XADM: Services Are Disabled on Front-End Servers After an Exchange 2000 Server SP2 Upgrade

When you apply Microsoft Exchange 2000 Server Service Pack 2 (SP2) to a front-end Exchange 2000 computer, one or more failures may occur. No error or warning messages are generated in the application event log to indicate such failures.

This behavior occurs after you install Exchange 2000 SP2 or later on a computer that is defined as a front-end server, including Exchange 2003. In this situation, the following services no longer run on the Exchange Server computer that is defined as a front-end server:

• DSProxy
• Offline Address List Generation
• Recipient Update Service
• Free and Busy Tasks
• Mailbox Cleanup Agent
• The Event Service
• Site Replication Service (SRS)

The Event Service may start, but the Event Service then shuts down immediately. A front-end Exchange Server computer is designed to only relay mail to the back-end servers and to handle Microsoft Outlook Web Access (OWA) client requests.

To work around this behavior, use Exchange System Manager to move the Recipient Update Service and Offline Address List Generation service processes to a back-end server before you apply Exchange 2000 SP2 or later. You can also make these changes after you apply the service pack with minimal interference for connecting users.

However, make these configuration changes relatively quickly after you apply Exchange 2000 SP2 or later. If a front-end server has the Recipient Update Service and offline Address Book roles, newly created user objects are not processed by the Recipient Update Service (therefore, those user objects do not receive e-mail addresses and are not displayed in the Address Book). Also, updates to the offline Address Book are not processed.

To change the Recipient Update Service server:

1. Start Exchange System Manager.
2. Expand the Recipients container, and then expand the Recipient Update Service container.
3. For each domain Recipient Update Service, open the properties, and then change the server in the Exchange Server box to the back-end server that you want to use.
   
   NOTE: You do not need to change the server in the Windows 2000 Domain Controller box if the front-end server is a domain controller; however, Microsoft does not recommend using a front-end server as a Microsoft Windows domain controller.

To change the offline address list server:

1. Start Exchange System Manager.
2. Expand the Recipients container, and then expand the Offline Address Lists container.
3. For each of the offline address list components, open the properties, and then change the server in the Offline address list server box to the back-end server that you want to use.

In earlier versions of Exchange 2000 Server, the system attendant starts all of the services that are listed in the "Cause" section of this article. If the system attendant starts all of these services on a front-end server, error messages may be logged in the Application event log.

For example, most front-end servers are installed in a perimeter network (also known as DMZ, demilitarized zone, and screened subnet). If the front-end server is installed in a perimeter network, ports are usually blocked; therefore, if a front-end server attempts to process a DSProxy request, the request might fail and fill up the event log.

The Mailbox Cleanup Agent and Free and Busy Tasks services are not necessary on a front-end server. Make sure that front-end servers do not have any public information stores. If a front-end server has private information stores for SMTP delivery status notification (DSN) generation purposes, make sure that no mailboxes are present.