TechnoGist

Issue: “Service ‘MSExchangeTransport’ failed to reach  status ‘Running’ on this server.”

I am building my virtual lab using VMWare Fusion at home, It consists of a Windows 2008 R2 server with AD Domain Services installed and Exchange 2010.

Please Note:

I am running AD (Global Catalog) and Exchange 2010 on the same server and this is not a recommended configuration by Microsoft.

Possible Issues

After the installation of Windows 2008 R2 and AD Domain Services, I have installed all prerequisites for Exchange 2010 and performed the Exchange 2010 install using the install wizard. I chose to install Exchange Management Tools, Hub, CAS and Mailbox to have a nice contained environment.

However during the install of the ‘Hub Transport Role’ I got this failure;

The execution of: “$error.Clear(); if ($RoleStartTransportService) { start-SetupService -ServiceName MSExchangeTransport }”, generated the following error: “Service ‘MSExchangeTransport’ failed to reach  status ‘Running’ on this server.”

And this error appeared in the Application Event log.

Source: MSExchange ADAccess
Event ID: 2114
Task Category: Topology
Level: Error
Description:
Process MSEXCHANGEADTOPOLOGYSERVICE.EXE (PID=1784). Topology discovery failed, error 0x80040a02 (DSC_E_NO_SUITABLE_CDC). Look up the Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) error code specified in the event description. To do this, use Microsoft Knowledge Base article 218185, “Microsoft LDAP Error Codes.” Use the information in that article to learn more about the cause and resolution to this error. Use the Ping or PathPing command-line tools to test network connectivity to local domain controllers.

After finding several mentions of security changes and group membership alterations including domain policy issues I found this article from ‘Rui Silver’ in his blog. He experienced the very same issue while installing Exchange 2007 on Windows 2008 and it was a result of Exchange requiring IPv6. I had disabled it on the interface properties while building my Windows 2008 R2 server believing I would not need it.

After I re-enabled IPv6 on the interface and left it to obtain an IPv6 address automatically by default, rebooted the system and like magic the exchange services could start and I could complete the installation of all Exchange 2010 roles.

You can disable IPv6 permanently before installing Exchange and there are several articles out there. (I have not tested either of these.)

1. Windows Server Forums
2. Exchange Server Share

Resources:

1. Windows 2008 R2 Server
2. Active Directory Domain Services
3. Exchange 2010 Prerequisites

Please note that this is a basic overview of my server and it is not intended as a recommendation or standard to be used by anyone else.

Hope this helps

All information is provided on an AS-IS basis, with no warranties and confers no rights.