Exchange System Attendant is a software that acts as an Exchange Server manager. It is a combination of sub-components that regulate the internal functioning of the Exchange Server and performs the task of responding to proxy Active Directory requests. The primary functions of ES Attendant includes database mounting, organizing Exchange information, monitoring the Server resources, mailbox management, checking out directory service on Server and much more.
Scenario: In Exchange 2000 and 2003, a number of services are dependent upon smooth working of the Exchange System Attendant and if it is not in consistent state users might fail to mount the database or receive error messages. For example: the service may fail to start and give the following error:
‘Could not start the Microsoft Exchange System Attendant Service on Local Computer. Error 1053: The service did not respond to the start or control request in a timely fashion.’
In this situation, you can run Microsoft Exchange Server Best Practices Analyzer Tool that verifies if the Exchange Server is configured properly for the set of tasks that are being performed. To run this tool, the client machine should have .NET Framework available. Also, it is necessary that proper network connection is available so that the tool can analyze Active Directory service of Exchange Server to give a list of probable problems. This tool can run under a specific domain for a particular Server or for multiple numbers of Servers.
In the case mentioned above, the following error can be perceived as the problem:
‘Error Exchange group not found Domain RPC Active Directory domain RPC has been prepared for Exchange ‘¦.renamed, moved, or deleted.’
Cause: When System Attendant Service starts up, the following groups are searched out in the default user container:
- Exchange Services
- Exchange Enterprise Servers
- Exchange Domain Servers
If any of the group is missing, the System Attendant Service will not get started.
Solution: In order to troubleshoot the problem, it is recommended to move three of the mentioned groups to default user container and then restart the SA service.
