XCON: How to Fix an Uninstalled SMTP Service on an Exchange 2000 Server in a Cluster

If you remove the Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) Internet Information Services (IIS) component on an Exchange 2000 computer, the Exchange 2000 SMTP functionality is also removed. Even if you reinstall SMTP by using the Add/Remove Programs tool, this Exchange 2000 functionality may not be restored.

To work around this issue on a stand-alone Exchange 2000 computer, you can use one of the following two methods:

• Run Setup and select the Reinstall option.
• Run the SMTPReinstall tool that is included with Exchange 2000 Server Service Pack 2 (SP2).

However, these workarounds do not work on an Exchange 2000 computer that is in a cluster.

To work around this issue on an Exchange 2000 computer that is in a cluster, use one of the following methods.

Method 1: Restore the Metabase from Backup

Restore a full metabase backup for the cluster node that is experiencing this issue. Make sure that the backup was made before you removed SMTP from the node.

Method 2: Repair the SMTP and Exchange 2000 Installation

If a backup of the metabase is not available, reconnect the SMTP and Exchange 2000 installation. To do so:

1. Make sure both Exchange 2000 virtual servers are moved to the node that you are not repairing. To do this, right-click the group in the Cluster Administrator program, and then click Move Group.
2. Use Add/Remove Windows Components to remove the Internet Information Services (IIS) components from the server. When you remove the IIS components, make sure that you do not removeCommon Files (make sure that the Common Files check box is selected during IIS removal).
   
   Notes
   • If you remove Common Files when you remove the IIS components, the Cluster services are also removed. This complicates the process that is described in these steps. If you inadvertently remove Common Files, contact Microsoft Product Support Services (PSS) for information about how to evict the cluster node and resolve this issue. For information about how to contact Microsoft PSS, visit the following Microsoft Web site:
     http://support.microsoft.com (http://support.microsoft.com/)
   • When you remove the World Wide Web Server component, the configuration for any Web sites on the server is also removed.
3. After the Add/Remove Windows Components tool has completed the removal of the IIS components, make sure that the Metabase.bin file has been removed from the SystemRoot\System32\Inetsrv folder.
4. Use the Add/Remove Windows Components tool to reinstall all the IIS components. Make sure that you reinstall the SMTP Service and NNTP Service components.
5. Run Exchange 2000 Server Setup, and then select the Reinstall action to reconnect Exchange 2000 Server with the newly installed IIS components.
6. Re-apply any service packs and hotfixes to restore Microsoft Windows 2000 Server and Exchange 2000 to their previous revision levels.

After you use the previous methods, you can successfully failover the cluster resources to either node, and the SMTP service is correctly configured for the Exchange 2000 virtual servers.