Exchange Solutions

Recently, while troubleshooting an Exchange environment, I ran across event ID 2142 from the MSExchangeADTopology source. This error can be found in the application logs and indicates that the topology service could not find the minimum required domain controllers needed for Exchange. For the environment, I was troubleshooting this was particularly odd as this site containing Exchange had three functional domain controllers. The environment was also a single AD site. The error in full:

Process Microsoft.Exchange.Directory.TopologyService.exe (PID=2700) Forest domain.com. Topology discovery failed, error details: No Minimal Required Number of Suitable Directory Servers Found in Forest domain.com Site Default-First-Site-Name and connected Sites.

Ran into a strange issue recently when a client upgraded from Exchange 2010 to Exchange 2016. The client had already decommissioned Exchange 2010 so coexistence was not a factor. Their configuration was a single-server running Exchange 2016. All mailboxes were located on a single database.

Outlook clients would work fine internally. Externally Outlook would never connect. The status bar would simply report ‘Trying to connect’. Outlook on the Web and all ActiveSync clients were working fine. In addition, the Autodiscover test on the Microsoft Remote Connectivity website was passing.

In contrast, the Outlook Connectivity test from the same site was failing. The following error was reported.

Testing the MAPI Mail Store endpoint on the Exchange server.
  An error occurred while testing the Mail Store.

Additional Details

Elapsed Time: 919 ms.

Test Steps

Attempting to log on to the Mailbox.
  An error occurred while logging on to the Mailbox.

Additional Details

Mailbox logon returned ecLoginFailure -2147221231. Possible causes are:

1. The user doesn't have any access to a private mailbox or public folder messaging data.

2. There are no private mailboxes or public folders on the server.

3. The server is exiting or is about to exit.

StatusCode: -2147221231

The possible causes identified by the error were equally vague. We confirmed these user credentials were working fine with Outlook on the Web and internally for the user. In addition, this was the only server hosting all the mailboxes and we could access them just fine with Outlook internally. As part of our troubleshooting, we disabled MAPI over HTTP in favor of the older RPC over HTTP connection method. Unfortunately, this provided the exact same result.

Fixing logon returned ecLoginFailure -2147221231

The remedy for us was to move all users to a new database. We tested this first by creating a new database and moving a single user over. When that user passed the Outlook connectivity test (and Outlook also connected externally) we moved all other users and system mailboxes to this database.

It is uncertain what was wrong with the original database. It was barely a week old and was the default database installed by Exchange. In any case, the fix was quite simple and it was easier to move the users than to continue troubleshooting for a root cause.

Have you run into this error? What was your solution? Drop a comment below or join the conversation on Twitter @SuperTekBoy.

If you install McAfee VirusScan Enterprise on an Exchange Server you will find that your outbound mail is being blocked. By default McAfee only allows certain processes to send out on port 25. Exchange isn’t one of them.

The block is caused by the Access Protection component. Disabling this component entirely would allow your mail to flow again. However, disabling an entire protection component may not be ideal. Instead, we list a couple of options below to allow Exchange through without sacrificing security.

Tip: Microsoft documents all the mandatory Exchange exclusions here. In addition, McAfee also details Exchange exclusions in this article.

Option 1

Right-click on the McAfee taskbar icon and select VirusScan console from the context menu.

Ran into a strange problem recently. I installed Exchange 2016 CU2 onto a brand new machine. This was the first Exchange 2016 server in the environment. Exchange 2010 SP3 RU14 was in coexistence. I could access the Exchange Control Panel fine. But when I accessed Outlook on the Web (formerly Outlook Web App) I received an Internal 500 server error. Not good. Especially on a brand new install.

Checking the application log revealed a ton of ASP.NET warnings. The warning had a source ASP.NET with Event ID 1310. Inside each warning was internal code 3008 with event message, A configuration error has occurred. The specifics are below.

ASP.NET Event ID 1310 Event Code 3008
Event code: 3008
Event message: A configuration error has occurred.
Event time: 9/1/2016 7:00:00 PM
Event time (UTC): 9/1/2016 11:00:00 PM
Event ID: 33cf7da9abe544e8b562fe0ab5437b57
Event sequence: 1
Event occurrence: 1
Event detail code: 0

We quickly found our answer in the exception message. In many instances the Microsoft.Exchange.Security assembly was missing. Other missing assemblies were referenced in separate warnings as well. I’ve highlighted the section below.