Process MSEXCHANGE AD TOPOLOGY SERVICE.EXE (PID=1756). Topology discovery failed, error 0x8007077f

IT Problem

You are experiencing your Exchange 2010 or Exchange 2013 server sitting at starting services. When you check the services console you will find that the information store is in a stopped or in a hung starting state, additionally a number of other services are stuck in a starting state including the Microsoft exchange transport service and the Microsoft exchange topology service.

In Event viewer you see the following errors.Event ID 2142, 2077, 2069, the main ID is 2142.

The main clue here is the Event ID 2142 and Process MSEXCHANGEADTOPOLOGYSERVICE.EXE (PID=1756). Topology discovery failed, error 0x8007077f.

IT Solution

The issue you are seeing here is that your server cannot see active directory, if you have multiple sites you need to make sure that both sites have a sub net assigned to them so that the Exchange 201 or Exchange 2013 server can talk to DNS and DC`s on its subnet. Here we create a site for the Exchange server. Open Active Directory Sites and Services.

Under sub net right click and select  new sub net

new subnet sites and services

Once in there enter your sub net, you will then need to assign it to the relevant site. Once done, go to the services console and start the exchange services or you can reboot the server. You will find the exchange will now start fine.