Update on Office Communications Server 2007 R2 services stuck at 'Starting' with Server 2008

A few months ago I detailed about a problem with OCS services not starting after a reboot, a general loss of network connectivity during boot and the inability to RDP to those servers once this scenario was triggered.

I bumped into a new article from a Paul Adams at MS that has a handy PowerShell script to add in the workaround for the deadlock problem. It is also noted, just from general banter on the Internet, forums and newsgroups, that the OCS servers involved are typically HP servers that used the SmartStart CD/DVD for installation. It could be that HP agents, drivers or services added to the base OS are causing this issue to flare up. Any OCS servers I have seen, so far, that had this problem were HP servers.

The PowerShell script can be downloaded from here, and it refers to an earlier post by the same author detailing the technical reasons as to why and how it can happen. Ideally, I'm hoping a more generic/official fix for it becomes available from Microsoft at some point for the OS. OCS unfortunately is just a possible trigger for this issue, and the issue comes from the underlying operating system.

Update: In a weird twist of fate, this issue/bug does not exist with Server 2008 R2, but OCS 2007 R2 isn't supported under Server 2008 R2 yet.

Posted by Aaron Tiensivu in Microsoft, OCS / LCS, Server, Windows OS at 13:37 | Comments (5) | Trackbacks (0)

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Thanks for the info. Our server is also a HP box, and it has some HP tools installed on it.

#1 Ricardo on 2010-01-18 14:20 (Reply)

Great Info! I will be putting the fix on the server this weekend.

#2 John Bales (Homepage) on 2010-01-19 15:22 (Reply)

Hi Aaron,

Thanks for putting this information together. At Enabling we've been doing a lot of OCS 2007 R2 installs and this problem has crept up on virtually every install that had HP servers! I don't recall a case on other manufacturers gear!

--John
Messaging Engineer
Enabling Technologies

#3 John Miller (Homepage) on 2010-02-09 11:06 (Reply)

Good to hear - I wish I knew what the root cause was, besides the OS deadlock. I'm going to ask them about it at the MVP Summit. I believe even some MVPs from HP will be there too.

#3.1 Aaron Tiensivu (Homepage) on 2010-02-09 11:29 (Reply)

The original reg fix sorted our issue of the server getting stuck on "applying computer settings" but it has not fixed the delay on OCS services starting up (including RDP)? Our server is an HP server built using Smart-Start. Is their anything I can do to get these services up in a timely manner?

#4 David Lee on 2010-04-13 15:35 (Reply)

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