• Article

An unexpected System Attendant error occurred

 

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 event, do one or more of the following:

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

  • Review all events that have been logged that meet the criteria of this Operations Manager alert. 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.

Details

Product Name

Exchange

Product Version

8.0 (Exchange Server 2007)

Event ID

1005

Event Source

MSExchangeSA

Alert Type

Warning

MOM Rule Path

Microsoft Exchange Server/Exchange 2007/Mailbox/System Attendant

MOM Rule Name

An unexpected System Attendant error occurred. Review the event description for the error that was logged.

Explanation

This Error event indicates that there are problems starting Microsoft® Exchange System Attendant service. You may see this event with different error codes and different error strings. The accompanying events in the application logs may help determine the root cause of this error. Generally, this event is logged if one or more of the following conditions are true:

  • There are problems communicating with a domain controller or there is no working domain controller available.

  • The Exchange server that logged this event is not correctly registered on the DNS server.

  • Exchange System Attendant service is configured to start under an account other than Local System account.

  • The Exchange server that logged this event is not a member of Exchange Servers security group.

User Action

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

  • Use the Ping or PathPing command-line tools to test basic connectivity with the domain controller. Use Ping to isolate network hardware problems and incompatible configurations. Use PathPing to detect packet loss over multiple-hop trips. For more information, see Microsoft Knowledge Base article 325487, How to troubleshoot network connectivity problems at Microsoft Help and Support center.

  • Run the Dcdiag command line tool to test domain controller health. To do this, run dcdiag /s:<Domain Controller Name> at a command prompt on the Exchange Server. Use the output of Dcdiag to discover the root cause of any failures or warnings that it reports. For more information, see Dcdiag Overview at the Microsoft Windows Server TechCenter.

  • Make sure that the server the logged this event is correctly registered on the DNS server. For more information about how to troubleshoot DNS issues, see Troubleshooting DNS servers at the Microsoft Windows Server TechCenter.

  • Make sure that Microsoft Exchange System Attendant starts under Local System account. To do this, follow the steps given here:

    • In the Services snap-in, right-click Microsoft Exchange System Attendant, and then click Properties.

    • On the Log On tab, under Log on as option, make sure that Local System account is selected.

  • Make sure that Exchange server that logged this event is a member of the Exchange Servers security group.

  • Review other related events in the Application log and System log for Warning events and Error events. These related events may provide more information about the root cause of this error.

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 MOM 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.