XCON: Message Transfer Agent Fails to Start with Windows NT Event ID 137

This article was previously published under Q170005

The Microsoft Exchange Server Message Transfer Agent (MTA) may fail to start and the following event is logged in the Windows NT Application Log.

   Event ID: 137
   MSExchangeMTA A fatal directory error occurred. Change to the
   maximum logging level for more details.
   [MTA MAIN BASE 1 15] (16)
		

Check to make sure the Microsoft Exchange directory service is started. The MTA relies on the directory service to properly initialize. This behavior is by product design.