1:00 AM
Paul B
Hey guys, El Di Pablo back at ya with another Microsoft Exchange 2007 gotcha! So just when I thought everything was working perfectly with Exchange, my partner in crime was working on some Microsoft OCS stuff, and he noticed some errors in the event log on one of our Exchange servers.
WTF! I just got everything running in perfect harmony with the universe, and all the planets were aligned. Out of no where we start getting OALGen errors like a mutha! Here are some of the errors we were seeing:
Event ID: 9328
OALGen encountered file error 80070005 (internal ID 5050221) while generating the offline address list for address list '\Global Address List'. Make sure there is enough disk space available.
- Default OAB
Event ID: 9373
OALGen detected that the file '\\SERVER\ExchangeOAB\e52e0abd-8188-477e-8340-ef04a15dd47f\3ef5ce35-2ff4-440e-b523-f1f24a759788-data-1.lzx' is corrupted or missing. This indicates data tampering or disk problems. Restore files in this folder from the recent backup or clean up folder content and force a full OAB generation.
- Default OAB
Event ID: 9328
OALGen encountered file error ffffffff (internal ID 505026d) while generating the offline address list for address list '\Global Address List'. Make sure there is enough disk space available.
- Default OAB
Event ID: 9371
OALGen encountered an error while generating the differential downloads of address list '\Global Address List'. The offline address list has not been updated so clients will not be able to download the current set of changes. Check other logged events to find the cause of this error.
I thought no problem, maybe there is a problem with the current Offline Address Book, so I created a new one. When I went to update it, I got the subdirectory with the GUID, but the folder was EMPTY! Again I say… WTF?!?!
I finally got this fixed, and since it was kind of hard to find the solution, I’ll share with you what I did.
On both Exchange 2007 servers I went into \Exchange Server\ and renamed the ExchangeOAB directory to ExchangeOAB_OLD, then I created a new share with the following permissions:
Share Permissions:
- Administrators – Owner
- System – Owner
- Exchange Servers – Reader
NTFS Permissions:
- Administrators – Full Control
- System – Full Control
- Exchange Servers – Read
After that I restarted the Microsoft Exchange System Attendant service, and then updated the OAB again. Bam! Fixed! If that doesn’t fix it for you, then your problem is probably a little more advanced, and is most likely related to improper Active Directory container permissions.
Before you do the following, make sure you have good System State backups of your domain controllers! I accept no responsibility if you hose up your Active Directory environment because you accidentally deleted the wrong thing!
Go into ADSI Edit on your Global Catalog server, and connect to the Configuration Naming Context, and do the following:
- Browse to CN=Services>CN=Microsoft Exchange>CN=Company>CN=Address Lists Container
- Delete the “All Address Lists” and “Offline Address Lists” containers
- Force replication to the other Domain Controllers
- On your Exchange server, pop in the Exchange Install Disk
- Open The Command Prompt as Administrator
- Run Setup /prepareSchema
- Run Setup /prepareAD
- Run Setup /prepareDomain
- Wait about 15 minutes, then reboot your Global Catalog servers one at a time, waiting for each one to come back up before bouncing the next one.
- After all GC servers are rebooted, reboot your Exchange Servers
If that doesn’t fix your issue, then it is time to tuck tail and call Microsoft because your environment has issues! If you have to call Microsoft, I would love to hear what your fix was in the comments :-)
If one of these tips does fix your issue, I want to know as well. Let your voice be heard below!
