An Exchange 2007 server on which an address list service is active cannot be found

While modifying the mailbox quotes on a user mailbox on exchange 2007 I got the error "An Exchange 2007 server on which an address list service is active cannot be found". Lots of chatter here but I did look at see that the 'Microsoft Exchange System Attendant' service wasn't running, although it was set to automatic. Start -> Run -> services.msc and started it and replayed the actions and the changes worked afterwards. Not sure why it wasn't running.