I seem to get quite a few issues after Microsoft updates, such as:

- Owa/ecp themes being corrupt

- Services being disabled (event 25/26/1310)

-  Server Manager failure (event 4999)

- Failed Database (event 1012)

These issues have occurred twice after Windows Updates, any ideas?

Regards 

Adam Bhai

• Edited by Adam-Silva Wednesday, June 17, 2015 1:39 PM a

Hi, 

I have been able to manually restart services but i'm confused why this seems to be happening. Also themes for owa/ecp get corrupted, I don't understand why this keeps happening?

Could it be due to the email server being setup on a different directory?

Hi

Do you have anti-virus scanning that directory? can you perhaps add an exclusion in to not scan the exchange directories?

Hi,

Thanks for the quick response, no I do not have an anti-virus scanning this directory. It seems from my research that a number of people have had similar issues to mine after MS Updates but no resolve yet.

Hi Adam

as per my first response, can you uninstall the updates that were applied and see if the problem resolves?

Hi Ed,

As this is a live system and I've had this problem previously, the below steps have been followed to resolve these issues, rather than manually removing individual updates.

IIS related issue

Sometimes after the email server has been restarted, access to ecp/owa is not available. This is due to it not connecting to the SSL certification, for exchange the SSL certification is required on three ports (443,443 for loopback and 444). For port 443 and 443 for loopback the setting can be checked by connecting to IIS>Default Web site as shown below.

Once youre in IIS, check both 443 ports and make sure correct SSL cert is setup, this would normally be Microsoft Exchange unless using external SSL. This method can be used to change setting for port 444, but instead of clicking on Default Web Site choose Exchange Back End and apply same settings. Once this is done Restart both services to force changes.

This should now allow access to ecp/owa. Ensure all relevant services are running on services.msc and review event viewer.

Services disabled after update

Manually enable relevant services on services.msc as shown below including World Wide Web Publishing Service. If this service fails to start, use cmd net start W3SVC.

Reboot server after this has been done.

Owa/Ecp not working (Event 25/26)

This issue is related to themes being corrupt for owa/ecp creating a blank screen. To resolve this issue the corrupt themes need to be replaced my themes from the exchange installation disc/external hard drive installation folder.

The data that needs to be changed is stored on: F:\Mail\ClientAccess\Owa\prem\15\resources\themes

From External: 

E:\Microsoft Exchange 2013\Setup\ServerRoles\ClientAccess\owa\prem\version\resources\themes

Same needs to be done on:

F:\Mail\ClientAccess\Owa\15\themes

From External:

E:\Microsoft Exchange 2013\Setup\ServerRoles\ClientAccess\owa\version

Once this is done open Exchange Powershell and connect to F drive using command f: and run command: F:\Mail\Bin\UpdateCas.ps1. This will update owa/ecp with new update settings. Finally run command net stop W3SVC and net start W3SVC.

Fix a Failed Database Content Index (Event 1012)

To rebuild a failed content index we first need to stop the search services on the Exchange server. Not that this may impact searches for other healthy databases, and the rebuilding process can also create a significant load on the server, so you may wish to do these steps outside of normal business hours.

Stop the following services:

Microsoft Exchange Search Host Controller

Microsoft Exchange Search

[PS] C:\>stop-service MSExchangeFastSearch

[PS] C:\>stop-service HostControllerService

Navigate to the location of the content index for the database. This will be the same folder that the database file is located in. Using Exchange Powershell navigate to F: and find out location of corrupt database using command:

 [PS] F:\Mail\Mailbox>Get-MailboxDatabase "Mail Database" |fl name,*path*

Name                    :Mail Database

EdbFilePath             : F:\Mail\Mailbox\Mailbox Database \Mailbox Database.edb

LogFolderPath           : F:\Mail\Mailbox\Mailbox Database 

TemporaryDataFolderPath :

Now we know the location of the database we need to rename the corrupt database to .old and restart Microsoft Exchange Search Host Controller, Microsoft Exchange Search.

To start the two services stopped before use command:

[PS] C:\>start-service MSExchangeFastSearch

[PS] C:\>start-service HostControllerService

Once restarted the new database will start populating, this process will take a while dependant on the size of the database. You can now find out status of new database by running command:

[PS] F:\Mail\Mailbox>Get-MailboxDatabaseCopyStatus * | ft -auto

Name                       Status  CopyQueueLength ReplayQueueLength LastInspectedLogTime ContentIndexState

----                       ------  --------------- ----------------- -------------------- -----------------

Mail Database\stealth Mounted 0               0                                      Healthy

This will return the status of the new database, if it returns Healthy status the fix has been successful.

Ecp Event 1310

This issue prevents access to ecp (exchange control panel), the issue can be resolved by modifying BinSearchFolders value in IIS.

To do this:

1. Open IIS Manager. Expand Sites > Exchange Back End.

2. Click ecp. Open Application Settings in /ecp Home.

3. Please check whether the value for BinSearchFolders is changed to an invalid value. If so, please change it to:

F:\Mail\bin;F:\Mail\bin\CmdletExtensionAgents;F:\Mail\ClientAccess\Owa\Bin

4. Run IISReset command to restart IIS services.

Server Manager Failure Event 4999

This issue disables access to Server Manager, the issue is related to WMI (Windows Management Instrumentation) being disable on Services.

To enable this:

1. Open Services > Windows Management Instrumentation.
2. Right click on WMI > Properties change Startup type to automatic.
3. Click on Start to start the service.

• Edited by Adam-Silva 19 hours 10 minutes ago