Hi, I have Windows Server 2008 R2 (not SBS) installed on one server with Exchange 2010 installed as well. I am in a 3 year OVS agreement, and I have 75 Core Cal licences installed on a per user basis for Server 2008. I also have 75 licences for Exchange 2010. I was advised by my reseller that I could exceed 75 accounts and then just provide the number of accounts used on the one year anniversary of my OVS agreement. However, on Thursday, I added my 76th mailbox to an Active Directory user account, and then the fun started! On Friday morning, I had a colleague contact me to state that when opening Outlook 2003, she received a message that said: 'Cannot open your default email folders. Microsoft Exchange is not available. Either there are network problems or the Exchange computer is down for maintenance." I searched high and low, and found a microsoft site http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff625226.aspx that explains how to run a repair on the mailbox through the Exchange Management Shell. I ran this repair, and the lady was able to access her mailbox. Later in the day, another colleague of mine had the same error. I ran the same fix, but this time it didn't rectify the problem. I resorted to restarting my Server, and upon restart, my colleague could access her email. Then, Monday afternoon, as I was building a new PC for another colleague, I added her Outlook profile to her Windows AD account on the new PC, and I had the same error message. However Tuesday morning (when only a handfull of users were connected to the server), the same new PC and user account were able to access email fine (indicating that there was no apparent problem with the mailbox). So, my conclusion from this is that it could be a licencing issue, as this all started as soon as I added the 76th account (I only currently have 75 licences). Having spoken with many people at Microsoft, half say it is licencing, half say it is technical - I just want to get to the bottom of the matter and establish why this is happening, so that then I can work on a resolution. Please help!!! Many thanks Ian

Hi, No matter which issue you have it should be logged in either the application log or the system event log on the server, Did you check that? Leif

Thanks for your reply. Having looked through all the event logs on the server, there appears to be no errors relating to this issue. I am convinced that this is a licence issue as it started happening after I added a 76th AD and Exchange account. Microsoft advisors can't seem to make their mind up either as to what could be causing the problem! Very infuriating!!!!

1. If you feel it's related to the 76th user, can you not remove this users and check for stabilty for a few hours or days. This will confirm your thoghts. It may be worth doing this as it's impacting other users. Unless this 76th user is important. If it is, find another user. 2. I would run the ExchBPA against the server too to see if there are any major issue. 3. Also, not sure if youre on the latest SP1 and rollup3, if not I'd be inclined to update your server too.Sukh

Hi Sukh, Again thank you for your reply. Currently running SP1 rollup 3 as you state - one thing I do is to ensure I keep my server up-to-date! Where this becomes annoying is that it is quite hard for me to replicate the problem, as I believe it only occurred because practically all my mailboxes were logged on at the same time (and this is a rare occasion). So replicating the problem won't necessarily be easy to do. After all my to-ing and fro-ing with Microsoft, I have enquired on the cost of the additional licences, but seen as I'm in an OVS agreement with them, I shouldn't have to do this until the end of the first year of my agreement, but when users rely on a service, sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do! Thanks for your time Ian

Hi Ian, It appears to be a license issue based on the information provided. However, it still needs to be confirmed. From my experience, if a client could not connect to Exchange server due to license problem, there used to be an event log indicating the “Deny” action done by the server; otherwise, it is highly likely to be a client issue since it does not “Touch” the server yet. A technical person should not provide a conclusion before performing troubleshooting steps. So I’d suggest you perform the following steps to isolate the fault: 1. Wait until the issue reoccurs, Ping the FQDN of your Exchange server and your GC server from the problematic client computer to see if there is network connection related issue. The FQDN should be the same as the one listed in Outlook profile; 2. Try to logon OWA with the problematic user’s ID from either Exchange server or a working PC. It helps to confirm the mailbox is working fine; If the problematic user is able to logon via OWA, the license should be enough; If OWA fails, verify the event log from both mailbox server and CAS server, and also verify the IIS log in CAS server to see if there is any error report for further troubleshooting. Hope it is useful. BTW, sometimes Microsoft provide support incidents for free to customers, based on the contract. You may contact your reseller to see if you have it. If so, you may submit support incident and get technical support from Microsoft support center. Or you may contact Microsoft directly via the method below Professional support options and phone numbers http://support.microsoft.com/?LN=en-us&scid=gp;en-us;offerprophone How and when to contact Microsoft Customer Service and Support http://support.microsoft.com/kb/295539 Best regards, Fiona Liao Please remember to click “Mark as Answer” on the post that helps you, and to click “Unmark as Answer” if a marked post does not actually answer your question. This can be beneficial to other community members reading the thread.

Any update?