Error on mailbox creation

Question

Hi Again,

I'm configuring our new Adaxes platform 2013.1 and I have the following error during mailbox creation through admin console and web interface :

"Microsoft Exchange is not installed in forest '****', or the Exchange version is not supported."

We are in Exchange 2013. The adaxes server is Windows server 2012 based.
I use built in exchange task.

I can see all exchange attributes (stores, servers ...) through admin console.

Any idea ?

Thanks for your precious help

Regards

Comments

Hello,

Does Adaxes manage domains that belong to the Exchange organization or Adaxes manages domains from different Exchange organizations? If Adaxes manages domains from several Exchange organizations, how many Exchange organizations do you have? Are they all Exchange 2013?

Also, can you send us a copy of Adaxes Service Event Log? For information on how to get to the log, see the following help article: http://www.adaxes.com/help/?ServiceAdmi ... ntLog.html. Can you export log records to a file and send the file to support[at]adaxes.com so that we could investigate the issue?

---

Hi,

Thanks for your quick answer. I reboot the Adaxes server and then relaunch "Create mailbox task" again. It occurs the following error :

ADAXES, Try (eu.loi.net\EU90-Other Objects\Users): Failed
Error:
An Active Directory error 0x51 occurred when trying to check the suitability of server '*****DC12.eu.loi.net'. Error: 'Active directory response: The LDAP server is unavailable.'
Elapsed time: 00:00:45

Adaxes manages domains from different Exchange organization. 3 in 2010 and 1 in 2013.

Please fin below from Adaxes event log:

Log Name: Adaxes
Source: Adaxes Service
Date: 10/8/2013 12:03:32 AM
Event ID: 0
Task Category: None
Level: Error
Keywords: Classic
User: N/A
Computer: EUMSQILM21.eu.loi.net
Description:
Softerra.Adaxes.BackgroundThreadException: Exchange 2013 PowerShell API: Failed to execute the following operation: Create Exchange mailbox for 'ADAXES, Try (eu.loi.net\EU90-Other Objects\Users)' (Alias: tadaxes, Mailbox Store: EUMSQDAG21-MB07) ---> System.Management.Automation.RemoteException: An Active Directory error 0x51 occurred when trying to check the suitability of server '*******DC12.eu.loi.net'. Error: 'Active directory response: The LDAP server is unavailable.'
at #dd.#3e.#i.#4e.Execute(PSCommand psCommand, String[]& warnings)
at #dd.#3e.#i.#4e.Execute(#ed command)
at #dd.#if.Execute(#ed command)
at #dd.#7e.#i.#9e.Execute(#ed command)
at #dd.#Ye.#h4(#fd command, #Ze context)
at #dd.#Ye.#qU(#Uc operation)
at #Oc.#Nc.Execute()
--- End of inner exception stack trace ---
Event Xml:
<Event xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/win/2004/08/events/event">
<System>
<Provider Name="Adaxes Service" />
<EventID Qualifiers="0">0</EventID>
<Level>2</Level>
<Task>0</Task>
<Keywords>0x80000000000000</Keywords>
<TimeCreated SystemTime="2013-10-07T22:03:32.000000000Z" />
<EventRecordID>7059</EventRecordID>
<Channel>Adaxes</Channel>
<Computer>EUMSQILM21.eu.loi.net</Computer>
<Security />
</System>
<EventData>
<Data>Softerra.Adaxes.BackgroundThreadException: Exchange 2013 PowerShell API: Failed to execute the following operation: Create Exchange mailbox for 'ADAXES, Try (eu.loi.net\EU90-Other Objects\Users)' (Alias: tadaxes, Mailbox Store: EUMSQDAG21-MB07) ---> System.Management.Automation.RemoteException: An Active Directory error 0x51 occurred when trying to check the suitability of server '*****DC12.eu.loi.net'. Error: 'Active directory response: The LDAP server is unavailable.'
at #dd.#3e.#i.#4e.Execute(PSCommand psCommand, String[]& warnings)
at #dd.#3e.#i.#4e.Execute(#ed command)
at #dd.#if.Execute(#ed command)
at #dd.#7e.#i.#9e.Execute(#ed command)
at #dd.#Ye.#h4(#fd command, #Ze context)
at #dd.#Ye.#qU(#Uc operation)
at #Oc.#Nc.Execute()
--- End of inner exception stack trace ---</Data>
</EventData>
</Event>

Best regards

Answer 1

Hello,

When Adaxes performs operations in your AD, it selects a certain Domain Controller (DC) that will be used to perform the operations. When a certain Exchange task is performed (such as creating a mailbox, setting Exchange properties etc), in the parameters passed to the Exchange Server, Adaxes specifies the DC it selected for performing operations. In this case, the Exchange Server will use the specified DC to perform the necessary changes in AD. This is done to avoid replication issues and ensure that the data returned by the DC is up to date.

What happens is that, for some reason, the Exchange Server cannot connect to the specified DC. For example, there may be a firewall in-between them.

To troubleshoot the issue:

• The DC name that Adaxes passes to the Exchange Server is specified in the error message, it is *****DC12.eu.loi.net.

• To find out the name of the Exchange Server that Adaxes uses to perform Exchange tasks, you need to enable tracing of PowerShell commands in Adaxes Exchange API. To do this:

  1. Open the folder that your Adaxes service is installed to, which is C:\Program Files\Softerra\Adaxes 3\Service\ by default.
  2. Locate the file named Softerra.Adaxes.Service.exe.Config and open it with any text editor.
  3. Find the following line:
     <trace enabled="false"/>
  4. Change false to true.
  5. Save the file.
  6. Restart Adaxes service.
  7. Try creating a mailbox for the same user again.
  8. Change true back to false (this will stop growing of the trace file as it can grow to enormous sizes).
  9. Restart Adaxes service again for changes to take effect.

  When tracing is enabled, Adaxes outputs messages from all PowerShell commands passed to the Exchange Server to the trace file named exchange.powershell.trace.txt and located in the same directory as the Softerra.Adaxes.Service.exe.Config file. In the trace file, you will find the PowerShell command that Adaxes used when trying to create a mailbox, with all parameters, including the Exchange Server that it tried to connect to.

• Also, to make sure that the reason is in connectivity between the Exchange Server and the DC, you can try to manually perform the same commands that Adaxes invokes on Exchange Server. For this purpose, you can simply copy the commands as they appear in the trace file, paste them to the Exchange Management Shell on the specified Exchange Server and see whether the commands are executed successfully.

Comments

Hi again,

When I open the .config file I'm not able find any line like "<trace enabled="false"/>"
So I added this line in the file :<trace enabled="true"/> and restarted the Adaxes service.
I don't see any .trace.txt file genertaed (I launch a search in the whole file system)

But when I execute again the create mailbox command and this it worked.

It sounds like a random issue. We have currently the same problem in our Adaxes production server.. So any idea is welcome :)

Regards

---

Hello,

When I open the .config file I'm not able find any line like "<trace enabled="false"/>"

That's simply impossible. :) Probably, you modified the wrong file. Can you send the file that you modified to our support e-mail (support@adaxes.com)?

But when I execute again the create mailbox command and this it worked.
It sounds like a random issue. We have currently the same problem in our Adaxes production server.. So any idea is welcome :)

When Adaxes service starts, it selects an Exchange Server to use for Exchange tasks. So, wen you restarted your Adaxes service, it probably selected another Exchange Server that can connect to the DC that Adaxes uses. So, only some of your Exchange servers cannot connect to the DC, while others can.

---

Hi,

I realised my mistake just after posting my reply .. I was looking into the wrong file . Sorry.

I did it and I had no error on mailbox creation.
I send you the .trace file by email.

Should I try until the error occurs ?

Regards

---

Hello,

As we've mentioned before, Adaxes finds an Exchange Server that will be used for Exchange tasks every time Adaxes service starts. So, when you restarted Adaxes service after making changes to the file, probably Adaxes connected to another Exchange Server that can communicate with your DC.

You can leave it as it is, however if, for some reason, this Exchange Server becomes unavailable or you restart Adaxes service, the issue can reoccur.

We suggest that you check whether all of your Exchange Servers can communicate with the specified DC. Alternatively, you can, for example, leave 3 or 4 Exchange Servers, for which you are sure that they can connect to the DC, and disallow Adaxes access to the rest of the Servers with the help of firewalls.

---

Hi All,

As I don't like topics without answers in forums, I just want to share the solution.

Following your advices, I blocked DC's with the help of FW's. But only DC's that were not Global Catalog. And it seems solve the issue.

After few weeks of use, I do not get the 0x51 error anymore :P

I would congratulate support team for the very nice work done , in general, and through this forum.

Merry Xmas all

---

Thank you and Merry Christmas!

---

Hello. I seem to be having the exact same issue. In my case the domain controller Adaxes is choosing is not a Global Catalog server so when the Powershell command is run against it the command fails. If I manually run it against another DC that is a GC it works fine. The non-GC DC is up and working fine so it's not a situation where its been removed or is firewalled. Is there anyway to prevent Adaxes from choosing this particular DC? Administration from the EMS or ECP has always worked fine so Exchange is smart enough not to use the domain controller that Adaxes is forcing it to.

Thanks,
Tim

---

Hello Tim,

The cause for the issue may be that the computer where your Exchange Server is installed cannot connect to the DC in question. To check this:

1. On your Exchange Server, start the Exchange Management Shell (EMS).

2. In the EMS, run the following PowerShell command:

    Get-Mailbox -Identity jsmith@example.com -DomainController domaincontroller.example.com

   where:

   • jsmith@example.com is the username of a mailbox-enabled user,
   • domaincontroller.example.com is the fully qualified domain name (FQDN) of the Domain Controller that is not a GC.

The Get-Mailbox cmdlet does not require a GC to complete the operation. So, if the above command fails with a similar error message, this means that there is a communication issue between the DC and the computer where the Exchange Server is installed.

If the above command succeeds, then most probably the issue is that the DC is not a Global Catalog. In this case, you can configure Adaxes service to use only those DCs that are global catalogs. For information on how to do that, see the following help article: http://www.adaxes.com/help/?HowDoI.Mana ... omain.html.

---

When I add the list of DC's to the config file, the Adaxes service fails to start. The allowed domain controllers section was already there, so I removed "<clear />" and added the key. This is what I end up with but it doesn't seem to be working. Any ideas?

<!-- Managed domains settings -->
<managedDomainSettings skipPermissionCheck="false">
<allowedDomainControllers>
<add key="mydomain.fqdn" value="dc1.fqdn,dc2.fqdn/>
</allowedDomainControllers>
</managedDomainSettings>

---

Hello,

There's a small error in the help article. You need to add a missing double quote:
<add key="mydomain.fqdn" value="dc1.fqdn,dc2.fqdn" />

Sorry for the inconvenience. We'll fix the article ASAP.

---

Working great now. Thanks!