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Outlook anywhere will freeze my server!

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Outlook anywhere will freeze my server! - 13.Jul.2009 6:54:34 PM

wihan

Posts: 7
Joined: 13.Jul.2009
Status: offline

Hi everyone,

I'm new here not sure if I'm posting in the wrong place, don't hesitate to correct me.

My problem:
Outlook anywhere works fine, I can connect to it, it is quick, basicly it works great
But if it is enabled, my server will eventually freeze.

I had a nightmare troubleshooting exactly what was causing the server to freeze, but eventually after replacing all hardware twice, I just started randomly disabling services until I got it running. If I have outlook anywhere disabled, the server will run fine for weeks, as soon as I enable it, you will notice no difference straight away (except for outlook anywhere working), but after a couple of hours, the server will all of a sudden be real irresponsive. It will be locked for instance, and when you just try to unlock it sit there with the "welcome" for a couple of minutes. Then eventually it will stop responding to ping requests and just sit there with a black screen.

The time it takes for it to actually do this is different everytime. Sometimes it will work for 3 or 4 days before freezing, sometimes it will freeze 3 times in one day. Generally it doesn't last longer than a week though.

If I look at the logs after restarting(after freezing) the only bit of information is (the server was shut-down unexpectedly).

My thoughts are the server is doing something and getting so busy doing this mysterious thing that eventually it can't do anything else.

I have a server running Windows server 2008 standard with exchange 2007 sp1.
The server is fully patched with Microsoft update. I haven't installed any manual updates for exchange, but no updates reported in Microsoft update. I have a separate domain controller running 2008. I have WSUS running of the exchange server. I had exchange hosting implemented.

http://www.msexchange.org/articles_tutorials/exchange-server-2007/migration-deployment/shared-hosting-exchange-2007-part1.html

I did reverse all of this since as it's not being used anymore.

And now the most bafling part of all. I have installed another server on seperate hardware (clean install), installed exchange copied the mailbox's accross (using the little wizzard) and set up the new server, as soon as i enabled outlook anywhere it also started freezing.

Thanks for anyone who will actualy take the time to read the whole post, i tried to give as much info as possible. Any suggestions welcome..

Wihan Herbst

Post #: 1

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RE: Outlook anywhere will freeze my server! - 13.Jul.2009 7:04:08 PM

mark@mvps.org

Posts: 6811
Joined: 9.Jun.2004
From: Philadelphia PA
Status: offline

Nasty stuff.
Well, Outlook Anywhere is just Outlook from an Exchange perspective. The difference is the client talks to IIS rather than directly to Exchange when OA is on.
I'd start by taking a look at what IIS thinks it's doing.
Get a separate box and stick the CAS role only on it so see if you get the same issues.

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Mark Arnold (Exchange MVP)
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(in reply to wihan)

Post #: 2

RE: Outlook anywhere will freeze my server! - 13.Jul.2009 7:06:48 PM

wihan

Posts: 7
Joined: 13.Jul.2009
Status: offline

Yeah never thought of it that way, I will give that a ago and let you know how it goes.
Thanks for the quick response.
Wihan

(in reply to mark@mvps.org)

Post #: 3

RE: Outlook anywhere will freeze my server! - 14.Sep.2009 1:19:54 AM

wihan

Posts: 7
Joined: 13.Jul.2009
Status: offline

Hi,
I have spent some more time on this issue, and it seems to be caused by NOD32 anti virus.
I have added all the exclusions recommended by Microsoft and it still freezes up.

As soon as I remove nod 32 the server seems to run fine. I will follow up this issue with ESET and post any results.

Wihan

(in reply to wihan)

Post #: 4

RE: Outlook anywhere will freeze my server! - 26.May2010 11:36:16 AM

JensLindner

Posts: 1
Joined: 26.May2010
Status: offline

Hi Wihan,

i have exactly the same problem - the server runs fine vere well, but when there is an access to exchange via outlook anywhere, the server freezes.
I tried everything i could find in various forums (disabeling DEP, disabeling IPv6, checking all the DNS-stuff, autodiscover etc.) - nothing helps.

Then I found your posting and removed NOD32 and since then it works fine again WITH outlook anywhere.
So i can confirm that this seams to be a NOD32 issue and thank you very much Wihan for your posting because it takes a lot of time to figure these things out without knowing what to search for!

Did you get any response from ESET?

I'm using a MS SBS 2008 with MS Exchange 2007 and MS Outlook 2007 for the clients.

Thanks in advance and best regards
Jens Lindner

(in reply to wihan)

Post #: 5

RE: Outlook anywhere will freeze my server! - 4.Nov.2010 4:13:53 AM

wihan

Posts: 7
Joined: 13.Jul.2009
Status: offline

Hi Jens,
I have installed NOD32 version 3 on the server as it doesn't seem to be affected.
Also i am about 98% sure that ESET Mail security also doesn't cause this.
Armed with the new info I have approached ESET again as i haven't received any feedback before.
I got the usual we will look into it answer but got a bit annoyed by this response as it lead nowhere last time.
They then requested me to upload a full memory dump of 8GB to their FTP server so they can look into the issue further. I did this.
Since then i have been emailing the Australian contact regularly with updates, but each time i just get the default answer of.
It is a fairly complex problem and the Europe office is still looking into it.
I must say very disappointing.
I would recommend for now downgrade to version 3.0 on your server and run 4.2 on your clients.
I will post here as soon as i get any results.... which may be never!

(in reply to JensLindner)

Post #: 6

RE: Outlook anywhere will freeze my server! - 13.Sep.2011 4:19:17 PM

kbrooks

Posts: 1
Joined: 13.Sep.2011
Status: offline

I just wanted to note that a good two years after this was posted I found my self experiencing the exact same issue.

I was banging my head against the wall trying to figure this out. I had followed the exact same process as Wihan and in fact was in the process of building a brand new server where I was going to transfer all my mailboxes to.

I also was running ESET Nod 32. As soon as I uninstalled the software the problem went away. I didn't even think to try that as that server had been running that anti-virus for over two years.

Thanks for your post wihan.

< Message edited by kbrooks -- 13.Sep.2011 6:15:52 PM >

(in reply to wihan)

Post #: 7

RE: Outlook anywhere will freeze my server! - 13.Sep.2011 6:13:24 PM

wihan

Posts: 7
Joined: 13.Jul.2009
Status: offline

Hi Kbrooks,

After struggling with NOD for a very long time and getting absolutely nowhere I have decided to move my clients to a different antivirus. I have since found that ver3 doesn't cause this, and mail security doesn't cause this, but they caused other erratic BSOD's

Uninstall them and the problem goes away.

Also unrelated I have found that my USB drives drop of my SBS servers and will show in device manager, but not in disk management. After doing a lot of research on this I have found this also to be caused by NOD 32.

It is very disappointing that even though the exact problem where pointed out, nothing was done about it.

Some helpful information is included below in a quote from ESET Europe, it didn't work for me although it did seem to improve the problem somehwhat

quoted from email:
"As the permanent fix is dependant upon Microsoft, you can as a workaround try to rename the epfwwfpr.sys file in safe mode. Please let us know whether this helps and if yes, we will close the ticket. "

Glad to see the post helped someone.

Good Luck
Wihan

(in reply to kbrooks)

Post #: 8