Re: Calendar Appointments Disappear

From: Lanwench [MVP - Exchange] (lanwench_at_heybuddy.donotsendme.unsolicitedmail.atyahoo.com)
Date: 02/03/05 

Date: Wed, 2 Feb 2005 19:58:27 -0500

Technosapien wrote:
> Forgive me while I rattle: Per your suggestion, we have changed our
> Symantec AntiVirus Corporate Edition v7.60 to exclude everything in
> http://support.microsoft.com/?id=328841. We are also running Veritas
> Backup Exec v8.60. (For the record, I am suspect of both of these
> software items- Symantec hangs when you try and view a scheduled job,
> even after reinstalling the software, and Backup Exec doesn't see
> some loaded media correctly.)

I'm not a huge fan of Symantec, but BE is nice - you know they're up to at
least 9.1 now, right? And perhaps you have bad media - or need to use the
Veritas drivers for your tape drive(s).

> Initial tests showed that making the
> "328841 changes" solved the problem. We ran a whole scan, and neither
> of our two guinea pigs' calendars were affected. However, the virus
> scan and backup jobs run for real over the weekend, and today we
> learned the terrible truth: Now, instead of everyone's calendars
> completely disappearing, only those running Outlook v2003 are getting
> completely blown out. Other versions (2000 and 2002) see only one or
> a few appointments disappear, and not everyone is affected. I haven't
> narrowed down if there is any method to this pathos, e.g. only
> recurring appointments or only shared appointments getting whacked.

Are the OL2003 users using cached mode? If you disable it, does the stuff
show up? How about in OWA?

Are you not running full backups every night? Should be. And they need the
Exchange agent for BE if they don't have it.

What kind of antivirus scan did you run? You have the Symantec Exchange
antivirus stuff, right?

> There are other problems with this setup (I'm new here), such as
> there being only one server, with that one server being the sole AD
> controller, and that same server also hosting the Exchange server.
> The Exchange logs are on the same physical HDD as the Exchange
> databases, too. I am wondering if we wouldn't be better off rolling
> Exchange off onto a new box all to itself, but I should at least
> learn how to repair .OST files before I make that recommendation.
> (I'll go seaerching as soon as I'm done writing this.) I'm very
> interested to hear what you think.

You can run all this stuff on a single box - I've done it many times. Is it
ideal? No, but in a small company, even a single server is a significant
expense - if you do put another box in there as a DC, leave the Exchange
server a DC as well. Demoting it may well cause major problems with
Exchange.

Re the hard drives - are you at least using hardware SCSI RAID? With at
least one hotspare? If not, I'd get new hardware. These are mandatory on
servers, in my book.
>
> In fact, any wise counsel and advice would be greatly appreciated. I
> am no Exchange guru, and although they knew that before they hired
> me, I'm now concerned that they might change their minds about me if
> I can't fix this pre-existing cluster...mess.

I filled in the rest of the words for you. :)
>
> Thanks again for your time and consideration.

Hope this helps.

> "Lanwench [MVP - Exchange]" wrote:
>
>> Technosapien wrote:
>>> My Dear Gurus,
>>> It appears to me that "sporadic" incidents of disappearing
>>> appointments may equal corrupt .ost files, while "consistent"
>>> incidents may equal an AV scanner scanning Drive M: or something
>>> else that it is not supposed to be scanning. Does that sound
>>> reasonable? I ask because our issue is that everyone loses their
>>> calendar info every Monday morning, and we are running an AV scan
>>> on Sunday night that appears to include Drive M:.
>>> Thanks in advance for your time and consideration. (This Week Is My
>>> 1st Exposure to Exchange 2000.)
>>
>> Yes; file-level antivirus scanning must exclude the m drive &
>> Exchange database/log/queue folders or you'll have beaucoup problems.
>>
>> http://support.microsoft.com/?id=328841 may help.
>>>
>>>
>>> "Lanwench [MVP - Exchange]" wrote:
>>>
>>>> Anthony Pelosi wrote:
>>>>> We are running Exchange Server 5.5 SP4. And our client is Symantec
>>>>> 8.1.1.323 and the scan engine is 4.2.0.7.
>>>>
>>>> OK - Symantec what? Which product?
>>>> http://support.microsoft.com/?id=328841
>>>> You need Exchange-aware AV and must exclude certain things from any
>>>> file-level antivirus scans.
>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> Any other info you need just let me know.
>>>>>
>>>>> Thanks for the help,
>>>>>
>>>>> Anthony
>>>>>
>>>>> "Cory D." <Cory D.@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
>>>>> news:9FC2953B-C910-4C55-9441-BD9269B396A3@microsoft.com...
>>>>>>
>>>>>> "Lanwench [MVP - Exchange]" wrote:
>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Anthony Pelosi wrote:
>>>>>>>> Any help would be greatly appreciated. We have several users
>>>>>>>> that are reporting missing appointments in their calendars. It
>>>>>>>> appears to be sporadic but users have said they check their
>>>>>>>> calendar in the morning and then later on they'll notice an
>>>>>>>> appointment missing. Has anyone seen this?
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> Regards,
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> Anthony
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> What file-level antivirus software are you using on the server?
>>>>>>> What version/SP level of Exchange?
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>> I'm actually having the same problem here. We're running
>>>>>> Exchange 2003 SP1 on a two node active / passive cluster without
>>>>>> a front end server. Antivirus programs installed on the server
>>>>>> are Symantec Antivirus Server 9.0.0.338 and Symantec Mail
>>>>>> Security 4.5.2.736. File and directory exclusions provided by
>>>>>> Microsoft and Symantec have both been applied.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> I'm not sure if this applies to Anthony's problem or not, but
>>>>>> we're only seeing this when the there's a resource involved. For
>>>>>> instance, if boss_A sets up an appointment with employee_B in
>>>>>> their office, then that appointment will not disappear. But, if
>>>>>> boss_A sets an appointment with employee_B and schedules
>>>>>> resource_C (a conference room that's been setup as a resource),
>>>>>> then that appointment has a chance of disappearing.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> The disappearing appointments seem to be few and far between with
>>>>>> no real pattern other than the use of something set up as a
>>>>>> resource.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Convincing the boss to move to Exchange
    ... You would be substituting Trend Micro for Symantec. ... Trend to server and, finally, install it to the workstations. ... Will Trend for Exchange work with Symantec Corporate AV? ...
    (microsoft.public.windows.server.sbs)
  • Re: Exchange errors 9564 and 9665
    ... I would also strongly recommend that you run ExBPA against your server as it ... Run Microsoft Exchange Server Best Practices Analyzer Today ... > Symantec Mail Security Version 4.6. ...
    (microsoft.public.exchange2000.information.store)
  • Re: Malware and Spyware against Exchange 2003 + SBS 2003
    ... If you ran a client scanner such as Norton AntiVirus ... Exchange Server does not execute attachments on its own. ...
    (microsoft.public.exchange.admin)
  • Re: Calendar Appointments Disappear
    ... >> even after reinstalling the software, and Backup Exec doesn't see ... Wanted to add that Symantec had to be held back from scanning ... Exchange in two places: ... New server came up on Thursday. ...
    (microsoft.public.exchange.admin)
  • Re: Best Antivirus Suite for SBS2003 is ?????
    ... Symantec's Mail Security for Exchange Server 'hooks' into Exchange Server ... MailSecurity product (confusing as Symantec have renamed their AntiVirus ...
    (microsoft.public.windows.server.sbs)