Server 2008 login and Exchange issues

sicsicsic

Member
Jul 28, 2005
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When logging into our server hosting Exchange, with a domain account, it hangs for an absurd amount of time (an hour or more) before actually bringing up a desktop. However when logging in with the local administrator account, it passes the welcome screen but then hangs on "Personal Settings." From here, I can at least pull up the task manager and navigate to the control panel and such, but never do I get a task bar or see the "Personal Settings" dialog box disappear.

Also, during all of this it never is seen on the network. After the aforementioned hour or so, it finally will start pinging and bring up the domain account profile and let me use the desktop as normal. When I look at the services, many have not started and will be stuck in "starting" or "stopping" stage without any option to control.

If I look in the event logs, many of the errors are claiming "Topology Discovery Failed" or something along the lines of not receiving a response from any of the domain controllers.

This is a HP Proliant server running HP Branded Server 2008 x64, Exchange 2010 and Blackberry Enterprise Server. At one point, everything was working great even though the OS was reporting not genuine. After a reboot though, this is when the login issues began. I was able to get the activation resolved by Microsoft and everything began working properly, so i thought it solved it - also the three mailboxes on the server were communicating fine on the clients end. I had performed a couple update rollups to the exchange server and installed some roles to be able to access OWA and it seemed to be fine for the rest of that day. Then today, no go.

Back to taking over an hour to log in with a domain account, exchange services are not starting and getting the errors regarding Topology Discovery Failure and not receiving a response from the domain controllers. We have many other servers set up in the same fashion with no problems such as this.

Any more information I can provide? Any ideas on what the heck is wrong with it?

I wish I could just start over on the entire setup but we have three mailboxes migrated to it from our corporate server and I would be TOAST if I lost them. I already am since they can't be accessed at the moment.

Any help would be water in this very dry desert I've hit.
 
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Jamsan

Senior member
Sep 21, 2003
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Long shot, but is the DNS server set properly on the Exchange box to an internal AD based DNS server running on your network?
 

rasczak

Lifer
Jan 29, 2005
10,437
23
81
Agree with above. Log on to the machine as local admin if you can't log on any other way, and verify that your DNS settings are pointing to the correct internal DNS server (usually if it's a small to medium shop, your DNS is also your DC.) Once you've done that, open command prompt and type:
ipconfig /flushdns
ipconfig /registerdns
 

imagoon

Diamond Member
Feb 19, 2003
5,199
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I also agree with the above. DNS is likely wrong. No workstation or server should ever have a reference to a non-domain DNS server. The DNS servers themselves go to the net to get that stuff. I have also seen the firewall do something like this but that is rare and I would check and work on DNS first.
 

Genx87

Lifer
Apr 8, 2002
41,091
513
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Sounds like a DNS issue. Make sure the network card on the exchange server is pointing to the DNS server on the network. Not an outside DNS server.
 

sicsicsic

Member
Jul 28, 2005
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Greatly appreciate the help! I had high hopes for running those commands but alas, it did not change anything even after a reboot.

I have completely removed it from the domain. Upon reboot, I logged in with local administrator and it is stuck on just a blank desktop with a cursor. I pulled up the task manager and got to the event viewer. All the errors being produced are related to the msexchange services. Makes sense since it is not joined to our domain, but why would this be delaying log in and from being seen on the network?

Many of the errors contain "LDAP_SERVER_DOWN"

I switched to the other network card, disabled the vacant one, gave it a new IP address and rejoined it to the domain. Same errors and issues...

Any other ideas?

Thanks again
 

Genx87

Lifer
Apr 8, 2002
41,091
513
126
Do other clients(workstations and servers) have issues talking to your active directory?

Did you make sure the static on the exchange box is set correctly? Make sure the ip, subnet, gateway, and dns is set to your network.

btw not entirely sure how exchange will handle being on a server disjoined and rejoined to the domain.
 

imagoon

Diamond Member
Feb 19, 2003
5,199
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Greatly appreciate the help! I had high hopes for running those commands but alas, it did not change anything even after a reboot.

I have completely removed it from the domain. Upon reboot, I logged in with local administrator and it is stuck on just a blank desktop with a cursor. I pulled up the task manager and got to the event viewer. All the errors being produced are related to the msexchange services. Makes sense since it is not joined to our domain, but why would this be delaying log in and from being seen on the network?

Many of the errors contain "LDAP_SERVER_DOWN"

I switched to the other network card, disabled the vacant one, gave it a new IP address and rejoined it to the domain. Same errors and issues...

Any other ideas?

Thanks again

Did you verify the DNS settings? Exchange uses LDAP to talk to AD. If it can't find the AD servers it is going to complain a lot.
 

sicsicsic

Member
Jul 28, 2005
51
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0
Did you verify the DNS settings? Exchange uses LDAP to talk to AD. If it can't find the AD servers it is going to complain a lot.

I did. I logged into the DC also and pulled up DNS entries. The server shows up with it's new IP address.

Aye.... My pride in my IT troubleshooting is dwindling haha. Just don't get what the heck happened...

Edit: Is it possible to restore the mailboxes to our other, operational Exchange server? I can't do a move because the corporate server can't communicate with ours for the above reasons, but if I log in and move the directory with the mailbox database to the corporate server, can I restore them from there?

Editx2: Since the mailbox database is on a separate partition from the OS, can I reinstall Windows or Exchange and have it repoint to the database?
 
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rasczak

Lifer
Jan 29, 2005
10,437
23
81
sounds to me like a failed install then. this server you have exchange running on wouldn't happen to be a domain controller itself would it?

in any event, you will probably need to backup/export those mailboxes and start anew.
 

DrGreen2007

Senior member
Jan 30, 2007
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"The server shows up with it's new IP address."
So the IP changed?, if its a domain controller (as asked above) it sounds like DNS still has the old IP listed some place, or the machine has the old IP in its DNS entry (is the machine static or DHCP?)