Exchange 2010 SP1 Recover Server Installation Problems

A customer of mine attempted to upgrade their Exchange 2010 SP1 server to Exchange 2010 SP2 however the installation failed and the customer was unable to install the Exchange 2010 SP2 language packs.  The customer then attempted to restore the server from backup however found their Exchange 2010 server was not currently being backed up by Veeam. "Doh".

This server was setup with two partitions:

• Volume 1 (SYSTEM) consists of Operating System, Page File and Exchange System Files.
• Volume 2 (Logs  + Database) which contain the Exchange 2010 database and log files

The database and log files were fine, only the system drive needed to be restored.  The customer proceeded to perform a recovery installation of Exchange server using the procedure documented on TechNet under the following article:

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd876880(v=exchg.141).aspx

When following the instructions on the TechNet article, the customer by mistake accidently deleted the Exchange 2010 server computer object from Active Directory instead of resetting the computer account in Active Directory as documented.  The customer had been working all night however trying to recover the server and was fatigued and exhausted - I also make mistakes when working on a problem for that long, not good!

When performing the server Exchange 2010 Recover Server installation by running setup /m:RecoverServer the following error was experienced when the Hub Transport installation got to 98%.

The Exchange 2010 SetupLogs contained the following:

[03/14/2014 03:04:49.0244] [2] Ending processing configure-WSManIISHosting
[03/14/2014 03:04:49.0244] [1] Processing component 'Active Directory Topology Service Configuration' (Configuring Microsoft Exchange Active Directory Topology service).
[03/14/2014 03:04:49.0244] [1] Executing:
          if ($exsSid -eq $null -or $exsSid -eq "")
          {
          $exsSid = get-ExchangeServerGroupSID -DomainController $RoleDomainController
          }
          start-setupservice -ServiceName MSExchangeADTopology -ServiceParameters $exsSid,$RoleDomainController
       
[03/14/2014 03:04:49.0244] [2] Active Directory session settings for 'get-ExchangeServerGroupSid' are: View Entire Forest: 'True', Configuration Domain Controller: 'AB-DC-01.domain.local', Preferred Global Catalog: 'AB-DC-01.domain.local', Preferred Domain Controllers: '{ AB-DC-01.domain.local }'
[03/14/2014 03:04:49.0244] [2] Beginning processing get-ExchangeServerGroupSID -DomainController:'AB-DC-01.domain.local'
[03/14/2014 03:04:49.0260] [2] Used domain controller AB-DC-01.domain.local to read object DC=domain,DC=local.
[03/14/2014 03:04:49.0260] [2] Used domain controller AB-DC-01.domain.local to read object CN=Exchange Servers,OU=Microsoft Exchange Security Groups,DC=domain,DC=local.
[03/14/2014 03:04:49.0260] [2] Used domain controller AB-DC-01.domain.local to read object CN=Exchange Servers,OU=Microsoft Exchange Security Groups,DC=domain,DC=local.
[03/14/2014 03:04:49.0260] [2] Ending processing get-ExchangeServerGroupSID
[03/14/2014 03:04:49.0260] [2] Active Directory session settings for 'start-SetupService' are: View Entire Forest: 'True', Configuration Domain Controller: 'AB-DC-01.domain.local', Preferred Global Catalog: 'AB-DC-01.domain.local', Preferred Domain Controllers: '{ AB-DC-01.domain.local }'
[03/14/2014 03:04:49.0260] [2] Beginning processing start-setupservice -ServiceName:'MSExchangeADTopology' -ServiceParameters:'S-1-5-21-304512598-190217263-239210854-13503','AB-DC-01.domain.local'
[03/14/2014 03:04:49.0275] [2] Service checkpoint has progressed. Previous checkpoint='0' - Current checkpoint='1'.
[03/14/2014 03:04:49.0275] [2] Will wait '30000' milliseconds for the service 'MSExchangeADTopology' to reach status 'Running'.
[03/14/2014 03:05:19.0291] [2] Service 'MSExchangeADTopology' failed to reach status 'Running' on this server after waiting for '30000' milliseconds.
[03/14/2014 03:05:19.0291] [2] Service checkpoint has progressed. Previous checkpoint='1' - Current checkpoint='2'.
[03/14/2014 03:05:19.0291] [2] Will wait '1250000' milliseconds for the service 'MSExchangeADTopology' to reach status 'Running'.

From the error the MSExchangeADTopology was failing to start in a timely fashion.  I have had numerous problems with Exchange 2010 having difficulty communicating with Active Directory or randomly loosing communication to Active Directory in the past at various customers despite the windows server being able to authenticate against a domain controller.  I have wrote about these problems a previous blog post:

http://clintboessen.blogspot.com.au/2012/09/exchange-2010-randomly-loosing-access.html

As a result, the following changes were put in place to ensure Exchange does not experience difficulties with AD communication:

netsh int tcp set global chimney=disabled
netsh int tcp set global rss=disabled

 

In addition to this, numerous issues can be caused by IPv6 on an Exchange 2010 server.  Again I have documented some of these which I have experienced in the past on my blog if you search for IPv6 Exchange you will find them.  As a result IPv6 was disabled on the network interface card in Control Panel and by putting the following registry key in place.

 

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Tcpip6\Parameters\

 

Create a new DWORD 32bit value called DisabledComponents.

 

This is following the procedure documented here: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/929852

Note: It is important to note, never disable IPv6 on a network interface without putting the DisabledComponents registry key in place or it can cause problems, not just for Exchange!

 

After these changes the setup was re-run, but failed again due to the water marks of the previous Exchange Setup still existing in the registry.  This is completely normal in the event an Exchange server installation ever fails.  To remove the water marks, simply navigate to the following registry key:

 

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\ExchangeServer\v14\HubTransportRole and delete the both the Action and Watermark registry keys.

 

 

Note: If another server role fails to install, replace v14\HubTransportRole with the role that failed.  In my case it was Hub Transport!

 

Re-ran the setup again, failed yet again!  After further investigation this was found to be related to the fact my customer had deleted the computer account object prior to doing the RecoverServer installation.  As a result the Exchange Server was no longer a member of the correct groups in Active Directory.

 

I re-added the Exchange Server computer object which was being restored to the "Exchange Servers" group and the "Exchange Install Domain Servers" group.  After re-adding the server to these security groups, I was able to successfully complete the Exchange 2010 SP1 Recover Server installation. 

 

Please note, in relation to the customer deleting the computer object prior to performing the Recovery Installation, I also experienced the following problem after successfully completing the recover server installation:

 

http://clintboessen.blogspot.com.au/2014/03/active-directory-operation-failed-on.html