Exchange Server databases on cluster fail to mount after failing over with Error c1041724 in Exchange 2000 Server

When you run Exchange 2000 in a clustered environment, Exchange Server services start on one node, but when you fail the Exchange 2000 resource group over to the other node, the databases do not mount, and the following error message may be displayed in Exchange System Manager:

This issue can occur because a maximum of four storage groups can exist on an Exchange 2000 computer at one time; this behavior is by design. If there are more than four storage groups, the databases cannot mount.

For example, you have two nodes in a cluster called "Node1" and "Node2", and there are two Exchange Server virtual servers called "EXVS1" and "EXVS2". Each virtual server has three storage groups. When EXVS1 is owned by Node1 and EXVS2 is owned by Node2, the configuration functions as expected. However, if EXVS1 fails over to Node2, none of the databases in EXVS1 start because the total number of storage groups exceeds the maximum of four.

To resolve this issue, decrease the number of storage groups that one node can own at any one time to account for failover conditions (less than or equal to four). After you decrease the number of storage groups, restart the store service.

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