After Exchange 2007 SP1 server restart Exchange Services does not start up automatically even though they are set to start automatically.

Problem Description: After Exchange 2007 SP1 server restart Exchange Services does not start up automatically even though they are set to start automatically.

Most of the time services that does not start are “Microsoft Exchange System Attendant” and “Microsoft Exchange Information Store”

Error Messages:

In event log following error messages could be there:

Event Type: Error
Event Source: MSExchangeIS
Event Category: General
Event ID: 5000
Date: 12/8/2008
Time: 11:43:07 AM
User: N/A
Computer:
Description:
Unable to initialize the Microsoft Exchange Information Store service. - Error 0x96e.

Event Type: Error
Event Source: MSExchangeIS
Event Category: General
Event ID: 1121
Date: 12/8/2008
Time: 11:43:07 AM
User: N/A
Computer:
Description:
Error 0x96e connecting to the Microsoft Active Directory.

Event Type: Warning
Event Source: MSExchange EdgeSync
Event Category: Topology
Event ID: 1026
Date: 12/8/2008
Time: 11:41:15 AM
User: N/A
Computer:
Description:
Topology load generated transient exception Could not find any available Domain Controller.. EdgeSync must be able to acquire current Exchange topology data from the Active Directory directory service to properly operate. The Edge Transport server will attempt to load the topology again.


Cause: Services in question has dependency on certain Windows Services and those services took time to start properly.

Solution:

There are multiple things we could try but the one that suited me was to pause start of Exchange Server service(s) on the time of boot up. Following is the registry key that could be used:

1. Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\MSExchangeSA\Parameters

2. On the right had side window right click, select New, DWORDValue
3. Name it BootPause
4. Assign BootPause value of 120 (Decimal)
5. Close registry editor

BootPause value 120 will delay the start of SA service by 120 seconds, should you need to raise or lower the value you can change the registry keys.

Please take back-up of the system before attempting any changes to the system. Wrong changes could cause your system to fail. Please follow Microsoft Guidelines on making registry changes.