Cannot mount information store in exchange 2007 part of SBS 2008

We had a call at the IT Support desk last week with another odd error. One of our clients had the following error on their SBS 2008 Server "Cannot mount information store in exchange 2007 part of SBS 2008".

After some research we found that the server had done some windows updates, some of the log files were missing and it had restarted.

This was found to be a Microsoft Exchange error,

Failed to mount database 'Mailbox Database '.

Mailbox Database Failed

Error:Exchange is unable to mount the database that you specified. Specified database: Domain\First Storage Group\Mailbox Database;

Error code: MapiExceptionCallFailed: Unable to mount database. (hr=0x80004005, ec=-528)

We ran database troubleshooter from Exchange console which said Log file missing. We verified that the last backup had failed and therefore there was no good backup. We then checked the State of the database and did a clean shutdown. We then moved the log files to a backup folder directory. Mounted database fine.

BT are upgrading to ADSL2+

We had a call on the IT Support desk last week from a client saying that their internet had randomly gone down. After some investigation we found out that BT had done the ADSL2+ upgrade to the exchange that they were attached to.

If your broadband connection is supplied by anyone other than Virgin then there is a very big possibility that you are going to be effected by this upgrade, as all other broadband suppliers use BT's infrasructure to supply the connection.

The problem is that a lot of routers do not support ADSL2+ and therefore you will require a new router. Please check the specification for your router to find out if you'll require a new router or just a settings change.

Windows7 not able to access remote 03 Sharepoint sites

We got a call at the IT Support Desk last week regarding an odd issue with Windows 7 not being able to access remote sharepoint sites. After testing on the Vista and XP machines in the office to make sure it wasnt a credential problem, we came to the conclusion that it must be something in particular with the Windows 7 machine.

After about 15 mins of adjusting settings we found out that it is due to issues with WebDAV requiring true SSL Connection.

The fix for this is the following:

Locate and then click the following registry key:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\WebClient\Parameters
On the Edit menu, point to New, and then click DWORD Value.
Type BasicAuthLevel, and then press ENTER.
On the Edit menu, click Modify.
In the Value data box, type 2, and then click OK.

Note The mapping is as follows:
0 - Basic authentication disabled
1 - Basic authentication enabled for SSL shares only
2 or greater - Basic authentication enabled for SSL shares and for non-SSL shares
Exit Registry Editor, and then restart the webclient service…

Issue with file sharing over VPN.

We had a call on the IT Support desk recently with regards to a VPN issue. TheVPN connects fine and you can ping devices from both sides. But you try to file share to other devices and it wont work

The issue is with the NIC on the client end letting SMB traffic Out, this was found using wireshark and monitoring the IP Packets that were leaving the NIC and entering the Firewall at the other end, and then monitoring traffic on both sides of the client NIC as the traffic getting from the NIC and tat the Firewall was the same.
After looking into why the NIC was not letting the SMB traffic through it was found to be the NETWORK CLIENT FOR MICROSOFT NETWORKS was not installed on the NIC. Once installed it instantly started to work.

Appiam: New and Improved

At Appiam IT Support we have released our new site this week, it includes an improved layout and video tour of our IT Support London office. As customer service is our top priority this new layout includes an easy to use navigation to move swiflty between sections.

Also this week at Appiam we have implemented a new IT Support ticketing system so that when registered customers send an email to support@appiam.com we receive an email as well as the problem being added to said system. This ensures jobs can be delt with more efficiently.

We have also made improvements to our development department, we have set up a similar ticketing system to request new work. This system as per the IT Support system, is done by email. A registered customer will email dev@appiam.com to request new work or additions to a project and the system will email the head of department, a quote will be put together and emailed to the customer, when accepted the work will be prioritised and delegated the appropriate developer.

Exchange 2010 Install Error

Last week the IT Support team was installing exchange 2010 on a clients machine and we received the following error:

The start mode for the net. tcp port sharing server must be set to automatic

This was obviously an odd error and to fix it we had to do the following:

In Windows Powerscript run the following command: Set-Service NetTcpPortSharing -StartupType Automatic

This fixed the issue.

Exchange Server Address List Failed

We had an odd error this week come in on the IT Support Desk which occured after a rebuild of Exchange 2007. Within our Virtual environment we were unable to alter addresses, manage email policies or create new users in EMC.

We received the following error:

The Exchange server address list failed to respond. This could be because of an address list or email address policy configuration error.

I restarted System Attendant Service and tried again but received the same error.

Went through the process of checking out ADSIedit to ensure purported search had no invalid characters entered.

I also tried to apply the Default Policy in Email Address Policies but received the same error. Mail flow was working correctly and users were able to connect via Outlook and OWA. Global Catalogue servers were online and the issue was not related to a similar issue that some admins experienced on 29th February when Microsoft did not take into account the leap year and the only way to fix was to alter the system time.

As in many of these cases, once we performed a restart (which due to operational constraints we couldn’t perform any sooner) the issue was resolved…if only someone had written a blog with this answer in so our Google searches wouldn’t have redirected us to the leap year answer every time ;-)