Exchange 5.5 Services Stopping...

[PcJanITor]

We are running Exchange 5.5 on Windows NT 4.0
Everything was fine until a few days ago.

Services for Exchange Internet Mail and Information
Store will stop.

Users will receive a message stating that there are
either network problems or the Exchange Server is
unavailable.

I can start these two services, but then they will
stop again.

Any ideas will be greatly appreciated!

 

[zbnet]

Event log messages? Have you run out of disk space?

 

[Alshrim]

ya.. check the drives with your transaction logs upon it.
If your running out of space.. Run a full back up and flush the logs...

If that's not an option - turn on Circular Logging (but know that this removes the chance of a 100% Recovery of data).

Alshrim
System Administrator
MCSE, MCP+Internet

 

[PcJanITor]

Event ID: 1005, 4094, 4102, 4116, 4182

C drive: Free 98MB
D drive: Free 569MB

I removed a file from the D drive in folder
IMCDATA\IN WQDXL9YM ????????

Restarted services, and Exchange has been running
for over an hour...

I don't know if this is/was the problem...

TIA

 

[Alshrim]

this is not alot of space ...
what you deleted was a transaction log...

I would suggest during on Circular Logging... this will keep log files down to a bare minimum - but then you would have to go to offline-style backups to ensure 100% data recovery should you need a restore.

Alshrim
System Administrator
MCSE, MCP+Internet

 

[PcJanITor]

Deleting the log file did not help,
as I narrow in on this problem,
it seems that when a user clicks on
an unread message in his in box,
this is what is causing Event ID: 1005
and the Exchange Information Store Service
stops...

How can I delete this email?

 

[Alshrim]

if you simply right click it - does it exhibit the same behavior? (right-click without highlighting i mean).

Alshrim
System Administrator
MCSE, MCP+Internet

 

[PcJanITor]

Right click (without autpreview) and selecting
delete will also stop the Exchange Information
Store Service.

User is running MS/Outlook 2000, this will hang.

I will then receive Event ID: 1005

 

[Alshrim]

What is the message attached to the Event ID:?

There are a few Q's you can look at. Most of them all say to move the messages from the Imcdata\In queue. Delete the Queue.dat file from the Imcdata folder, and then restart the information store and the Internet Mail Service.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/q293288/

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;FR;q169223

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/q232279/

Alshrim
System Administrator
MCSE, MCP+Internet

 

[Alshrim]

so - the only think - that i see you didn't do so far - is to delete the queue.dat file..

Alshrim
System Administrator
MCSE, MCP+Internet

 

[zbnet]

Alshrim:
what you deleted was a transaction log...

Nonesense. A file called WQDXL9YM in IMCDATA\IN is an inbound SMTP message.

 

[Alshrim]

Yip.. sorry 'bout that...
Brain Fart !!!

Alshrim
System Administrator
MCSE, MCP+Internet

 

[PcJanITor]

Thanks for everyone's input.

Circular logging was already setup.
I did delete the queue.dat file.

But, what I found out about deleting
the unread email on the users pc
that would stop the services and hang
Outlook, was to use the KEYBOARD "delete"
key while holding down the shift key.

I was using the mouse (right-click) on
email message, (while holding down the
shift key), this would hang the pc in outlook
and stop the services.

The bad email has been deleted and all
services are still running.

Thanks again.

 

[zbnet]

You have circular logging on a production mailbox server???

What will you do when your store corrupts?

 

[PcJanITor]

Tape backup, using last log.

 

[zbnet]

But this involves data loss - you will lose all mail since the time the backup was taken. With circular logging enabled, you can't play through the transaction logs to restore the mail since the backup was taken.