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A great resource for Exchange administrators is the Exchange Server 2003 Events and Errors search engine.
Rather than punching an error into Google or another broad-scale search engine (maybe accompanied by keywords like "Exchange" and "Error"), this interface allows you to get all of the relevant Microsoft documentation about a particular Event ID, or all Event IDs that relate to a particular source.
When you enter a source or Event ID -- or both -- the search engine produces a series of matches based on the submitted criteria. When you click on one, you get a detailed explanation of what the Event ID refers to, what generates it, the phrasing of the error message that accompanies it, what you can do about it, and any related articles in the Microsoft Knowledge Base.
The search engine also supports partial searches. For instance, punch in MSExchangeAL but leave the Event ID field blank. When you hit "Go," you'll see all of the Event IDs that have MSExchangeAL as their source. You can also do the reverse -- punch in an Event ID, and you can see all the sources that can generate that Event ID.
Note that different Event IDs and different sources may mean different errors, so always read for context. Not all errors require user action either; some are simply informational. Some of the events listed also don't have complete explanations yet -- for example, Event ID 8001 for MSADC has no explanation or user action, so you'd need to do further research to find out what m...
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ight be throwing such an error.
About the author: Serdar Yegulalp is editor of the Windows Power Users Newsletter and a regular contributor to SearchExchange.com.
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Do you know of any search engines for earlier versions of Exchange?
—Carl B.
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It sounds like a helpful Web site, but when I typed in MSExchangeSA in Source and 9099 for ID (or any combination of the two), I received the message "Sorry, no results returned." The same thing happened with Event ID 9318 and 8331.
—Ted O.
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I punched in MSExchangeAL, as recommended and got "Sorry, no results returned."
—Ron E.
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I tested the link listed above (Exchange Server 2003 Events and Errors search engine), and it does seem to be working -- it is just that some error codes may have changed between Exchange 2000 and Exchange 2003.
Alternatively, you can find a similar search engine for Exchange 2000 here.
The original link provided in the tip above (Exchange Server 2003 Events and Errors search engine) should be used for Exchange 2003 only.
—Serdar Yegulalp, tip author
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EventID.net is another excellent resource for troubleshooting Event ID errors.
—Kevin L.
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