Exchange 2010 EMS, EMC or OWA not working / Startup issue Resolved (100 percent fix)

In this blog I am going to teach you how to resolve the issue in case Exchange 2010 EMS, EMC or OWA not working / Startup issue giving error message of any kind. Please follow step by step procedure to make sure you are doing it in a right way:

Step1 :  

Ping your FQDN server name and see if the ping result is positive. i.e; In my case server fqdn is mail107.vcsl107.local so ping mail107.vcsl107.local and if the result is positive then all perfect else just make an entry in the host file and try to ping again. Some times this issue also arise due to ipv6 version enabled. So try to ping you fqdn server name and if as a result reply is in ipv6 then try to disable ipv6 from registry and ping again to see if it works.
In most of the cases above stated fix may help you getting resolution and your exchange server back at work. If not then try step 2

 Step 2:  

If you are running exchange in a virtual  environment or if not please make sure the Time Synchronisation option is correct and the time is running properly and then running net time /set on Exchange servers brought their clocks back into sync with their domain controllers.

Step3:

In step 4 we will be using Windows power shell to add exchange snap in to use powershell as an exchange management shell to check and see if the listed below options / virtual directories are working or not. Please follow along with caution:
Run windows power shell as administrator and paste the below mentiond command:

Add-PSSnapin Microsoft.Exchange.Management.PowerShell.E2010

after this follow the below procedure

1. Reboot the server, usually fixes this error.
2. Make sure your authentication settings on your virtual directory for PowerShell is correct.
>Internet Information Services (IIS) Manager, <Servername>, Sites, Default Web Site, PowerShell and in the right panel, scroll down to the Authentication module
Make sure that Anonymous access is disabled and Windows Authentication is enabled.
3.
a) Make sure the current logged in user has remote powershell enabled. Should return “True” if enabled.

(Get-User <username>).RemotePowershellEnabled

b) Enable remote powershell for a user with the below cmd in “Exchange Management Shell”

Set-User “User Name” -RemotePowerShellEnabled $true

Step 4:

a) If you still can’t access EMC or EMS then go ahead below with caution. (Write down your custom settings for the “PowerShell” and “OWA” Virtual Directory in IIS)
b) Start Windows PowerShell as administrator
c) Load snapin for ex2k10:

Add-PSSnapin Microsoft.Exchange.Management.PowerShell.E2010

d) Display a full list (fl)

Get-PowerShellVirtualDirectory |fl

e) Delete your failing PowerShell virtual directory, one of these two commands should work:

Get-PowerShellVirtualDirectory | Remove-PowerShellVirtualDirectory Remove-PowerShellVirtualDirectory -identity "powershell-vdir "

f) Restart IIS:

iisreset

g) Create a new IIS PowerShell virtual directory

New-PowerShellVirtualDirectory Name: PowerShell

h) Restart IIS once more:

iisreset

j) Disable “Require SSL” Setting on the virtual directory.

Set-PowerShellVirtualDirectory -identity "powershell-vdir" -RequireSSL:$false

You may also go ahead and set SSL settings manually on the virtual directory “PowerShell” in IIS 7.
>Internet Information Services (IIS) Manager, <Servername>, Sites, Default Web Site, PowerShell and in the right panel, scroll down to SSL Settings.
Untick Require SSL and set to Ignore. Apply.


If you get this error when visiting OWA together with a Forms Based authentication:

"The Microsoft Exchange Active Directory Topology service on server localhost can't be contacted via RPC. Error 0x5."

Step 5.
a) Then remove your OWA virtual directory and re-create it with default settings:

Get-OwaVirtualDirectory | Remove-OwaVirtualDirectory

b) Restart IIS:

iisreset

c) Create a new OWA virtual directory:

New-OwaVirtualDirectory

e) Restart IIS once more:

iisreset

Now go ahead and see if OWA works. It all worked fine for me.

Step 6:  Manual powershell virtual directory creation

If aboveall didn't work for you and still you are getting same error or virtual directory powershell creation is giving some errors or what so ever the case may be so then now the below mentioned steps will surely resolve your problem : please follow along:

I decided to create the PowerShell VD manual by my own. Here how it worked for me:
I´m working with a German Windows, so I hope I translate the options right:

• In the IIS Manager create a new Application for your default Website called: "PowerShell" and use the "MSExchangePowerShellAppPool". Point the physical path to: "C:\Program Files\Microsoft\Exchange Server\V14\ClientAccess\PowerShell"

• Open the following file: "C:\Windows\System32\inetsrv\config\applicationHost.config" and add these 2 Lines in the "<globalModules>" Section:

                <add name="WSMan" image="C:\Windows\System32\WsmSvc.dll" />
                <add name="kerbauth" image="C:\Program Files\Microsoft\Exchange Server\v14\Bin\kerbauth.dll" />
      
         Please make sure if the above two lines already exists in applicationHost.config file then don't enter them again.

• Go back to IIS Manager and open the Module Section within the PowerShell Website. Right Click and choose "Configure Native Modules". Add here your WSMan and kerbauth Module.
• Make sure that SSL required isn´t hooked in the SSL Options from the Powershell Website
• open powershell and run "WinRM Quickconfig"
• do a iisreset

After I´ve done this steps my Exchange Management Console and Shell worked fine again.

Hope this helps some people :)


Step 7:

now please verify this again :
1. Launch EMS if not working then launch windows power shell addin exchange snap in using 

Add-PSSnapin Microsoft.Exchange.Management.PowerShell.E2010 

and then try the following and see results: 

2. winrm quickconfig
accept Y and if it gives already running then fine. 
3. iisreset


Step 8:

If the issue still persists then please follow the procedure of web.config file edit. Make sure to backup the web.config file before proceeding:
if we edit the web.config we can see a variable called %ExchangeInstallDir% but that variable doesn't exist in the environment variable path, even after we add it still the issue is the same
so what i did here is replace this variable with the physical path as below

open web.config (you will find this in C:\Program Files\Microsoft\Exchange Server\V14\ClientAccess\PowerShell ) or in sp3 exchange 2010  C:\exchangeserversp3\ClientAccess\PowerShell

Replace all "file:///%ExchangeInstallDir%" with "file:///D:\Program Files\Microsoft\Exchange Server\" where D is the drive where Exchange is installed
Save the file
iisreset

now EMC and EMS should open properly

Step 9:

Make sure that the Kerbauth.dll module is native and local and pointing on in powershell not on all default website virtual directory.
Also make sure that in SSL settings ignore is checked and SSL is disabled.
Make sure that the IIS default web site bindings are all correct.


Conclusion:

I have followed this procedure step by step and afterwards I resolved the problem. Its 100 percent that if you follow the steps one by one in your environment then you will certainly be able to resolve the issue easily as I have almost stated all the possible fixes that can make your exchange 2010 up and running again. 

In case of any confusion or for further queries you may contact me at :
Email :          yaseenraja2000@gmail.com
Contact:       0092-312-5166589
Skype id:      myaseen789

Also check my blogs on different related issues at :   myaseen789.blogspot.com