XADM: Information Store or Directory Service Appear Hung

ID: Q236426

The information in this article applies to:

Microsoft Exchange Server, version 5.5

SYMPTOMS

The information store service becomes unresponsive. Users are unable to log onto mailboxes, and Performance Monitor may show %Processor Utilization for Store.exe at 0 percent.

The directory service becomes unresponsive. Various operations, such as resolving a name to a mailbox in the global address list, or checking a name during creation of a mailbox profile stop responding (hang) when users attempt to perform them. In addition, Performance Monitor may show %Processor Utilization for Dsamain.exe at 0 percent.

CAUSE

ESE (Jet) hangs because all threads are waiting to acquire a resource that is owned by another thread. The decision used by threads as to which resources to acquire is based in part on a timestamp, and the timestamp comparison is being performed incorrectly. This incorrect comparison can cause the owning thread not to release the lock on the resource and leave all threads waiting.

The symptoms noted above are usually dependent on system uptime. Although this problem is not reproducible, documented cases encountered this problem on Exchange Server computers running for 30 days or more.

RESOLUTION

A supported feature that modifies the product's default behavior is now available from Microsoft, but has not been fully regression tested and should be applied only to systems having a specific need for it. If you are not severely affected by the lack of this feature, Microsoft recommends that you wait for the next Microsoft Exchange Server version 5.5 service pack that contains this feature.

To obtain this feature immediately, contact Microsoft Product Support Services. For a complete list of Microsoft Product Support Services phone numbers and information on support costs, please go to the following address on the World Wide Web:

http://www.microsoft.com/support/supportnet/overview/overview.asp

The English version of this feature should have the following file attributes or later:

Component: ESE

File name	Version
Ese.dll	5.5.2608

This hotfix has been posted to the following Internet location as Psp2esei.exe:

ftp://ftp.microsoft.com/bussys/exchange/exchange-public/fixes/Eng/Exchg5.5/PostSP2/ESE-fix/Psp2esei.zip

STATUS

Microsoft has confirmed this to be a problem in Microsoft Exchange Server version 5.5.

Additional query words: freeze frozen hanging ESE98 ESE97 100% spike

Keywords : exc55
Version : winnt:5.5
Platform : winnt
Issue type : kbbug