and Exchange on the same physical box but under
seperate VMs, when the host reboots the exchange VM (SVR004) comes up
before the DC (SVR002) and there the fun starts.

Basically, if i restart the exchange box and make sure it can contact
the Domain Controller (leave the DC running), all is well and
everything works. The thing that worries me is in the event of an
outage and boxes come back up automatically i may not be around to
reboot the exchange box... surely this should failover and reconnect
automatically? In my case it doesnt, i have left it for 3 hours and i
repeats the message every minute).

To give more insight, when the exchange box boots before the domain
controller, the MSExchange System Attendant service is not started.
Even when i start the service manually, i still get the same errors.
The only way to get round it is with the full reboot of the exchange
box as mentioned whilst the DC is up, after which point the MSExchange
System Attendant service has been automatically run. Please see
messages below and i mention about ASDIEDIT just after:

Event Type: Error
Event Source: MSExchange System Attendant Mailbox
Event Category: General
Event ID: 4001
Date: 28/11/2007
Time: 18:35:27
User: N/A
Computer: SVR004
Description:
A transient failure has occurred. The problem may resolve itself in a
while. The service will retry in 56 seconds. Diagnostic information:

Cannot open mailbox /o=Rotary Humm/ou=Exchange Administrative Group
(FYDIBOHF23SPDLT)/cn=Configuration/cn=Servers/cn=SVR004/cn=Microsoft
System Attendant.
Microsoft.Exchange.Data.Storage.ConnectionFailedTransientException:
Cannot open mailbox /o=Rotary Humm/ou=Exchange Administrative Group
(FYDIBOHF23SPDLT)/cn=Configuration/cn=Servers/cn=SVR004/cn=Microsoft
System Attendant. ---> Microsoft.Mapi.MapiExceptionNetworkError:
MapiExceptionNetworkError: Unable to make connection to the server.
(hr=0x80040115, ec=-2147221227)
Diagnostic context:
......
Lid: 10648 dwParam: 0x6D9 Msg: EEInfo: Generating
component: 2
Lid: 14744 dwParam: 0x6D9 Msg: EEInfo: Status: 1753
Lid: 9624 dwParam: 0x6D9 Msg: EEInfo: Detection location:
501
Lid: 13720 dwParam: 0x6D9 Msg: EEInfo: Flags: 0
Lid: 11672 dwParam: 0x6D9 Msg: EEInfo: NumberOfParameters:
4
Lid: 8856 dwParam: 0x6D9 Msg: EEInfo: prm[0]: Unicode
string: ncacn_ip_tcp
Lid: 8856 dwParam: 0x6D9 Msg: EEInfo: prm[1]: Unicode
string: SVR004.rotary.lan
Lid: 12952 dwParam: 0x6D9 Msg: EEInfo: prm[2]: Long val:
-1527653632
Lid: 15000 dwParam: 0x6D9 Msg: EEInfo: prm[3]: Pointer val:
0x0x01d1dda0 (PR_REROUTING_TABLE)
Lid: 19778
Lid: 27970 StoreEc: 0x80040115
Lid: 17730
Lid: 25922 StoreEc: 0x80040115
at Microsoft.Mapi.MapiExceptionHelper.ThrowIfError(String message,
Int32 hresult, Int32 ec, DiagnosticContext diagCtx)
at Microsoft.Mapi.ExRpcConnection.Create(ConnectionCache
connectionCache, ExRpcConnectionCreateFlag createFlags, ConnectFlag
connectFlags, String serverDn, String userDn, String user, String
domain, String password, String httpProxyServerName, Int32 ulConMod,
Int32 lcidString, Int32 lcidSort, Int32 cpid, Int32
cReconnectIntervalInMins, Int32 cbRpcBufferSize, Int32
cbAuxBufferSize)
at Microsoft.Mapi.ConnectionCache.OpenMapiStore(String mailboxDn,
Guid mailboxGuid, Guid mdbGuid, ClientIdentityInfo clientIdentity,
String userDnAs, OpenStoreFlag openStoreFlags, CultureInfo
cultureInfo, String applicationId)
at Microsoft.Mapi.ConnectionCache.OpenMailbox(String mailboxDn,
Guid mailboxGuid, Guid mdbGuid, WindowsIdentity windowsIdentityAs,
String userDnAs, OpenStoreFlag openStoreFlags, CultureInfo
cultureInfo, String applicationId)
at
Microsoft.Exchange.Data.Storage.ConnectionCachePool.OpenMailbox(String
serverDn, String userDn, String mailboxDn, Guid mailboxGuid, Guid
mdbGuid, Object identity, ConnectFlag connectFlag, OpenStoreFlag
openStoreFlag, CultureInfo cultureInfo, String clientInfoString,
Boolean secondTry)
--- End of inner exception stack trace ---
at
Microsoft.Exchange.Data.Storage.ConnectionCachePool.OpenMailbox(String
serverDn, String userDn, String mailboxDn, Guid mailboxGuid, Guid
mdbGuid, Object identity, ConnectFlag connectFlag, OpenStoreFlag
openStoreFlag, CultureInfo cultureInfo, String clientInfoString,
Boolean secondTry)
at
Microsoft.Exchange.Data.Storage.ConnectionCachePool.OpenMailbox(String
serverDn, String userDn, String mailboxDn, Guid mailboxGuid, Guid
mdbGuid, Object identity, ConnectFlag connectFlag, OpenStoreFlag
openStoreFlag, CultureInfo cultureInfo, String clientInfoString,
Boolean secondTry)
at
Microsoft.Exchange.Data.Storage.ConnectionCachePool.OpenMailbox(String
serverDn, String userDn, String mailboxDn, Guid mailboxGuid, Guid
mdbGuid, Object identity, ConnectFlag connectFlag, OpenStoreFlag
openStoreFlag, CultureInfo cultureInfo, String clientInfoString)
at
Microsoft.Exchange.Data.Storage.MailboxSession.Initialize(LogonType
logonType, ExchangePrincipal owner, ADOrgPerson delegateUser, Object
identity, OpenMailboxSessionFlags flags)
at
Microsoft.Exchange.Data.Storage.MailboxSession.CreateMailboxSession(LogonType
logonType, ExchangePrincipal owner, ADOrgPerson delegateUser, Object
identity, OpenMailboxSessionFlags flags, CultureInfo cultureInfo,
String clientInfoString)
at
Microsoft.Exchange.Data.Storage.MailboxSession.OpenAsAdmin(ExchangePrincipal
mailboxOwner, CultureInfo cultureInfo, String clientInfoString)
at
Microsoft.Exchange.Servicelets.SystemAttendantMailbox.Servicelet.Work()

For more information, see Help and Support Center at
http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.

To give a little background, i did remove an Exchange Server from the
active directory and had to ADSIEDIT the directory to get rid of the
old exchange records before i performed the reinstall (as per
instructions from a google search to remove the active directory in
inconsistent state message, only disaster recovery available). Once
the old exchange records for the old server were removed from the
active directory i went ahead and performed a reinstall direct from
the setup.exe without any issue. I thought it was all working till i
got these issues, but to be honest i dont like the idea of ADSIEDIT
and i am worried i messed something up. As the domain is small still i
can go ahead and rebuild the virutal machines from templates, however
if this is a known issue and not something i have caused then i would
rather not as it is still a big task... given it does work as long as
the DC is contactable is this likely to be a problem with my directory
still?

Many thanks in advance,

Chris