Mailbox not created -- System Attendant restart "fixes" it

[zephyran]

Periodically we have a problem where new mail-enabled accounts are created in our domain (Win2K AD Native), but neither their mailboxes nor their GAL entries are created in Exchange (2003 Native), even after waiting over an hour. Over the life of this system we've rarely had this problem (most mailbox creations have worked fine), but this issue had occurred increasingly in the recent months.

"Fixing" it involves restarting the Exchange System Attendant service on the affected server (cutting off the MTA Stacks and Information Store for about a minute), and after the restart, the errant mailboxes are created immediately.

There are no associated errors in the server's Event Log regarding the problem. The only error that appears seems to be related to the fact that we must disable the accounts and GAL entries for users who have resigned, but cannot delete them right away:

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Event Type: Warning
Event Source: MSExchangeIS
Event Category: General
Event ID: 9548
Date: 11/22/2005
Time: 2:45:50 PM
User: N/A
Computer: ExchangeServer1
Description:
Disabled user /o=EXCH_WOR/ou=OWL/cn=Exchange Site 1/cn=disableduser does not have a master account SID. Please use Active Directory MMC to set an active account as this user's master account.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

However, this practice has been followed since long before the RUS problems started appearing.

I can see that quite a few people here have experienced this problem (and "fixed" it with either a service restart or a reboot), but does anyone know what the underlying cause could be and what can be done to prevent it?

 

[markdmac]

I've seen this and the fix was to reapply the latest service pack. Not seen this problem since implementing SP2.

I hope you find this post helpful.

Regards,

Mark

 

[zephyran]

Thank you, I will try that!