Exchange Help Needed

[timbo343]

Just checked all the servers at work and found that the emails arent working correctly, logged onto teh email server and found that half the services or exchange havent started. I tried starting them again but got a message:

Could not start the Microsoft Exchange Information Store service on Local Computer.

Error 1053: The service did not respond to the start or control request in a timely fashion

 

Could someone please help me on what to do what this happens/

 

Thanks

 

T

[Ric_]

The usual cause of this is insufficient disk space. You may need to move or delete some logs - have a search on the site about doing this... it was discussed recently.

[timbo343]

ok, ive just found out why...

the server with the global catalogue is either turned off, or it has failled to start up, i do hope its not the latter...

[timbo343]

is there a way to get the GC from a corrupt server?

[ChrisH]

Enable it on another server.

[m25man]

What size is your Information Store?

 

Standard had an IS limit of 16GB this was extended to 18 GB in Exchange SP2.

SP2 also allows this to be extended to 75GB by registry key but it does not do so automatically, you need to specify the increased IS size.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/912375

 

If you do not have your databases and log files on seperate drives check your log file sizes.

A proper online exchange backup will commit and flush these every night.

 

If you do not have as much free space on your database volume as you do in edb and stm files the exchange maintenance stops running and the databases cease to maintain themselves. Instead of them compacting themselves overnight they get larger and you will have to perform this maintenance manually.

 

The single and most common reason for exchange failure is lack of disk space.

If your database is 20GB you need at least 20 of spare diskspace.

 

If you have Enterprise you can have multiple storage groups on different spindles that way if your student database blows the admin will still be operating.

 

When all else fails there are several utilities that can extract the contents of a broken edb file into pst's.

 

You should have at least 2 Global Catalogs per domain and as your exchange server should not be a global cat server (Unless it's SBS) your DNS will be critical.

DNS failure will stop exchange dead in it's tracks so check your DNS.

 

The secret to a succesful Exchange recovery is.....

 

DON'T PANIC, chill out, take it easy.

 

Shut down all the services and take a FULL OFFLINE BACKUP.

 

Now fix it on your terms and refuse to be pressured into doing something stupid that will result in the loss of your edb files. Works every time.

[timbo343]

Hey thanks for the help, i managed to find out why it wont work, the Global catalogue was set on the server with went down, just enabled it on the other 2 and things are working again till 2morrow and find out what have happened to it