So, say you're seeing these:
For the image impaired: Application Log, Event ID: 1013, Source: W3SVC, A process serving application pool 'ExchangeApplicationPool' exceeded time limits during shut down. The process id was ####.
I'm following a couple of Usenet and forum threads (http://tinyurl.com/ylfczl, http://tinyurl.com/yjc2nv, and http://tinyurl.com/yfvxzn) right now that seem to indicate that this is a problem with Symantec Mail Security for Exchange and the "Premium Anti-Spam" feature. Apparently a bad "update" sent out late last week is causing this failure to occur.
Apparently, this is a definition of "Premium" that I was, heretofore, completely unaware of. Of course, Symantec's support page for the product doesn't show any "hot topics" right now. Guess an "update" that crashes your Customers servers isn't a "hot topic", eh? Searching their knowledge base also returns no relevant articles.
I'm going to go ahead and implement the "fix" that is suggested in the Usenet threads, but I'd like to see Symantec issue some statement about the issue. I should probably call technical support, but that means digging out a Customer's support credential and then lying to technical support (since, helpfully, Symantec is one of those fuckwit companies that limits your number of "support contacts"... Gee... "Gold Maintenance", eh? Must also be a different kind of "Gold" than I'm familiar with. Oh, wait-- I need "Platinum" support to download updates "on demand" without having to call and plead with techncial support... *sigh*)
This isn't the first time that I've had failures as a result of a version of Symantec's Exchange scanner. The products have been uniformly horrific since I started using them in 2000. In general, all Exchange scanners that I've used, regardless of manufacturer, have been touchy and bug-ridden. I'd love to do all my scanning in a border gateway, but with most Customers that's just not possible.
