Environment before 2007SP3 install: Exchange 2000 server with last service pack running in Native Mode. (1) 2003 x64 SP2 Domain Contorller (FSMO master) (3) 2000 SP4 Domain Controllers Domain running in 2000 Server Native mode I ran Setup.com /PrepareLegacyExchangePermissions and then Setup.com /PrepareSchema and completed both with no errors. I then ran the install for Exchange 2007sp3 on an HP DL380G7. I know about the ipv6 disable and the checksum registry change of ffffffff. Those have been done already. I turned off AVG 9 real time scan. The problem is that the Exchange install never finishes the mailbox role install because the information store will not start. The repeated error messages in the APP Log are: 4001 MSExchange System Attendant Mailbox - A Transient error has occurred. Retry in 56 seconds. 1020 MSExchange Store Driver The store driver couldn't deliver the public folder replication message "Hierarchy ( BC-MAIL-IS@comapny.com)" because the following error occurred: MapiExceptionNetworkError: Unable to make connection to the server. (hr=0x80040115, ec=-2147221227) Diagnostic context: Not sure what the the BC-MAIL-IS @wciu.com is referring to. The 2000 Exchange server IS named bc-mail@comapny.com, but I have never seen an object called bc-mail-is@company.com. One more piece is that since the install was conducted and the errors started popping up, we moved ahead with the rest of the domain upgrade, so now we have (4) domain controllers all running Server 2003 x64 SP2. I have searched EVERYWHERE for the cause of this problem but I cannot seem to find an answer. Any help would be much appreciated. Thanks in advance.

BC-MAIL-IS @wciu.com is the email address of a public store. The pf replication messages are failing. What happens when you try to start the IS on that server? What errors are generated in the event logs?

Thanks for responding! Well, the 2000 Exchange server is running. Always has been, and the emails are flowing to it as normal. There is only one active information store on the 2000 server. Keep in mind that the 2007sp3 install was a brand new install. The errors in my original post are all coming from the 2007 SP3 location. Essentially, at the end of the mailbox role install, it can't seem to start the info store. At that point, why would the failure to start have anything to do with the Exchange 2000 server? Shouldn't the install complete regardless of whether I have an existing Exchange server or not?

Ok, so does the Info Store service exist? If you start it manually, what happens? What errors?

Yes. on the new server, the service exists. The two errors in the original post 4001, 1020 and now a 5000 error message occasionally shows on the Exchange 2007 SP3 server. The information store HAS never started properly. I have manually stopped the System Attendant service, restarted it and then tried to start the Information Store service but the same error message. This is very perplexing as this is a new install of 2007. We are racking our brains out over here. I don't want to call Microsoft, but it's getting to that point.

So when you start the IS manually, please post the exact errors that fire. The ones you posted earlier shouldnt be the only ones if the IS doestn start. Also, you stated before: I ran Setup.com /PrepareLegacyExchangePermissions and then Setup.com /PrepareSchema and completed both with no errors. How about the other switches? /PrepareAD and /PrepareDomain? Did you the account you installed Exchange with have permissions to run those? How many AD domains in the forest?

Thanks again for your assistance. The error codes I listed are the ones that are in the APP log, repeatedly. I've attached them verbatim to the end of this post. Remember, the install never technically finished because it can't start the Information Store. I'm sorry, I did also run Setup.com /PrepareAD. Did not run /preparedomain as it is taken care of with the /PrepareAD command, per http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb125224%28EXCHG.80%29.aspx : Run setup /PrepareDomain or setup /pd to prepare the local domain. Note that you do not need to run this in the domain where you ran Step 3. Running setup /PrepareAD prepares the local domain. I ran all commands as the domain admin account and installed Exchange while logged in as the domain admin. 1 Forest, 1 Domain, a pretty simple layout. Error 4001: A transient failure has occurred. The problem may resolve itself in awhile. The service will retry in 56 seconds. Diagnostic information: Cannot open mailbox /o=Weigel Broadcasting Co/ou=Exchange Administrative Group (FYDIBOHF23SPDLT)/cn=Configuration/cn=Servers/cn=WEIGELMAILA/cn=Microsoft System Attendant. Microsoft.Exchange.Data.Storage.ConnectionFailedTransientException: Cannot open mailbox /o=Weigel Broadcasting Co/ou=Exchange Administrative Group (FYDIBOHF23SPDLT)/cn=Configuration/cn=Servers/cn=WEIGELMAILA/cn=Microsoft System Attendant. ---> Microsoft.Mapi.MapiExceptionNetworkError: MapiExceptionNetworkError: Unable to make connection to the server. (hr=0x80040115, ec=-2147221227) Diagnostic context: ...... Lid: 12696 dwParam: 0x6D9 Msg: EEInfo: Generation Time: 2010-09-30 19:23:52:420 Lid: 10648 dwParam: 0x6D9 Msg: EEInfo: Generating component: 2 Lid: 14744 dwParam: 0x6D9 Msg: EEInfo: Status: 1753 Lid: 9624 dwParam: 0x6D9 Msg: EEInfo: Detection location: 501 Lid: 13720 dwParam: 0x6D9 Msg: EEInfo: Flags: 0 Lid: 11672 dwParam: 0x6D9 Msg: EEInfo: NumberOfParameters: 4 Lid: 8856 dwParam: 0x6D9 Msg: EEInfo: prm[0]: Unicode string: ncacn_ip_tcp Lid: 8856 dwParam: 0x6D9 Msg: EEInfo: prm[1]: Unicode string: weigelmaila.wciu.com Lid: 12952 dwParam: 0x6D9 Msg: EEInfo: prm[2]: Long val: -1527653632 Lid: 12952 dwParam: 0x6D9 Msg: EEInfo: prm[3]: Long val: 382312662 Lid: 19778 Lid: 27970 StoreEc: 0x80040115 Lid: 17730 Lid: 25922 StoreEc: 0x80040115 at Microsoft.Mapi.MapiExceptionHelper.ThrowIfError(String message, Int32 hresult, Int32 ec, DiagnosticContext diagCtx) at Microsoft.Mapi.ExRpcConnection.Create(ConnectionCache connectionCache, ExRpcConnectionCreateFlag createFlags, ConnectFlag connectFlags, String serverDn, String userDn, String user, String domain, String password, String httpProxyServerName, Int32 ulConMod, Int32 lcidString, Int32 lcidSort, Int32 cpid, Int32 cReconnectIntervalInMins, Int32 cbRpcBufferSize, Int32 cbAuxBufferSize) at Microsoft.Mapi.ConnectionCache.OpenMapiStore(String mailboxDn, Guid mailboxGuid, Guid mdbGuid, ClientIdentityInfo clientIdentity, String userDnAs, OpenStoreFlag openStoreFlags, CultureInfo cultureInfo, String applicationId) at Microsoft.Mapi.ConnectionCache.OpenMailbox(String mailboxDn, Guid mailboxGuid, Guid mdbGuid, WindowsIdentity windowsIdentityAs, String userDnAs, OpenStoreFlag openStoreFlags, CultureInfo cultureInfo, String applicationId) at Microsoft.Exchange.Data.Storage.ConnectionCachePool.OpenMailbox(String serverDn, String userDn, String mailboxDn, Guid mailboxGuid, Guid mdbGuid, Object identity, ConnectFlag connectFlag, OpenStoreFlag openStoreFlag, CultureInfo cultureInfo, String clientInfoString, Boolean secondTry) --- End of inner exception stack trace --- at Microsoft.Exchange.Data.Storage.ConnectionCachePool.OpenMailbox(String serverDn, String userDn, String mailboxDn, Guid mailboxGuid, Guid mdbGuid, Object identity, ConnectFlag connectFlag, OpenStoreFlag openStoreFlag, CultureInfo cultureInfo, String clientInfoString, Boolean secondTry) at Microsoft.Exchange.Data.Storage.ConnectionCachePool.OpenMailbox(String serverDn, String userDn, String mailboxDn, Guid mailboxGuid, Guid mdbGuid, Object identity, ConnectFlag connectFlag, OpenStoreFlag openStoreFlag, CultureInfo cultureInfo, String clientInfoString, Boolean secondTry) at Microsoft.Exchange.Data.Storage.ConnectionCachePool.OpenMailbox(String serverDn, String userDn, String mailboxDn, Guid mailboxGuid, Guid mdbGuid, Object identity, ConnectFlag connectFlag, OpenStoreFlag openStoreFlag, CultureInfo cultureInfo, String clientInfoString) at Microsoft.Exchange.Data.Storage.MailboxSession.Initialize(LogonType logonType, ExchangePrincipal owner, DelegateLogonUser delegateUser, Object identity, OpenMailboxSessionFlags flags) at Microsoft.Exchange.Data.Storage.MailboxSession.CreateMailboxSession(LogonType logonType, ExchangePrincipal owner, DelegateLogonUser delegateUser, Object identity, OpenMailboxSessionFlags flags, CultureInfo cultureInfo, String clientInfoString) at Microsoft.Exchange.Data.Storage.MailboxSession.OpenAsAdmin(ExchangePrincipal mailboxOwner, CultureInfo cultureInfo, String clientInfoString, Boolean useLocalRpc, Boolean ignoreHomeMdb) at Microsoft.Exchange.Data.Storage.MailboxSession.OpenAsAdmin(ExchangePrincipal mailboxOwner, CultureInfo cultureInfo, String clientInfoString) at Microsoft.Exchange.Servicelets.SystemAttendantMailbox.Servicelet.Work() Error 1020 : The store driver couldn't deliver the public folder replication message "Status (WEIGELBC-MAIL-IS@wciu.com)" because the following error occurred: MapiExceptionNetworkError: Unable to make connection to the server. (hr=0x80040115, ec=-2147221227) Diagnostic context: Lid: 12696 dwParam: 0x6D9 Msg: EEInfo: Generation Time: 2010-09-30 19:05:53:616 Lid: 10648 dwParam: 0x6D9 Msg: EEInfo: Generating component: 2 Lid: 14744 dwParam: 0x6D9 Msg: EEInfo: Status: 1753 Lid: 9624 dwParam: 0x6D9 Msg: EEInfo: Detection location: 501 Lid: 13720 dwParam: 0x6D9 Msg: EEInfo: Flags: 0 Lid: 11672 dwParam: 0x6D9 Msg: EEInfo: NumberOfParameters: 4 Lid: 8856 dwParam: 0x6D9 Msg: EEInfo: prm[0]: Unicode string: ncacn_ip_tcp Lid: 8856 dwParam: 0x6D9 Msg: EEInfo: prm[1]: Unicode string: weigelmaila.wciu.com Lid: 12952 dwParam: 0x6D9 Msg: EEInfo: prm[2]: Long val: -1527653632 Lid: 12952 dwParam: 0x6D9 Msg: EEInfo: prm[3]: Long val: 382312662 Lid: 19778 Lid: 27970 StoreEc: 0x80040115 Lid: 17730 Lid: 25922 StoreEc: 0x80040115. Far less frequently, only 1 every 30 minutes Error 8213: The Microsoft Exchange System Attendant service failed to create session for virtual machine WEIGELMAILA. The error number is 0x80040115.

Hi, Based on my research, the error message is familiar with another thread. I suggest you refer to the following article to verify WINS on the Exchange server to check the result. http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/exchangesvradmin/thread/4599137b-df42-4e44-bb93-9e7bd97b14d4 Hope this helps. Novak Wu-MSFT

Thanks for the response. WINS was set and functioning prior to the install, during the install and is still functioning now. I also have done a lot of searching on this issue. Solutions tried but failed: Disable IPV6 Change checksum in registry to ffffffff. Check WINS. Check Regional Settings. Verify connectivity to the domain. Verify that all five roles are held by a Domain Controller on the domain. (One server has all five roles.) Checked DNS. Removed the server from the domain and re-added it (MULTIPLE TIMES) Stopped and started System Attendant service and Information store service manually. Turned of Antivirus realtime scan. Verify domain in at leasat 2000 native mode function level. I've been searching for and trying solutions since last Saturday. To no avail.

ANything of value flagged when running ExBpa against the server?

I bit the bullet and opened a ticket with Microsoft and they actually found the solution. It is something that I would have never found. During the install, apparently there was supposed to be a registry setting under: HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\MSExchangeIS\ParametersSystem Name = Working Directory (REG_SZ) with a value = to the path of the Exchange MDBTEMP folder. For me that's c:\program files\microsoft\exchange server\mailbox\mdbtemp WHAT THE HECK!?!?!?! As soon as he had me add that single line and start the information store, it came right up with no errors. How that did not get put into place by the install is a mystery. He didn't know either. I know this stuff fairly well, but I would have never, ever been able to fix this one one my own. Well, if anyone else runs into this issue, there is the potential solution. Thanks to all who replied.