Exchange Server is one of the mostly used mail server that enables the organization to perform the secured communication. It helps in simplifying the administrative activities like archiving mailbox, sending email message, providing delivery report etc. Due to these features whole communication of the organization relays on Exchange Server and being an exchange administrator you should know that how to quickly deal with Exchange Server during the disaster scenarios. In this article, I am going to list some of the most common errors along with the resolution related to Exchange server.

Errors that I am explaining in the Post

• Mail flow related issues in Exchange Server
• Connectivity Related issues in Exchange Server       
• Exchange Error Code 450 4.7.1
• 550 5.7.1 Unable to relay
• Exchange Server is Unavailable
• Exchange Database (EDB) Corruption Issue
• Troubleshooting DNS Related Problems in Exchange Server
• Jet Engine Error 1018 in Exchange Server
• Exchange Server is in Inconsistent State
• The connection was dropped during the transmission

1). Mail Flow Related Issues in Exchange Server

Mail flow issues normally occurs due to the corruption in Metbase or bad configuration of DNS. In such cases users will face problems in sending and receiving emails. Microsoft has developed a Mail Flow Troubleshooter tool with which users can find out the root cause of the problem. Know more about this tool: http://blogs.technet.com/b/exchange/archive/2006/08/07/3394688.aspx

2). Connectivity Related issues in Exchange Server

Sometime users face problems while connecting Outlook with the Exchange Server. For troubleshooting these kind of issues Microsoft has developed Remote Connectivity Analyzer which performs a set of test series to find out the root cause of the problem. This is a web based solution which can be accessed through web browser by following the link https://testconnectivity.microsoft.com/

3). Exchange Error Code 450 4.7.1

Exchange users face this error when the message sent by them is discarded by the Exchange Server. Here the error code 450 means that Exchange Server is trying to identify the address from where you are sending email by performing the reverse look up operation and if the server fails in finding the reverse hostname it returns 450 error code.

Check out different scenarios when this error is encountered along with resolution: http://www.blog.edbtopst.org/resolve-exchange-server-error-code-450-4-7-1.html

4). 550 5.7.1 Unable to relay

Many a time users encounter an error message ‘550 5.7.1 – Unable to relay’ while sending an email to somebody in another domain. In exchange server this error indicates configured SMTP authentication details that deny to authenticate you as a reliable user, thus prevent you from sending emails outside the domain.

5). Exchange Server is Unavailable

Errors like exchange server unavailable are the outcomes generated when an outlook operation fails. There are several reasons behind this issue. Generally such issues are generated due to partial setup of Outlook or corrupted PST file. So you can use ScanPST.exe if you are facing issue due to corrupted PST or reinstall the Outlook if it was not installed correctly in previous attempt.

6). Exchange Database (EDB) Corruption Issue

EDB file is the heart of Exchange Server. Whole communication of Exchange Server relays on EDB file. Whole Communication goes down if something wrong happens with this Database file. In case of corruption I would recommend you to resolve the corruption issue as soon as possible. You can use Eseutil and Istinteg command of PowerShell to repair the EDB file. Know More about these commands: http://www.blog.edbtopst.org/how-to-repair-exchange-database-with-eseutil-and-isinteg-command-lines.html

7). Troubleshooting DNS Related Problems in Exchange Server

DNS plays an important role in Exchange Server environment. Active directory and Exchange server both depends upon DNS and if DNS is not functioning in a proper manner then both Active Directory and Exchange will not work at all. To resolve the DNS related issues in Exchange server I would like to suggest to Nslookup. Just run the command nslookup in the command prompt to use this tool

8). Jet Engine Error 1018 in Exchange Server

Normally this error is encountered when Exchange Database has got corrupted. Sometime main components like header part, catalogs, leaf pages etc. of the EDB file is got corrupted. You have to repair the EDB database to resolve these kind of issues. I have already explained solution in the 6^th issues to resolve EDB corruptions.

9). Exchange Server is in Inconsistent State

This Error is normally encountered when you try to install latest version of Exchange Server and the files of previous version has not been removed successfully.

To resolve this issue Open ADSIEdit.msc and then navigate to

CN=Configuration, CN=Services, CN=Microsoft Exchange, CN=<Your Organization Name>, CN=Administrative Groups, CN= <Exchange 2010 Administrative Group>, CN=Servers, CN=<Server Name>

Now just delete the object of server from here and try the installation process again.

10). The connection was dropped during the transmission

In Exchange server when people send an email, in many instances they are halted by an error message ‘the connection was dropped during the transmission’. This error indicates a network connection problem that is caused by a router. In order to get rid of the error, you need to check the router device.

Conclusion:

Here in this article, I have explained the top 10 most common issues related to exchange server along with the possible resolution. Hope this article is helpful for you. In have any question or any other suggestion regarding the same, please leave it in comment section.