Topic Last Modified: 2010-04-29

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:

Details

Product Name

Exchange

Product Version

14.0 (Exchange 2010)

Event ID

1004

Event Source

MSExchangeSA

Alert Type

Error

Rule Path

Microsoft Exchange Server/Exchange 2010/Mailbox/System Attendant

Rule Name

Failed to start the Microsoft Exchange System Attendant service; review related events for more information.

Explanation

This Information event indicates that an error occurred when the Microsoft Exchange System Attendant service (Mad.exe) initialized. Other symptoms you may experience when this event occurs include the following:

  • Various Exchange services cannot start.

  • Domain controllers cannot be contacted.

This event may be caused by network-related problems.

User Action

To resolve this error, follow these steps:

  1. Review other Event IDs that relate to the Microsoft Exchange System Attendant service.

  2. Make sure that the global catalog server can be contacted.

  3. Use the Ping or PathPing command-line tools to test basic connectivity. 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.

  4. 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 Windows Server TechCenter.

For More Information

If you are not already doing so, consider running the Exchange tools 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, improve mail flow, and better manage disaster recovery scenarios. 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.