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We have a Windows Active Directory domain with two domain controllers (primary holding all FSMO roles, and an additional), and an Exchange server. Both primary and secondary are Windows Server 2008 (functional level is 2008), upgraded from WinServ 2003, and the Exchange is 2010, upgraded from Exchange 2003, on a Win Serv 2008 machine, too. Our primary DNS server is in the Exchange server. Up until yesterday, all things were fine.

Today's morning, We arrived work to find client machines' outlook disconnected, unable to connect to the Exchange server. I checked the Exchange Managment Console on the server and got an error:

Initialization Error.
The following error occurred when searching for On-Premises Exchange Server:
Exception calling "GetComputerSite" with "0" arguments: "The computer is not in a site." It was running the command 'Discover-ExchangeServer -UseWIA $true -SuppressError $true'.

The EMC is in the local server of the Exchange, However, I tried to check connectivity and pinged the server:

C:\Users\username>ping exchange-server

Pinging exchange-server.mydomain.com [fe80::8daa:5c0d:ee2d:32e6%11] with 32 bytes of data:
Reply from fe80::8daa:5c0d:ee2d:32e6%11:> time<1ms
Reply from fe80::8daa:5c0d:ee2d:32e6%11: time<1ms
Reply from fe80::8daa:5c0d:ee2d:32e6%11: time<1ms
Reply from fe80::8daa:5c0d:ee2d:32e6%11: time<1ms

Ping statistics for fe80::8daa:5c0d:ee2d:32e6%11:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss), Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 0ms, Maximum = 0ms, Average = 0ms

Well, we don't use IPv6! I then disabled IPv6 from the Local Area Connection. Pinging again yields:

C:\Users\username>ping exchange-server

Pinging exchange-server.mydomain.com [::1] with 32 bytes of data:
Reply from ::1: time<1ms
Reply from ::1: time<1ms
Reply from ::1: time<1ms
Reply from ::1: time<1ms

Ping statistics for ::1:
    Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
    Minimum = 0ms, Maximum = 0ms, Average = 0ms

However, pinging the domain controller is normal. I edited the hosts file C:\Windows\system32\drivers\etc\hosts and added the IP address of the server, then pinging was right. I double checked the DNS records in the DNS server (which happened to be the same server as the exchange).

I then attempted to check the services. All services seem to work fine, so I attempted to restart the services. The Microsoft Exchange Transport failed then was stuck in the starting, forbidding me to stop/start it again. The same goes to Microsoft Exchange Active Directory Topology, failing because Error 1053: The service did not respond to the start or control request in a timely fashioned....

I then checked the domain controller Event log and found a reboot initiated overnight:

The process C:\Windows\system32\svchost.exe (mydomain-DC) has initiated the restart of computer mydomain-DC on behalf of user NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM for the following reason: Operating System: Recovery (Planned)
 Reason Code: 0x80020002
 Shutdown Type: restart
 Comment: 

And I'm pretty sure we haven't planned for any recovery! (EDIT: it was caused by a security update, as the event viewer log indicated). This was the only weird thing happened overnight. Active directory services are started and were successfully restarted.

However, I've rebooted both machines, and everything returned as it was before the reboot, except the majority of Exchange services are not started (and failing to start).

I have a feeling I am digging in the wrong direction (the direction of a problem in the AD). What can be causing the problem?

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    Do the event logs indicate anything about the services?
    – Nathan C
    Oct 10, 2013 at 14:07
  • "Well, we don't use IPv6! I then disabled IPv6 from the Local Area Connection" - If you must disable it, disable it properly - support.microsoft.com/kb/929852 - otherwise it's still on at the OS level and running, just not configured properly. Oct 10, 2013 at 14:12
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    Re-enable ipv6 now. Even if you don't use it, unchecking it from the adapter will cause issues. Having it checked will not do anything if you aren't using using it.
    – DanBig
    Oct 10, 2013 at 14:19
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    Make certain everything is (clients, DCs, exchange) are pointing to the same DNS service.
    – uSlackr
    Oct 10, 2013 at 14:53
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    Here's the first rule when troubleshooting a problem with a production server that hosts a business critical application: DON'T EXPERIMENT!. Here's the second rule: DON'T MAKE RANDOM CHANGES! - At any rate, I'm glad you got it fixed.
    – joeqwerty
    Oct 10, 2013 at 15:14

1 Answer 1

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I found what was wrong.. Reading carefully through the domain controller Events (as indicated by Nathan C) there was an indication after the reboot that the IP address of the domain controller was in a subnet not belonging to the site in the Active Directory Sites and Services. It was a misconfiguration during setting a new site a week ago, and it had no obvious effect until the DC was rebooted (because of a security update!)...

EDIT: The specific Event (for the reference) that pointed the problem was Event ID 5802, saying:

None of the IP addresses (192.168.1.1) of this Domain Controller map to the configured site 'Default-First-Site'. While this may be a temporary situation due to IP address changes, it is generally recommended that the IP address of the Domain Controller (accessible to machines in its domain) maps to the Site which it services. If the above list of IP addresses is stable, consider moving this server to a site (or create one if it does not already exist) such that the above IP address maps to the selected site. This may require the creation of a new subnet object (whose range includes the above IP address) which maps to the selected site object.

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