More Exchange Madness!
I'll just sum this one up, as it's pretty boring, but there are some important details.
1) Computer account for a Domain Controller/Global Catalogue/Exchange server (virtualized in Hyper-V) becomes corrupt, including the underlying metadata.
2) That server cannot 'see' the domain, with numerous errors from both Exchange and the Event Viewer stating that it cannot replicate due to DNS problems.
3) Rolling the .vhd back to a previous week results in the same issue.
4) When attempting to demote/dejoin/join/promote the server from/to the domain, the computer account is deleted, but not the metadata, and the server cannot be joined to the domain again.
Solution? Backup the Mailbox Databases from the First and Second Storage Groups, as well as their transaction logs, then create a new .vhd, reinstall the OS, join it to the domain, add the newly created computer account to the 'Exchange Server' and 'Exchange Install Domain Servers' groups, install Exchange using "setup.com /m:recoverserver" (make sure that you've manually installed the prerequisites, such as IIS+IIS 6 Management Console, etc... before doing this), then copy the Mailbox databases back to the default install location. After that, correct the permissions on the Mailbox folder if needed (simply inherit the permissions from the parent object) and reboot the server. When it finishes booting, open the Exchange Management Console and mount the Storage Groups (note: you may have to open the properties on both groups and uncheck the option that prevents Exchange from automatically mounting the databases on boot).
Simple, right?
Gong Show: The Tail of an IBM x3400 Server (Part 1)
It was Tuesday morning, just after the August Long Weekend. I'd spent much of the weekend doing as little as possible, but had a feeling of great dread as I walked in to my office. Maybe it was because things had been running smoothly for weeks without a major problem. Maybe it was because there always seems to be extra work to do after long weekends. Or maybe, just maybe, it was because my iPhone hadn't been able to connect to our Exchange 2007 server since Saturday morning. I hadn't been horribly concerned - OWA support was only in testing for our organization and I was the only user.
Sure enough, though, I didn't even have a chance to sit down at my desk before my phone was ringing with complaints that Outlook was throwing errors saying it couldn't connect to the Exchange server. I turned on the LCD for my server monitor, and sure enough, the server wasn't responding. Grabbing my keys, I trundled up to the server room, still unconcerned as the rest of the staff would be heading for a meeting and as such, I'd have an hour to get things sorted out.
When I got to the sever room, I was greeted by the whirring of cooling fan, however the sound was a little off - the pitch was different than normal, and not quite as loud. Glancing at the server rack, my suspicions were confirmed: the server was off.
No problem, I figured, pulling off the front panel of the IBM x3400 to uncover the power button, just need to flick it back on. I pressed the button (note: if you're here looking for how to find the power button on an x3400, check out this post).
--Click-- *WHIRRRRRRRrrrrrr* --Click--
The server had turned off as quickly as it came on. I pressed the power button again, with much the same result. Crap. Maybe this wouldn't be so fast after all.
Read more after the break.
Upcoming Event: Server Unpacking – Updated
It's been a little while since I've posted, hence this post.
Within the next week I'll be receiving a custom built Dell PowerEdge 2900 III server, and I'll be posting unpacking pictures and a setup tutorial post. Some of the specs:
- Two Intel Quad-Core Xeon Processors (E5420) @ 2.5Ghz (2x6MB L2 Cache)
- 16GB DDR2 667Mhz RAM
- 4x 250GB SATA2 HDDs (hot swappable) in a RAID 10 Array
- Redundant Power Supply
This setup will be running Windows Server 2008 Enterprise with Hyper-V, hosting two virtual environments (a Server 2008 Terminal Server and an Exchange 2007 Server). More details to follow!
Update (02-April-09): The hardware and software are in! Tomorrow I'll live blog the setup process!
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