This morning, one of our managed Exchange 2013 Servers stopped passing mail.
Event 5172:
‘\\?\C:\Windows\system32\inetsrv\config\applicationHost.config’, line number ‘1’.
The error message is: ‘Configuration file is not well-formed XML
You’d receive the same message when trying to manage IIS.
On the hosed Exchange server, the applicationHost.config file was 239 lines of:
2014-03-11T17:43:51.855Z,1407758,Microsoft.Exchange.RpcClientAccess.Service.exe,5352,,Search,Success,2,
0,1,1,,(&(|(objectSid=S-1-XXX)(msExchMasterAccountSid=S-1-5-XXX)(sIDHistory=S-1-5-XXX))(!(
objectClass=foreignSecurityPrincipal))(!(msExchCU=*))(|(objectCategory=person)(
objectCategory=msExchDynamicDistributionList)(objectCategory=group)(objectCategory=publicFolder)(
objectCategory=msExchPublicMDB)(objectCategory=msExchSystemMailbox)(
objectCategory=msExchExchangeServerRecipient)(objectCategory=exchangeAdminService)(
objectCategory=computer))(|(&(msExchVersion<=2251799813685248)(!(msExchVersion=2251799813685248)))(!(
msExchVersion=*)))),SubTree,,DOMAINFILE.DOMAIN.local,3268,00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000,,,SidBudgetKey.
cs: Method InternalLookup; Line 201
I reviewed applicationHost.config on a functioning server, which appears to be a stock XML config file.
I don't know HOW or WHY this occurred, but the solution was fairly simple:
-Stop IIS
-Backup your hosed applicationHost.config file
-Create a new one with the contents of a functioning Exchange 2013 server.
-Start IIS -> you should see your Exchange Back End again.
