Why can't I create mailboxes in Exchange 2007 via VMware

I thought it would be simple to create an additional user mailbox in our Exchange 2007 server running in VMWare virtual server. The mailbox creation process fails with this message: "An Exchange 2007 server on which an address list service is active cannot be found."



Why do simple tasks that fail drive me nuts, and take forever to resolve?

What broke? The Microsoft Exchange System Attendant failed to start! Once restarted, I created the mailbox with ease. This was the same thing I saw when creating mailboxes for an Exchange Resource Forest Trust. So for whatever reason, the SA continues to randomly fail to start. A three minute task stretched to fifteen. Reminds me of the joke... I always give 100% effort at work: 10% on Mon, 25% on Tue, 35% on Wed, 25% on Thu, 5% on Fri.