HI, This is a tough one. Over the past 2 days access to exchange has stopped twice about 17 hours apart. The server is still working for file and print, there are no events of note. All the services are up. The only indication that there is a problem is that the users cannot use exchange. A reboot fixes the problem, but I need to find and solve the problem. Any help appreciated. Regards John Harvey

Can you post more details on this issue like the error while accessing and also any events in the event viewer. Also try to run ExBPA and check if you find any issues in the report. Mahendra

Hi, Thanks for your response. There are no event log errors. The error the user receives is that the Exchange Server is currently unavailable. A reboot fixes the problem. The only critical issues listed in ExBPA are: Global incoming message sixe not set Global outgoing message size not set Regards John

Can you please confirm the below : 1. Just to be sure please confirm that all the database stores are mounted . 2. Have you tried to open any mailbox from the IIS on the Exchange server? if yes what is the result? 3. Are you facing the issue with both OWA and Outlook. Mahendra

HI, It just happened again (5 hours after the second occurrence). The stores are mounted. OWA and outlook don't work. I had to reboot the Exchange server to get the users up, so I didn't get a chance to open a mailbox from IIS. Regards John

try telnet when you face the issue then do traceroute. Don't restart the server .restart the IIS service. -bpara

As OWA is not working can you check the IIS logs on the server and see whether you get any errors related to the mailbox access there. Also during the issue did u try to telnet the server on the required ports like 80,443, 135 etc. was the communication successful ? Mahendra

HI, I am waiting for it fail again. Which of the logs should I be looking at any hints on what I am looking for. Regards John

HI, It failed again. I was unable to telnet to 25 but 80 was ok. I tried restarting IIS Admin (that restarts WWW Publishing Service, Simple Mail Transfer Protocol, Microsoft Exchange Routing Engine, Microsoft Exchange POP3, HTTP SSL as well). The problem still occurred. I had to reboot the server. Still no errors in event logs. Regards John

Enable diagnotic logging on the server for the information store service and check whether any events are logged when the issue occurs. Mahendra

Hi, 1. Make sure that the exchange 2003 is up to date. 2. When the problem happens again, please try to restart information store service. If the problem is resolved, we can determinate that it it caused by the information store service. 3. Disable exchange online maintenance schedule for mailbox store. Then test to see if the issue persists.

Hi, I ended up stripping the exchange sercver and rebuilding. The problem no longer exists. Thanks for all the advice. Regards John