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The Microsoft Exchange Mailbox Assistants service (MSExchangeMailboxAssistants) failed to be started

 

Applies to: Operations Manager Management Pack for Exchange 2010

Topic Last Modified: 2011-09-28

The Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 Management Pack for System Center Operations Manager monitors the Windows Application log on computers running Exchange 2010 and generates this alert when the events specified in the following Details table are logged.

To learn more about this alert, in Operations Manager, do one or more of the following:

  • From the Operations Console, double-click this alert, and then click the General tab. Review the description of the alert that includes the variables specific to your environment.

  • From the Operations Console, double-click this alert, and then click the Alert Context tab. Review the logged events that meet the criteria of this Operations Manager alert.

Details

Product Name

Exchange

Product Version

14.0 (Exchange 2010)

Event ID

^(5000|5002|5203)$

Event Source

MSExchange Monitoring MsExchangeMailboxAssistants Troubleshooter

Category

KHI

Alert Type

Error

Rule Path

Microsoft Exchange Server/Exchange 2010/Mailbox/Assistants

Rule Name

The Microsoft Exchange Mailbox Assistants service (MSExchangeMailboxAssistants) failed to be started.

Explanation

This Error event indicates that Microsoft Exchange Mailbox Assistants service did not start. This event may be caused if one or more of the following conditions are true:

  • The Exchange Active Directory Topology service is not in the Started state.

  • The Mailbox Assistants service is running under an account other than Local System Account.

User Action

To resolve this problem, do one or more of the following:

  • Make sure that Exchange Active Directory Topology service is in the Started state.

  • Make sure that the Mailbox Assistants service runs under Local System Account. To do this, follow these steps:

    1. Right-click Microsoft Exchange Mailbox Assistants service in the Services console, and then click Properties.

    2. Click the Log On tab.

    3. Make sure that Local System Account under Log on as is selected.

  • Make sure that there is at least one mailbox database on the server that is running Microsoft Exchange Server server that logged this event.

  • Increase the diagnostic logging level on the Service category of the MSExchangeMA service. To do this, follow these steps.

    Warning

    Incorrectly editing the registry can cause serious problems that may require you to reinstall your operating system. Problems resulting from editing the registry incorrectly may not be able to be resolved. Before editing the registry, back up any valuable data.

    1. Start Registry Editor (regedit).

    2. Locate the following registry subkey: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\MSExchangeMA\Diagnostics

    3. In the results pane, change the Value data value of the Service entry to 5.

    4. Exit Registry Editor.

  • Review the Application log and System log on your Exchange 2010 servers for related events. For example, events that occur immediately before and after this event may provide more information about the root cause of this error.

For More Information

If you are not already doing so, consider running the Exchange tools, which have been created to help you analyze and troubleshoot your Exchange environment. These tools can help make sure that your configuration aligns with Microsoft best practices. They can also help you identify and resolve performance issues and improve mail flow. To run these tools, go to the Toolbox node of the Exchange Management Console. To learn more about these tools, see Managing Tools in the Toolbox.