Microsoft Exchange could not register the service principal name

 

Topic Last Modified: 2007-11-16

The Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 Management Pack for Operations Manager monitors the Windows Application log on computers that are running Exchange Server 2007 and generates this alert when the event or events specified in the following Details table are logged.

To learn more about this alert, if you are using Microsoft Operations Manager 2005, do one or more of the following:

  • From the Operator Console, select this alert, and then click the Properties tab. Review the description of the alert that includes the variables specific to your environment.

  • From the Operator Console, click the Events tab, and then double-click the event in the list for which you want to review the event description. Review the events that have been logged that meet the criteria of this Operations Manager alert.

To learn more about this alert, if you are using System Center Operations Manager 2007, 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 events that have been logged that meet the criteria of this Operations Manager alert.

Details

Product Name

Exchange

Product Version

8.0 (Exchange Server 2007)

Event ID

12011

Event Source

MSExchangeTransport

Alert Type

Critical Error

MOM Rule Path

Microsoft Exchange Server/Exchange 2007/Common Components/Hub Transport and Edge Transport/Transport

MOM Rule Name

Microsoft Exchange could not register the service principal name.

Explanation

This Error event indicates the Microsoft Exchange Transport service couldn't register the specified service principal name (SPN).

SPNs are used to support mutual authentication between a client application and a service. The SPN is the same for any method of authentication. When it uses Kerberos to authenticate itself to a server, the client requests a session ticket for the service principal name. When the client uses certificate-based authentication, the SPN is validated against the contents of the "SubjectName" field of the certificate of the server.

This Error event may be caused by an error in the operating system during the DsServerRegisterSpn function.

User Action

To resolve this error, do the following:

  1. Determine the description of the Win32 error code that is provided in the event description. To look up system error codes, see System Error Codes at the MSDN Web site for more information.

  2. Use the explanation of the Win32 error code as a guideline to resolve the Win32 error.

If this error frequently occurs, contact Microsoft Customer Support. For information about how to contact support, visit the Microsoft Help and Support Web site.

For More Information

To search the Microsoft Knowledge Base articles based on criteria that generated this alert, visit the Search the Support Knowledge Base (KB) Web site.

To review Exchange 2007 event message articles that may not be represented by Exchange 2007 alerts, see the Events and Errors Message Center.

If you are not already doing so, consider running the tools that Microsoft Exchange offers to help administrators analyze and troubleshoot their Exchange environment. These tools can help you make sure that your configuration is in line with Microsoft best practices. They can also help you identify and resolve performance issues, improve mail flow, and better manage disaster recovery scenarios. Go to the Toolbox node of the Exchange Management Console to run these tools now. For more information about these tools, see Toolbox in the Exchange Server 2007 Help.