From: Huey on
Hi there,

One of our exchange servers suffered a problem this morning and will not
start. We're not sure what the problem is - it just hangs on the login
screen. we suspect an underlying hardware fault but haven't had time to
look at just yet. To complicate things our exchange guy is on vacation.

The users are screaming and we need to get them back up and running ASAP.

We're in the process of copying the edb and stm files off the failed
server and plan to build up a new server to replace it.

We were thinking of building up a server with exactly the same name. We
can then copy the edb's onto this new server and hopefully they will
mount straight up.....

I was wondering if this sounds like the best course of action?

The server was win2003/ exchange 2003.

I'd appreciate any advice!

Thanks,

Huw
From: Mark Arnold [MVP] on
Boot it into safe mode and work through the problem. Don't just come
up with some kneejerk reaction. If there was a genuine need for the
email your business would have funded the proper DR plan that you will
amost certainly have asked for.
From: Leonid S. Knyshov // SBS Expert on
On 3/9/2010 8:53 AM, Huey wrote:
> Hi there,
>
> One of our exchange servers suffered a problem this morning and will not
> start. We're not sure what the problem is - it just hangs on the login
> screen. we suspect an underlying hardware fault but haven't had time to
> look at just yet. To complicate things our exchange guy is on vacation.
>
> The users are screaming and we need to get them back up and running ASAP.
>
> We're in the process of copying the edb and stm files off the failed
> server and plan to build up a new server to replace it.
>
> We were thinking of building up a server with exactly the same name. We
> can then copy the edb's onto this new server and hopefully they will
> mount straight up.....
>
> I was wondering if this sounds like the best course of action?
>
> The server was win2003/ exchange 2003.
>
> I'd appreciate any advice!
>
> Thanks,
>
> Huw

Just because the server is hanging at login screen, doesn't mean it's
dead... I had a situation where a server took over 50 minutes to come
back to life after a reboot. Another reboot after that brought it back
to normal.

Does it respond to ping?

Try this:

Start -> Run -> Compmgmt.msc
Right-click "Computer management"
Choose "Connect to another computer"
Enter your "dead" server's name.

You will now have access to event viewer and services.

It's easier to fix the old server as you may experience data loss due to
uncommitted logs from your current Exchange server.

You may want to open a ticket with Microsoft. It's cheaper than working
with a consultant.

I recommend doing an offline disk image of this server with something
like Acronis Trueimage before doing anything else. The trial would be
sufficient.
--
Leonid S. Knyshov
Crashproof Solutions
510-282-1008
Twitter: @wiseleo
http://crashproofsolutions.com
Microsoft Small Business Specialist
Please vote "helpful" if I helped you :)
From: Huey on
Leonid S. Knyshov // SBS Expert wrote:
> On 3/9/2010 8:53 AM, Huey wrote:
>> Hi there,
>>
>> One of our exchange servers suffered a problem this morning and will not
>> start. We're not sure what the problem is - it just hangs on the login
>> screen. we suspect an underlying hardware fault but haven't had time to
>> look at just yet. To complicate things our exchange guy is on vacation.
>>
>> The users are screaming and we need to get them back up and running ASAP.
>>
>> We're in the process of copying the edb and stm files off the failed
>> server and plan to build up a new server to replace it.
>>
>> We were thinking of building up a server with exactly the same name. We
>> can then copy the edb's onto this new server and hopefully they will
>> mount straight up.....
>>
>> I was wondering if this sounds like the best course of action?
>>
>> The server was win2003/ exchange 2003.
>>
>> I'd appreciate any advice!
>>
>> Thanks,
>>
>> Huw
>
> Just because the server is hanging at login screen, doesn't mean it's
> dead... I had a situation where a server took over 50 minutes to come
> back to life after a reboot. Another reboot after that brought it back
> to normal.
>
> Does it respond to ping?
>
> Try this:
>
> Start -> Run -> Compmgmt.msc
> Right-click "Computer management"
> Choose "Connect to another computer"
> Enter your "dead" server's name.
>
> You will now have access to event viewer and services.
>
> It's easier to fix the old server as you may experience data loss due to
> uncommitted logs from your current Exchange server.
>
> You may want to open a ticket with Microsoft. It's cheaper than working
> with a consultant.
>
> I recommend doing an offline disk image of this server with something
> like Acronis Trueimage before doing anything else. The trial would be
> sufficient.

Thanks for your help with this. We took an image and managed to recover
the server by reinstalling windows.

-H