The front-end Microsoft Exchange Transport service stops and doesn't restart in Exchange Server 2013 SP1 or Exchange Server 2016

7/24/2020

2 minutes to read



Applies to: Exchange Server 2013 Enterprise, Exchange Server 2016 Enterprise Edition

In this article

Original KB number: 2958036

Symptoms

Consider the following scenario:

You upgrade to Microsoft Exchange Server 2013 Service Pack 1 (SP1) or upgrade an Exchange Server 2016 server.

The Exchange server has both back-end and front-end roles.

You run the front-end Microsoft Exchange Transport service on the server.

In this scenario, the service stops and doesn't restart. Additionally, the following events are logged in the Application log:

Log Name: Application Source: MSExchangeTransport Event ID: 1019 Task Category: SmtpReceive Level: Error Computer: 2013 Server Description: Failed to start listening (Error: 10048). Binding: 0.0.0.0:25. Log Name: Application Source: MSExchangeTransport Event ID: 1018 Task Category: SmtpReceive Level: Error Computer: 2013 Server Description: The address is already in use. Binding: 0.0.0.0:25. Log Name: Application Source: MSExchangeTransport Event ID: 1036 Task Category: SmtpReceive Level: Error Computer: 2013 Server Description: Inbound direct trust authentication failed for certificate %1. The source IP address of the server that tried to authenticate to Microsoft Exchange is [%2]. Make sure EdgeSync is running properly. Log Name: Application Source: MSExchange Common Event ID: 4999 Task Category: General Level: Error Computer: 2013 Server Description: Watson report about to be sent for process id: 19848, with parameters: E12IIS, c-RTL-AMD64, 15.00.0847.032, MSExchangeTransport, M.Exchange.Net, M.E.P.WorkerProcessManager.HandleWorkerExited, M.E.ProcessManager.WorkerProcessRequestedAbnormalTerminationException, 5e2b, 15.00.0847.030. ErrorReportingEnabled: False Log Name: Application Source: MSExchange TransportService Event ID: 1046 Task Category: ProcessManager Level: Warning Computer: 2013 Server Description: Worker process with process ID 18420 requested the service to terminate with an unhandled exception.

Note If you stop the Microsoft Exchange Transport service, you can start the front-end Microsoft Exchange Transport service. Then, when you try to start the Microsoft Exchange Transport service, that service doesn't start, and the events that are mentioned earlier in this section are logged.

Cause

This issue occurs if there's a receive connector having a Transport type of HubTransport that has the binding set to port 25 on the affected Exchange server. Only the FrontendTransport server-type receive connector should have the binding set to port 25.

Resolution

Method 1

Run the following command to change the connector type from HubTransport to FrontendTransport:

Set-ReceiveConnector -Identity "Receive connector name" -TransportRole FrontendTransport

Method 2

Delete and re-create the receive connector, and then set its role to FrontendTransport.