Event ID: 8250 Event Source: MSExchangeAL

Event ID: 8250
Source	MSExchangeAL
Type	Error
Description	The Win32 API call "DsGetDCNameW" returned error code [0x862] The specified component could not be found in the configuration information. The service could not be initialized. Make sure that the operating system was installed properly.
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Things to understand	What is the role of the MSExchangeAL service?
Comments	Peter Van Gils (Last update 11/10/2005): I had a system with a malfunctioning network card. After disabling the NIC, stopping the IS resulted in dozens of these errors. I could only stop it by ending the store.exe process in Task Manager. Ionut Marin (Last update 9/10/2005): As per Microsoft: "This event may be seen if a call to the DsGetDcName function is made before the Exchange Management Service is fully initialized. If this is the case, you will also see events 2104 and 2102 (both having a source of MSExchangeDSAccess) preceding this event". See MSEX2K3DB for more details. Shawn Lafferty (Last update 10/29/2003): As per M322837, after you apply Service Pack 2 (SP2) for Exchange 2000 Server, you may see this event logged in the Application event log each time that you restart the server. See M322837 to find out when this event can be ignored. Adrian Grigorof Error 0x862 (hex) or 2146 (decimal) means as the message says: "The specified component could not be found in the configuration information." and Microsoft's explanation via "net helpmsg 2146" is: "Windows NT could not find the required information in your configuration. ACTION: Ask your network administrator to check your configuration. The administrator should make sure your system configuration contains all information required to run Windows NT and any associated applications." Obviously, this does not do the job if you are already the administrator. This event seems to occur after the installation of Exchange 2000 SP2 and usually the server does not function properly. The "DsGetDCNameW" API is a function part of ADSI and as the name says it returns the name of the Domain Controller. A newsgroup posts says that "Stopping and restarting the SMTP service manually will allow SMTP to start without this error." From another post: "I'm told by a tech at PSS (Microsoft Professional Support Services) that all three of these can be ignored. Apparently they'll be taken care of in the next Exchange SP."
Links	M322837, MSEX2K3DB
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