Re: Have I destroyed the Exchange 2003 active directory and can it be repaired

After you've replaced the disk you might consider creating a new mailbox
store and moving all the mailboxes to it. That is, if you have Enterprise
Edition.
--
Ed Crowley
MVP - Exchange
"Protecting the world from PSTs and brick backups!"

"Karl Rhodes" <googlegroups@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:1161960309.888080.195080@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
FINALLY worked this out at abot 8pm.
Managed to get to event viewer in safe mode (something I hadnt been
able to do during normal login) and noticed ALOT of disk errors in the
system event log.
tried to schedule a chkdsk in safe mode, blew up the partition.
Now the server wouldnt boot at all, not even to a command prompt!

Took the disk out and put it in another server, ran chkdsk on it there,
fixed a few blocks/sectors. I then put the disk back in the exchange
server and it booted... and ran the chkdsk Id scheduled earlier?

Fixed a few more disk errors, then booted. Working a treat AT THE
MOMENT.

Have a new disk coming on Monday.


Karl Rhodes wrote:
The server finally decided to boot, but has been running like a dog.
Had a look at the usual suspects (network settings etc) and all seems
to be ok? I'm even more confused than I was earlier. Managed to get
Exchange Server Manager up and running and the recipient policies are
set to the correct server, and active directory doesn't seem to be
broken as I can see all the users etc, but the server is definately
poorly.

Not sure what else to try now...


Karl Rhodes wrote:
Correction, server stalls with "Applying security policy" not "Applying
computer settings" as stated.
How long should I expect to wait for these policies to be applied?
I guess it'd be easier to ask "How long is a piece of string?"



Karl Rhodes wrote:
Hi all.

Now, no sniggering at the back ok?

Over the course of the last few days, we have replaced our very old
domain controllers (W2k) and replaced them with a nice new shiney
W2k3
server. All seems to have gone very well, until this morning.

When I got into the office today, the whole network seemed to be
down,
no one could log on or access any of the network shares. Luckily I
knew
what the cause was and rectified this straight away (Tried to setup
vpn
server and dhcp on the domain controller last night, as well as
giving
the PDC a second gateway.) I uninstalled the VPN and DHCP roles from
the PDC and set the gateway back to our main gateway - the one all
the
other servers use!

Voila! The network was back up, except for the Exchange server?

I've had a look at the network settings for the Exchange server by
starting in safe mode with networking and all seems to be well
(Correct
IP and gateway etc) but when I looked at the Exchange System Manager,
I
cant see the Active directory because Im in safe mode and have a
feeling this may be what is broken. The reason I say this is this...

Once the newPDC was up and I have demoted our old domain controllers
I
had a look at Exchange to make sure everything was ok. It wasn't. In
the recipient policies the domain controller was still set to our OLD
pdc. I changed these entires and left it at that.

What is the best way to find out whats going on? If I boot the
Exchange
box normally, it just sits there forever with the 'Applying computer
settings' dialog box and it doesn't even get to the network login
dialog, but if I go in in safe mode, I can't see the directoy (there
isn't even an option for it in the Adminstrative tools menu)

ANY assistance with this would be most appreciated.

Karl



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