The operation couldn’t be completed because a change occurred in the remote forest

 

By Joseph Piggee Sr.

Many tech ask me about this problem, and whenever I go into a new environment I get the error myself, so I decided to put this little reminder out. If you run into an error when opening the Exchange Management Console (EMC initialization failed and “the operation couldn’t be completed because a change occurred in the remote forest”.

You may also find that while EMC does not work, you are able to launch the Exchange Management Shell (EMS) without any issues.

This may occur when the server you are connecting to has been updated with a Service Pack or Roll Up Update (RU).

Now, there is a possibility that this error may not always indicate a version mismatch between the tools on the client and the RU level of the server, so how can you confirm this is actually the issue? As shown in this Exchange Team blog post, you can confirm the versions do not match by running the following command on both the client and the server from the shell:

Get-Command EXSetup | %{$_.FileVersionInfo}

Here’s the result from the above command on a Windows 7 box running the Exchange 2010 SP1 Management Tools:

This command is checking the file version information for the local instance of ExSetup.exe on both the client and the server installed by default in C:\Program Files\Microsoft\Exchange Server\V14\bin\

.

Once you get the version numbers you can compare it, using the the following link:

Exchange Server and Update Rollups Builds Numbers

http://social.technet.microsoft.com/wiki/contents/articles/exchange-server-and-update-rollups-builds-numbers.aspx

After confirming the version numbers, you know that you’ll need to update the tools on my client machine and install RU2 or other related Roll-up to resolve the issue. At the time of this posting the current Rollup is 8.

Incoming Mail Flow Stops

By Joe Piggee Sr.

Event Source: MSExchangeTransport

Event Category: Resource Manager

Event ID: 15007

Description: The Microsoft Exchange Transport service is rejecting message submissions because the service continues to consume more memory than the configured threshold. This may require that this service be restarted to continue normal operation.

Event Source: MSExchangeTransport

Event Category: Resource Manager

Event ID: 15004

Description:

Resource pressure increased from Previous Utilization Level to Current Utilization Level.

• Quick fix is to just restart your Transport service.
• Long term fix is to either disable Transport from monitoring or what I'd recommend is to give the Exchange server the necessary resources, and adjust the settings accordingly.

To Disable the Transport from Monitoring :
Modify the edgetransport.exe.config file using notepad. This can be found in c:\program files\microsoft\exchange server\v14\bin. Change the “EnableResourceMonitoring” from “True” to “False”, save and close the file, then restart the Microsoft Exchange Transport Service.

Forefront VirusBuster Retired

By Joe Piggee Sr.

10/09/2012

 

Microsoft announced that is retiring one of the engines that are used in Forefront Protection. Forefront Security for Exchange 2010 is generating event log entries:

 

EventID 2109  

Source : GetEngineFiles

Details:  

TheVBuster scan engine is no longer supported. Updates are no longer available for this engine, and therefore the update check for this engine has been disabled. Please review the scan engines chosen for your scan jobs and make another selection to ensure up-to-date protection.

 

You can disable this engine by following the instructions on Microsoft's Site @  http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2758276

1. Open Forefront Console
2. Click Policy Management
3. Global Settings
4. Select Advanced Options
5. Scroll down to Engine Management
6. Change management to Manual
7. Select VirusBuster AntiVirus Scan Engine, change the Transport to Disabled
8. Click Save

Determine Domain Functional Level

 

By Joseph Piggee

Here are some simple steps to determine the Functional Level of your Windows Domain/Forest:

1. Open up the Active Directory Domains and Trusts MMC found in your Administrative Tools folder. (Also found in the Control Panel or in the Start Menu).
2. To check the domain functional level, right click on the current domain and select Properties, this will show you the current Domain and Forest Functional Level.

ESX-to-ESXi Migration Tool The ESX System Analyzer

 

If you plan your migration from ESX to ESXi, learn about the ESX System Analyzer, a tool from VMware that helps you gather information about your ESX environment. 

What wil the tool do for you?:

• Evaluates the hardware that ESX is installed on and determines if it is compatible with ESXi.
• Spots dependencies or modifications made to the Service Console.
• Analyzes VM datastore locations.

It analyzes your Virtual Machine, and gives you:

• VMware Tools version
• Virtual machine Virtual Hardware version.

You can download it from VMWare here.

Error: 530 5.7.1 Client Was Not Authenticated

By Joseph Piggee Sr.

 

The is a common error Admins get, especially after a new install. After Server 2003, Microsoft has decided it will now secure everything by default. Thus the email server requires authentication.

The easiest way to handle this is to open your EMC (Exchange Management Console) and follow these steps.

1. Click Server Configuration.
2. Hub Transport.
3. Select the Default Receive Connector in the bottom pane.
4. Click the Permission Groups Tab
5. Place a checkmark next to ‘Anonymous users’
6. Click OK. You’re all set

Unable to Mount Database

By Joseph Piggee Sr.
Symptom:
MapiExceptionCallFailed: Unable to mount database
First check the status of your database and if necessary do a soft recovery using eseutil:
1. Open your EMS
2. Type eseutil /mh "C:\Program Files\Microsoft\Exchange Server\V14\Mailbox\Mailbox Database\[b]Mailbox Database.edb[/b]" (Change the edb to the name of your database)
3. Look for State: Dirty Shutdown
If you do have State: Dirty Shutdown
1. You will need to repair the database by typing the following command:
eseutil /p "C:\Program Files\Microsoft\Exchange Server\V14\Mailbox\Mailbox Database\Mailbox Database.edb" (Change Mailbox Database.edb to the name of your database)
2. Re-run the database check:
Type eseutil /mh "C:\Program Files\Microsoft\Exchange Server\V14\Mailbox\Mailbox Database\Mailbox Database.edb"
3. Check for State: Clean Shutdown
4. If clean, try to mount your database, and you should be good.

Another way to fix:

Check and Repair the database
1. Check the database:
eseutil /mh "C:\Program Files\Microsoft\Exchange Server\V14\Mailbox\Mailbox Database\Mailbox Database.edb"
Look for the following in the output: State: Dirty Shutdown
1.a Since the database has not been properly shut down, it needs to be repaired.
Make sure you make a backup of the database before attemting any kind of repairs
To repair, run the following:
eseutil /p "C:\Program Files\Microsoft\Exchange Server\V14\Mailbox\Mailbox Database\Mailbox Database.edb"
1.b Re-run the database check from 1.a and if all goes well, you should see this somewhere in the output: State: Clean Shutdown

You can try mounting the database. If it mounts, you are good to go, if it doesn't you have to check the logs:
Check and Repair the database logs
2. Check the exchange logs (don't forget to specify E00 - the starting sequence for the logs)
eseutil /ml "C:\Program Files\Microsoft\Exchange Server\V14\Mailbox\Mailbox Database\E00"
2.a There will be a list of logs and depending on their state, you may get an error. (They should all say OK, if the logs are clean) Errors vary, but most likely it is a file corruption and needs a chkdsk to run.
As a sidenote, if the database state is Clean Shutdown you can safely remove the logs.