DC Reboot Causes Outlook Timeouts

Guys,

I have three DCs, all are set as GCs as well (single domain).

The first DC is also a DHCP server. If I reboot this DC, Outlook clients
complain Exchange is offline, until the DC comes back up again.

Is this because it is a DHCP server as well?

What server is DNS on?


hth
DDS

"Phil Angus" <phila@hammerplc.com> wrote in message
news:O0TkVUpfKHA.2160@TK2MSFTNGP02.phx.gbl...
> Guys,
>
> I have three DCs, all are set as GCs as well (single domain).
>
> The first DC is also a DHCP server. If I reboot this DC, Outlook clients
> complain Exchange is offline, until the DC comes back up again.
>
> Is this because it is a DHCP server as well?
>

"Phil Angus" <phila@hammerplc.com> wrote in message
news:O0TkVUpfKHA.2160@TK2MSFTNGP02.phx.gbl...
> Guys,
>
> I have three DCs, all are set as GCs as well (single domain).
>
> The first DC is also a DHCP server. If I reboot this DC, Outlook clients
> complain Exchange is offline, until the DC comes back up again.
>
> Is this because it is a DHCP server as well?
>


No, it's because of the DSProxy (for the GC) that is cached on the Outlook
clients, as well as the DNS client side resolver service. This was an
ongoing issue with a 5000 user company I worked at as an Exchange engineer.
We had 20 Exchange servers we were in charge of, however, we didn't have a
say on the DCs, because the place has a highly delegated administration
model. We only had administrative capabilities on the Exxhange boxes. It was
difficult to get some things done in AD for Exchange at times. The AD team
decided to run Windows Updates at 9 AM on all the DCs once a month. Well,
without getting into specifics, the tickets came flying in. Help desk pushed
them to our tier (3rd tier). At first me and my partner looked at each other
trying to figure out what the heck was going on where most of the folks had
Outlook problems, and their mailbozes were in stores on various servers.
After inquiring, we found out about the DC restarts. The quick answer was to
ask the user to close and re-open Outlook, and if that didn't work (due to
cached GC DNS records), to restart the machine. We put together a meeting
immediately to discuss why this was not feasible and why Outlook had
problems. We asked for them to do it after hours. It also affected all the
BES servers, which had to be manually restarted after all the DCs were
restarted.


--
Ace

This posting is provided "AS-IS" with no warranties or guarantees and
confers no rights.

Please reply back to the newsgroup or forum for collaboration benefit among
responding engineers, and to help others benefit from your resolution.

Ace Fekay, MCT, MCITP EA, MCTS Windows 2008 & Exchange 2007, MCSE & MCSA
2003/2000, MCSA Messaging 2003
Microsoft Certified Trainer

For urgent issues, please contact Microsoft PSS directly. Please check
http://support.microsoft.com for regional support phone numbers.

DNS is installed on all three DCs. I have only very recently introduced the
third DC, and used to get the issue with just two.


"Danny Sanders" <dsanders@NOSPAMbrakesplus.com> wrote in message
news:OpSwnkpfKHA.6096@TK2MSFTNGP02.phx.gbl...
> What server is DNS on?
>
>
> hth
> DDS
>
> "Phil Angus" <phila@hammerplc.com> wrote in message
> news:O0TkVUpfKHA.2160@TK2MSFTNGP02.phx.gbl...
>> Guys,
>>
>> I have three DCs, all are set as GCs as well (single domain).
>>
>> The first DC is also a DHCP server. If I reboot this DC, Outlook clients
>> complain Exchange is offline, until the DC comes back up again.
>>
>> Is this because it is a DHCP server as well?
>>
>
>

Hello Phil,

This belongs to the ESM, which is by default configured to use one GC in
the Recipient update service. You can add all GCs in here. In ESM go to Recipients,
Recipient update service, in the right pane you see the entries for Enterprise,
which can exist only once, but the one with the NEtBios domain you can create
for all GCs.

Best regards

Meinolf Weber
Disclaimer: This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers
no rights.
** Please do NOT email, only reply to Newsgroups
** HELP us help YOU!!! http://www.blakjak.demon.co.uk/mul_crss.htm


> DNS is installed on all three DCs. I have only very recently
> introduced the third DC, and used to get the issue with just two.
>
> "Danny Sanders" <dsanders@NOSPAMbrakesplus.com> wrote in message
> news:OpSwnkpfKHA.6096@TK2MSFTNGP02.phx.gbl...
>
>> What server is DNS on?
>>
>> hth
>> DDS
>> "Phil Angus" <phila@hammerplc.com> wrote in message
>> news:O0TkVUpfKHA.2160@TK2MSFTNGP02.phx.gbl...
>>
>>> Guys,
>>>
>>> I have three DCs, all are set as GCs as well (single domain).
>>>
>>> The first DC is also a DHCP server. If I reboot this DC, Outlook
>>> clients complain Exchange is offline, until the DC comes back up
>>> again.
>>>
>>> Is this because it is a DHCP server as well?
>>>

FYI, RUS is no longer a part of Exchange 2007

--
Paul Bergson
MVP - Directory Services
MCTS, MCT, MCSE, MCSA, Security+, BS CSci
2008, 2003, 2000 (Early Achiever), NT4
Microsoft's Thrive IT Pro of the Month - June 2009

http://www.pbbergs.com

Please no e-mails, any questions should be posted in the NewsGroup This
posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

"Meinolf Weber [MVP-DS]" <meiweb@(nospam)gmx.de> wrote in message
news:6cb2911db2258cc4d29b7666bf7@msnews.microsoft.com...
> Hello Phil,
>
> This belongs to the ESM, which is by default configured to use one GC in
> the Recipient update service. You can add all GCs in here. In ESM go to
> Recipients, Recipient update service, in the right pane you see the
> entries for Enterprise, which can exist only once, but the one with the
> NEtBios domain you can create for all GCs.
>
> Best regards
>
> Meinolf Weber
> Disclaimer: This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and
> confers no rights.
> ** Please do NOT email, only reply to Newsgroups
> ** HELP us help YOU!!! http://www.blakjak.demon.co.uk/mul_crss.htm
>
>> DNS is installed on all three DCs. I have only very recently
>> introduced the third DC, and used to get the issue with just two.
>>
>> "Danny Sanders" <dsanders@NOSPAMbrakesplus.com> wrote in message
>> news:OpSwnkpfKHA.6096@TK2MSFTNGP02.phx.gbl...
>>
>>> What server is DNS on?
>>>
>>> hth
>>> DDS
>>> "Phil Angus" <phila@hammerplc.com> wrote in message
>>> news:O0TkVUpfKHA.2160@TK2MSFTNGP02.phx.gbl...
>>>
>>>> Guys,
>>>>
>>>> I have three DCs, all are set as GCs as well (single domain).
>>>>
>>>> The first DC is also a DHCP server. If I reboot this DC, Outlook
>>>> clients complain Exchange is offline, until the DC comes back up
>>>> again.
>>>>
>>>> Is this because it is a DHCP server as well?
>>>>
>
>