store.exe nobbling startup and login (Full Version)

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influenzaa -> store.exe nobbling startup and login (3.Jul.2008 1:49:59 PM)

Vital Statistics: SBS2003 SP2 Server, Exchange 6.5.7638.1

Hi folks first time here and I'm wondering if anyone has seen something like this before.

One of our customers saw the lovely "You have updates waiting to be installed" message and installed them then rebooted their server. We normally turn off automatic updates completely to stop people seeing that and doing it but they must have turned it back on.

They now have a serious problem with store.exe and annoyingly they have a second site. At the second site they have installed the same batch of updates but due to the issues at the first site they haven't rebooted the server...yet!

The updates that went on are (info in brackets from quick google):

KB950760 (ActiveX Killbits)
KB949014 (Active Directory)
KB951698 (DirectX)
KB950759-IE7 (IE7 Cumulative patch)
KB950762 (Pragmatic General Multicast)
KB948745 (WINS Service Update)

They called us yesterday with insufficient time for us to get out before close of business. We were told the bootup was hanging on "Applying Computer Settings" and that it didn't get any further.

Someone must have missed something out because when I got there the server was locked and logged in so at some point the login prompt came up and they set it to log in. We estimate the login took somewhere in the region of 12 hours and services were still starting so it wasn't even complete even though the desktop was present.

store.exe was using just over 500MB memory (server has 2Gb) and the moment I killed it with task manager end process everything else sprung to life. I could also hit the start on the IS Store service and everything worked fine (took 15 seconds or so to start).

So we reboot to see if was a one off - no such joy. I then fell to safe mode, uninstalled the updates and disabled the store service and the server then booted normally. So I turned the store service back on and rebooted to be hit by the problem again.

In order to boot the server, we now have to:

1) Boot into safe mode
2) services.msc
3) Disable Microsoft Exchange Information Store
4) Reboot into normal mode
5) Log in and enable Microsoft Exchange Information Store
6) Start MEIS

Annoyingly, there are no errors or warnings being logged. The only ones I saw said that the store service was taking more than 16 minutes to start.

I don't know where to start with this one short of uninstalling/reinstalling Exchange or even rebuilding the server..so any pointers would be very much appreciated as I'm doing the work of 3 people at the moment and getting stuck with something like this will really screw things up!



uemurad -> RE: store.exe nobbling startup and login (3.Jul.2008 2:36:41 PM)

I urge you to call Microsoft PSS for this case.  It's a small price to pay to ensure that everything runs again.



influenzaa -> RE: store.exe nobbling startup and login (3.Jul.2008 2:43:58 PM)

Anything like that will be up to the end user to agree to as we are a callout/remote support company servicing lots of companies. So unless they want to pay £200+vat, we won't be doing that unfortunately.



uemurad -> RE: store.exe nobbling startup and login (4.Jul.2008 2:39:02 PM)

I'd pass that information on to the customer then.  I haven't seen any indications anywhere that any of those updates causes an Exchange issue.  You certainly could rebuild the server, but will that be less expensive?  Only you can answer that.



Sembee -> RE: store.exe nobbling startup and login (4.Jul.2008 7:12:56 PM)

I haven't seen any updates that would cause a problem with Exchange or SBS servers for a very long time. As already pointed out there is nothing in that set that affects Exchange.

The server sitting at applying settings is classic network configuration misconfiguration - external DNS settings in the network configure is the classic cause.

store.exe using 500mb is fine. It will use as much memory as it needs and should release it when asked. When it does, then I look at third party applications.

That brings me to the other major cause of problems. Third party applications. What else is on the server. Anything by Symantec? If so, remove it. That will often cause problems.

As for your practise of turning off Automatic Updates - I strongly suggest that you review that practise otherwise - particularly on servers that are exposed to the internet. If you want to control the deployment of updates then setup a WSUS server. I know of many IT support companies who will have a central WSUS and point all clients at that. Then they can control what updates go out.
Not deploying updates automatic updates can come back and bite you. A good example of this was following Microsoft losing a patient case that required a change to the behaviour of OWA. If you didn't have automatic updates enabled then you didn't get the update and found that OWA didn't work with IE7.

Simon.



Exchange_Geek -> RE: store.exe nobbling startup and login (5.Jul.2008 11:29:38 AM)

Ok i agree with everyone to open a ticket with PSS team and have them looked into the issue. What i dont understand is what happens to the server when the IS is started - it hangs / ESM hangs / what happens  in specific ? what are the events thrown at the time when this happens?

Also, i dont see the problem with store.exe taking 500MB of 2GB, infact ive seen store.exe taking 80% of the RAM and server working fine.

What i would be interested in knowing is that - is the issue with DB / store.exe dll / third-party applications / some thing else.

For starters sake - i would request you to start store services with stores dismounted  (havng stores in dismounted state and havin the checkbox "do not mount stores at startup" checked). If the issue still persists - this means that the DB isnt at fault (in other words no corrupted DB causing this).

Later, try to stop third-party applications (keeping the stores in the state defined above). If the issue still persists - we have a clue here that the DLL files needs to be upgraded.

P.S - the newer store.exe version is 6.5.7651.11 as per KB 899023.

Awaiting your response.



smstoops -> RE: store.exe nobbling startup and login (24.Jul.2008 1:16:27 PM)

Did anyone ever figure this out?  I am having the same issue with an SBS 2003 server.



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