Exchange 2007 Information Store Problem Part 1

I will go on straight away with a problem, which is bugging us with our mailboxserver in the backend for some weeks already : 

We notice from time to time ( and in different intervals ) that users cannot connect to their mailboxes , or when logged in , they get disconnected. This happens via OWA and Outlook Client ( does not matter if connected via POP, IMAP or MAPI ) .

We figured out that a restart of the Information Store provides a temporary solution. But does not prevent the problem to occur again. You just can setup a monitoring the occurence of the problem by creating a continous logon to a mailbox , since the Information Store service responds. It stays started and is not hanging while the problem occurs. The problem has a big impact since all users connected to the mailbox server lose their connection for  a little while. The BlackBerry services require a restart as well, after the problem occurs. ( important for BlackBerry ! )

The server is an Exchange 2007 server and is running on Win 2k3. The server has SP3 installed and has been rolled up to the latest Roll Up RU6. This did not solve the problem.

A call by Microsoft has been opened. I write this down because this can save time not doing all the things suggested by Microsoft to keep you busy, since they did not help. See the undertaken steps below which make some sence ( but did not solve the problem ) : 

Network Offloading Feature has been disabled via registry. The keys below have been set to 0 : 

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Tcpip\Parameters]

"EnableTCPChimney"=dword:00000000 

"EnableTCPA"=dword:00000000

"EnableRSS"=dword:00000000

Find informations on this here and here .

Micorsoft requested the follwing informations. Gathered while the problem occured and before the Information Store service has been restarted : 

- A memory dump done with procdump.exe.  ( -64 -t -ma store.exe )

- Performance logs written with perfwiz ( .\experfwiz.ps1 –duration 00:30:00 –filepath D:\perfLogs )

- the system log and application log from the period the problem occured.

Until now MS could not give a resonable explanation for this problem. Part 2 of this post will be published a soon as we get a solution for this problem. Find more informations in the next part which can be published and linked hopefully soon.

If you ran into this problem with the Information Store as well, or if you have something usefull to add , feel free to leave a comment.


Find the solution in Part 2