Start Free Trial

asked on

Exchange 2003 no longer able to send or recieve messages from outside our domain.

I broke Exchange somehow, and I'm pretty sure I KNOW how. I just do not know how to fix it. Any help greatly appreciated.

Here is the VERBOSE version. If you want to save some time, SKIP TO NUMBER 8.

1) Installed AD on two servers. DC1, and DC2.
2) Ran pre-install preparation for Exchange... including upgrading to Server 2003 R2 on both servers, ForestProp, DomainPrep, etc...
3) Created all appropriate DNS entries inclduing @, Cname, and MX Records. Exchange server is priority 0.
4) Routed all appropriate ports through our corporate firewall, created PTR (ReverseDNS) Records to the Exchange Server.
5) Installaed Exchange with default settings. EVERYTHING WAS WORKING FINE TO THIS POINT. Outlook web access is up, internal / external SMTP relaying was working fine, public folders, the whole 9 yards.
7) I noticed that the Default POP3 Virtual Server would not start. Here is where I screwed up.
8) I went through the configure your server wizard on the DC running exchange, and set it up as a mail server, which enabled windows POP3/SMTP services. I figured that Exchange needed that POP3 service in order for the POP3 virtual server to run. It didn't work.
9) I went BACK through the wizard and removed the "Mail Server" role. This was apparently a huge mistake. Exchange immediately stopped sending and recieveing messages from external domains. When attempting to send to our domain (vs-us.com) we immediately get the following bounce message:

Subject: Delivery Status Notification (Failure)
From: postmaster@DC2.vs-us.local To: eric@pixelninjas.com

This is an automatically generated Delivery Status Notification.
Delivery to the following recipients failed.
ericb@vs-us.com

10) Additionally, messages that I attempt to send out through exchange to external domains never arrive. I have not recieved bounces on this issue as of yet.

Again, any help is greatly appreciated.

have you tried a repair reinstall?

Yes, that whole thing you did configuring a server role was wrong. You just turned your Windows server into a POP3 server. Now Exchange won't work at all.
Format the box and start again would be my suggestion given your current status.
Close that stupid box about configuring roles and then install the right SPs, hotfixes and pre-reqs for Exchange, then Exchange itself.

ASKER

No, I have not. This problem is about two hours old, I am have made a concious decision not to screw with it further until I know that I know what I am doing. Currently trying to do my own research to see what might be causing the problem.

How would I go about doing a repair install? I have an image of the Exchange DVD on the server now.

Thanks

SOLUTION

membership

This solution is only available to members.

To access this solution, you must be a member of Experts Exchange.

Start Free Trial

ASKER

czcdct.

I appreciate the advice, but formatting the box is not an option until all others have been exhausted. I HAVE learned my lesson about tinkering in areas outside my expertise, believe me.

ASKER

OK, Per itsireland...

1) Killed the "Mail Server" role from the "Configure your server" demon dialog and closed it forever.
2) Re-installed the SMTP service through the Add/Remove windows componants wizard.

Application Server --> IIS --> SMTP Service.

Now the error message has changed... Instead of the original, no when sending from external domain, I get the following message:

Hi. This is the qmail-send program at smtpout11-02.prod.mesa1.secureserver.net.
I'm afraid I wasn't able to deliver your message to the following addresses.
This is a permanent error; I've given up. Sorry it didn't work out.

<ericb@vs-us.com>:
216.60.35.249 does not like recipient.
Remote host said: 550 5.7.1 Unable to relay for ericb@vs-us.com
Giving up on 216.60.35.249.

--- Below this line is a copy of the message.

Return-Path: <eric@pixelninjas.com>
Received: (qmail 26539 invoked from network); 27 Mar 2007 18:58:06 -0000
Received: from unknown (HELO gem-wbe18.prod.mesa1.secureserver.net) (64.202.189.222)
by smtpout11-02.prod.mesa1.secureserver.net with SMTP; 27 Mar 2007 18:58:06 -0000
Received: (qmail 7510 invoked by uid 99); 27 Mar 2007 18:58:06 -0000
Date: Tue, 27 Mar 2007 11:58:05 -0700
From: eric@pixelninjas.com
Subject: Exchange Down Test
To: ericb@vs-us.com
Message-ID: <20070327115805.a62ceff2912f8d92719a22800653c245.69638725dc.wbe@email.secureserver.net>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: TEXT/html; CHARSET=US-ASCII
User-Agent: Web-Based Email 4.9.22
X-Originating-IP: 216.60.35.194

Test

ASKER

Also, currently restarting the server in case some services needed to be re-started... anyone who likes can try an email to ericb@vs-us.com to see if they are still bouncing.

Server back up by 2:15 PM CST.

Thanks,

Eric.

ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION

membership

This solution is only available to members.

To access this solution, you must be a member of Experts Exchange.

Start Free Trial

Looks like I cross-posted with you. Go into the Exchange System Manager and expand down to the Server level. Under your server name, you should see Protocols listed. Expand the SMTP Protocol folder and make sure there is a SMTP virtual server listed there. If not, you need to recreate the SMTP virtual server for Exchange. It sounds to me as though your server is trying to send directly from the SMTP gateway instead of going through Exchange. Or, you could just uninstall and reinstall Exchange as I suggested.

ASKER

hypercat

Great idea. I will install exchange on DC1, migrate mailboxes, and re-install on DC2. I'll keep you updated, and additional ideas are appreciated.

Thanks,

Eric.

ASKER

hypercat,

Virtual Server was there and "appeared" to be configured correctly. Even found a few posts on how to blow it away and recreate it correctly, to no avail.

Mailboxes are moving to the new server just fine, so no problemo there. I am waiting for that to complete before un-installing and re-installing exchange.

Any idea on how to run redundant exchange servers, so that service is not interrupted when one is down?

Thanks!!!

Eric Burcham

Well, the only way to have complete redundancy would be to create a cluster. That's fairly complex and IIRC it requires 3 Exchange servers. It's relatively easy to run 2 Exchange servers side-by-side. You could split your mailboxes between them, or just have all of the mailboxes on one and the other is simply a "spare." If you use public folders, you might want to have them replicating to both servers. If desired, you can configure them in a frontend/backend manner so that all of the mailboxes are on one server and the other server acts as a gateway to send and receive email externally. Even if you normally have all of your mailboxes on one server, you can do a restore of the mailboxes to your other server in an emergency situation. This is how I normally do it - my clients typically have only 3 or 4 servers total at their sites so clustering is way overkill.

Here's a whitepaper/guide to the frontend/backend configuration:

http://tinyurl.com/2syulz

ASKER

OK, I've tried to un-install exchange.

1) Moved all mailboxes (one, with a disabled user, threw an error)

2) Deleted (and purged) the final mailbox

3) Moved the recipient update server

4) When trying to delete, I get a message saying "One or more users is using a mailbox store on this server..." There are three items in System Manager under Server\DC2\First Storage Group\MailBox Store\Mailboxes. These items are:
1) SMTP 2) System Attendant 3) SystemMailbox

All three of these items are present on the new server, and I cannot delete any of them.

Any ideas?

Thanks,

Eric.

You shouldn't do anything to those mailboxes - they are system mailboxes that are required on each sever and can't be removed. Just uninstall Exchange from the original server; it won't affect the system mailboxes on the new server.

PS - Any public folders? Be sure they're replicated first. If you are trying to delete the server from ESM before uninstalling Exchange, you have to uninstall Exchange first, then delete the server from the ESM. If you get an error trying to uninstall Exchange, try dismounting the mailbox store first. Also, check this article for other items to verify, if this was the first Exchange server in the site:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/822931/en-us

ASKER

Hypercat,

I get those errors when trying to un-install. I finally found where to run the Cleanup agent in the mailbox store. Perhaps it needs a few moments to realize that the mailbox is gone. I'll give it 10 minutes.

Thanks,

Eric.

ASKER

OK, new progress.

I attempted a "Repair" install since Exchange still doesn't want to un-install. The mailboxes are still on the "backup" server.

Tried to send a test message, and got the following response.

Hi. This is the qmail-send program at smtpout13-02.prod.mesa1.secureserver.net.
I'm afraid I wasn't able to deliver your message to the following addresses.
This is a permanent error; I've given up. Sorry it didn't work out.

<ericb@vs-us.com>:
216.60.35.249 does not like recipient.
Remote host said: 550 5.7.1 Unable to relay for ericb@vs-us.com
Giving up on 216.60.35.249.

--- Below this line is a copy of the message.

Return-Path: <eric@pixelninjas.com>
Received: (qmail 26892 invoked from network); 27 Mar 2007 21:04:57 -0000
Received: from unknown (HELO gem-wbe27.prod.mesa1.secureserver.net) (64.202.189.161)
by smtpout13-02.prod.mesa1.secureserver.net with SMTP; 27 Mar 2007 21:04:57 -0000
Received: (qmail 29747 invoked by uid 99); 27 Mar 2007 21:04:57 -0000
Date: Tue, 27 Mar 2007 14:04:57 -0700
From: eric@pixelninjas.com
Subject: Test
To: ericb@vs-us.com
Message-ID: <20070327140457.a62ceff2912f8d92719a22800653c245.980b7608ce.wbe@email.secureserver.net>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: TEXT/html; CHARSET=US-ASCII
User-Agent: Web-Based Email 4.9.22
X-Originating-IP: 216.60.35.194

I STILL cannot un-install exchange (Getting the "Users have mailboxes here..." message). I'm moving one mailbox back as a test, but I don't think that will work. Any ideas on how to get this thing to let me un-install? Where can I look to see what stores my users are using?

Thanks,

Eric.

ASKER

Yep. That didn't work. I really need some help getting exchange off this box, guys. Any advice appreciated.

Thanks,

Eric Burcham

Are you trying to send from the new server or the original one? Is the new server sending email OK? If you don't have message tracking turned on, turn it on first. Also, make sure that SMTP logging is turned on, so you can look at that log if necessary. Then, try sending again; go to message tracking and see what the result is. If you see the message being transferred out through SMTP, then it's working at least partially. Also, you could try telnetting to this server on port 25 and see if it responds normally.

Try following the steps in this article, which includes uninstalling IIS, reinstalling IIS and then reinstalling Exchange (without ever uninstalling Exchange):

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/320202/en-us

Eric, I'm going to be offline for a few hours, so I hope that article will help you. I'll check back later on when I'm available again, so keep posting. Maybe someone else will jump in in the meantime.

Deb

ASKER

hypercat,

Thanks for all the help, some good final things to try....

Here is the new status.

I went through AD Users and Groups manually and checked each and every of my 50+ users. Some of them, who had not recieved mail yet, were still using the storage group on the old server. Briliiant... they don't show up in the store in Exchange System Manager without any messages, so when I need to move them all, they don't move.

Exchange is finally un-installing from the server, and I'm going to clean it out completely... directory, registry entries, IIS, the whole nine yards and re-do the installation from scratch, now that my mailboxes are safe.

I'll keep posting...

SOLUTION

membership

This solution is only available to members.

To access this solution, you must be a member of Experts Exchange.

Start Free Trial

ASKER

Sembee,

I have a fully functioning server, with all mailboxes from the old server ported over. I could always just switch DNS over and be back in business, but that server is my primary Domain Controller, DNS Server, and File Server, and I don't want to load it up too much. It is a little older, and we use email A LOT. The newer server has 3.6 TB of storage space, and plenty of RAM overhead for running exchange.

Now, the current situation is this. The new (damaged) server has un-installed exchange (after much mess) and re-installed IIS, including the services mentioned above with the exception of POP3. Exchange installer is running, so i will let you know how that goes.

Now, since I apparently need POP3, how should I go about providing that functionality to exchange? I prefer to use OWA with a secure certificate, and allow exchange outlook clients to connect over RPC, but if I want to turn POP3 on without breaking anything further, what do I do?

Thanks!

ASKER

Do all exchange services begin with "Exchange?"

Thanks,

Eric.

ASKER

Upon re-installation, I keep getting this error saying that C:\Windows\System32\MAPI32.dll is not the correct version. Is this because I had previously installed Exchange Service Packs 1 and 2?

Have you serviced packed the machine?
If not then you need to do that - it is very important that you put at least service pack 1 and preferably service pack 2 on to the machine. The reinstall will have replaced some files that were in the service pack.

Simon.

ASKER

Yes. I have reapplied both service packs, in order.

Test Mailbox is transferring now. We'll see how it goes.

I also notice that when I browse to the old exchange address (http://dc2/exchange) for OWA, it now redirects to the "new" exchange server. How do I fix this?

Thanks again. I think I'm getting close here...

Exchange will redirect to the server with the mailbox on.
Therefore if your mailbox is on the other server then when you access OWA it will redirect you back to the correct server.

Simon.

ASKER

Great. Everything is working as it should now. Thank you all so much for your help.

Hey, climberboy. Just checking in...Glad that you were able to get it working. Cheers!