Trying to install a new Exchange 2003 server and it's not wanting to play ball.

Existing mail server running Exchange 5.5 sp3 (rdf-sco-mail)
New server just has Windows 2003 and is a member of the current domain (well Active Directory forest now).

I'm trying to run the Exchange setup program (tried the main AD domain controller and all our other backup controllers) but they all just return a "fatal setup error". I'm only wanting to run ForestPrep, but even the full setup utility won't load.

Any ideas? I'm logged in as our Domain Administrator BTW.

Stefan

Any error codes?

I'm wondering if it's schema related.

nothing on screen, but a few in the logs. Give us a sec and I'll post them up.

Stefan

errorlog.txt contains

[11/27/03,15:59:00] setup.exe: [2] Run() : RunLoadSetup(), an exception has occured.

nice and helpful that one :rolleyes:

eventlog.txt contains

[11/27/03,15:58:59] Setup.exe: GetGlobalCustomProperty(B51015E7-26A5-4c8f-B871-26ABA9BEFB65)
[11/27/03,15:58:59] Setup.exe: LoadSetupDatabase()
[11/27/03,15:58:59] Setup.exe: in InternalRegisterSetupService()
[11/27/03,15:58:59] Setup.exe: in InternalRegisterSetupService()
[11/27/03,15:58:59] Setup.exe: IsRunningUnattended
[11/27/03,15:58:59] Setup.exe: AddGlobalCustomProperty
[11/27/03,15:58:59] Setup.exe: IsRunningUnattended
[11/27/03,15:58:59] Setup.exe: inside ISetupManager::LoadHelpManager()
[11/27/03,15:58:59] Setup.exe: in InternalRegisterSetupService()
[11/27/03,15:58:59] Setup.exe: in InternalRegisterSetupService()
[11/27/03,15:58:59] Setup.exe: ISetupManager::LoadCommandLineMgr() completed
[11/27/03,15:58:59] Setup.exe: in InternalRegisterSetupService()
[11/27/03,15:58:59] Setup.exe: ISetupManager::LoadSetupLog() completed
[11/27/03,15:58:59] Setup.exe: ISetupManager::RunIntro() starting
[11/27/03,15:58:59] Setup.exe: inside ISetupManager::LoadDependencyMgr()
[11/27/03,15:58:59] Setup.exe: in InternalRegisterSetupService()
[11/27/03,15:58:59] Setup.exe: inside ISetupManager::LoadCDInfoMgr()
[11/27/03,15:58:59] Setup.exe: GetCustomProperties()
[11/27/03,15:58:59] Setup.exe: get_CustomProperties()
[11/27/03,15:58:59] Setup.exe: in InternalRegisterSetupService()
[11/27/03,15:58:59] Setup.exe: inside ISetupManager::LoadTemplMgr()
[11/27/03,15:58:59] Setup.exe: in InternalRegisterSetupService()
[11/27/03,15:58:59] Setup.exe: inside ISetupManager::LoadDiskInfoMgr()
[11/27/03,15:58:59] Setup.exe: in InternalRegisterSetupService()
[11/27/03,15:58:59] Setup.exe: inside ISetupManager::LoadUIManager()
[11/27/03,15:59:00] Setup.exe: in RegisterSetupService()
[11/27/03,15:59:00] Setup.exe: in InternalRegisterSetupService()
[11/27/03,15:59:00] Setup.exe: GetGlobalCustomProperty({0DC70217-9545-11D2-ACD4-00C04F8EEBA1})
[11/27/03,15:59:00] Setup.exe: IsRunningUnattended
[11/27/03,15:59:00] Setup.exe: GetGlobalCustomProperty({AA62DF98-3F2C-11D3-887B-00C04F8ECDD6})
[11/27/03,15:59:00] Setup.exe: in InternalRegisterSetupService()
[11/27/03,15:59:00] Setup.exe: inside ISetupManager::LoadAccountManager()
[11/27/03,15:59:00] Setup.exe: in InternalRegisterSetupService()
[11/27/03,15:59:00] Setup.exe: inside ISetupManager::LoadValidationManager()
[11/27/03,15:59:00] Setup.exe: in InternalRegisterSetupService()
[11/27/03,15:59:00] Setup.exe: inside ISetupManager::LoadDependencyManagerUI()
[11/27/03,15:59:00] Setup.exe: in InternalRegisterSetupService()
[11/27/03,15:59:00] Setup.exe: inside ISetupManager::LoadServerGroupManager()
[11/27/03,15:59:00] Setup.exe: in InternalRegisterSetupService()
[11/27/03,15:59:00] Setup.exe: inside ISetupManager::LoadChangeFolder()
[11/27/03,15:59:00] Setup.exe: in InternalRegisterSetupService()
[11/27/03,15:59:00] setup.exe: ***ERRORLOG EVENT*** : Run() : RunLoadSetup(), an exception has occured.
[11/27/03,15:59:00] Setup.exe: IsRunningUnattended
[11/27/03,15:59:05] Setup.exe: RunUnLoadSetup()
[11/27/03,15:59:05] Setup.exe: UnloadSuiteComponents()

Stefan

I found this

We do have an unused NIC, but it's already disabled. I'll try the DNS route first and see if it makes any difference.

Stefan

DNS checks out fine, but still doesn't work :(

http://tinyurl.com/wsy9 Google Groups - guy mentions being part of the Enterprise Admins Group and your box being a Global Cat server.

Worth a look maybe...

Thanks Chris.

The box is a Global Catalog Server and the user is already a member of the Enterprise Admins group :(

The setup runs perfectly on the new Exchange server, but it's only a member server so won't run all the operations.

A soon as I try running setup on a DC, it fails - even the one I just freshly built last week :(

The setup ran perfectly on my test setup (new domain, new servers), so maybe it is something on the existing setup. If only the error message wasn't so bl00dy vague.

Stefan

woohoo, it's working :D well sort of ....

It still doesn't want to run from any of the DC's, but I ran the setup again on the new Exchange box (member server) and double-checked permissions. You need to be Enterprise Admin, Domain Admin, Schema Admin and (if installing from a member server) local Administrator.

All that checked out OK, but the local administration side had the Domain Admins group and local admin account only. Now my account is part of Domain Admins, but I added it individually and now it's running through the ForestPrep procedure.

Stefan

[Edited by ozzy - 11/28/2003 12:21:43 PM]

To good to be true.

Server run through ForestPrep, DomainPrep and the ADC install, but now it fails when I try to join the existing 5.5 Organisation.

Comes up with

Setup encountered an error while attempting to bind to the Exchange server "<server>": 0xC103FC93 (64659): Could not bind to the Exchange Directory server <server>. The Microsoft Exchange Server computer does not respond.

User has Admin permissions to the current Exchange organisation, sites, etc..

New server is a member server in the existing domain and I can resolve the current Exchange server using DNS & WINS. Also, server is running on default LDAP port 389.

Been hunting around the net and found some articles with this error, but I've followed their advice and still no joy :(

Any ideas?

Stefan

ne1? aren't we all migrating to Exchange 2003 :rolleyes:

Stefan

Worth trying SP4 for Ex 5.5 on your existing server?

I did my first SBS 4.5 > SBS 2003 migration at the weekend, so covered Ex 2003 but was somewhat different (change of domain names etc etc).

You seen this?

If you are running into Exchange problems with limited resolution, I can recommend the microsoft.public.exchange.* newsgroups for advice, you can search them at groups.google.co.uk.

Sorry my mistake, our Exchange 5.5 box is already running SP4.

I've been on the MS newsgroups and still no joy. I'll keep trying and probably post a question there.

I even built a brand new box yesterday with a plain install of 2003 server and tried the Exchange setup on that. Fails at exactly the same point.

I can telnet to the Exchange 5.5 box on port 389 quite happily.

This is so frustrating :(

Stefan

For about £26.51 it is well worth geting a copy of Mastering Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 by Sybex from Amazon.

Try intalling Ex2003 on the server without being part of the domain (stand alone server). You can allways add it to the domain later. I had no problems installing Ex2003 on Server 2003 Enterprise Version.

I think I've got an idea, as you are joining a 5.5 org then you will need a SRS - this will need to be created in order for Ex2K3 to talk to 5.5 and that SRS has been configured to use port 389. BUT, port 389 will have been grabbed by the DC for LDAP. Configure the Exchange LDAP operations to run over port 379, IIRC the SRS by default listens on 379.

(All a bit half remembered from our cutover from 5.5 to 2000.) :D

I had no problems install Exchange 2003 on our test rigs. The problem is I need to join our existing 5.5 organisation to start moving mailboxes.

I found article 272998 which details the exact problem I'm having. I've ran the LDP utility and I can connect and bind to LDAP running on our Exchange server.

I've heard about problems connect to port 389 since this is used to make queries to the AD. The only problem I have with this idea is our new Exchange server isn't running AD (it's a member server), so why should port 389 be blocked when it's only communicating with the old 5.5 server :confused: or am I missing something?

Articles talk about DNS issues. Can anyone tell me what DNS entries should be there for an Exchange server. Our DNS has Host (A) records for each server, but should it have LDAP records too?

Stefan

Miles,

Isn't the SRS installed with the 1st Exchange 2000 server? If so, I'll not have one yet. I do have the ADC configured on the new Exchange server and this is happily replicating using LDAP port 389. I did stop this to see if it was blocking the port, but it didn't help :(

Stefan

stephan, yes, there should be ldap records in ad for the exchange server
so you don't reckon it's permissions then (it normally is:rolleyes)

run exmerge against the 5.5 server, if you get a user list then permissions are ok...

shunty

the ldap record should exist in your root dns _tcp folder.
In fact any domain that exists will have a dns ldap record in every _tcp folder

shunty

[Edited by shunty - 12/4/2003 3:04:33 PM]

I've check the DNS server and we've a _ldap entry for each of our two DC's, but nothing for the existing 5.5 server and nothing for the new Exch 2003 (but that's only running our ADC right now).

I did a packet capture when running through the setup routine and their is no calls to the DNS servers from the new Exch 2003 server. I'll run the trace on the existing 5.5 server to see if it's attempting to read the ldap entries from the DNS servers.

I assume there should be some traffic if it is a DNS issue.

I'm logged in as the existing domain admin and checked he belongs to all the Exchange groups as well as having admin permissions to the org, site and config containers in the existing 5.5 setup. I've even added the local server to the Exchange groups, so I have to assume the permissions are good. I certainly wouldn't rule out permissions, but MS are forthcoming in the documentation.

I can e-mail anyone the Exchange setup log if that would help me spot a problem.

Stefan

I've added an _ldap entry for both servers in the root dns _tcp folder, but still no joy.

I can see the Bind requests (RPC) and the failure being reported back from the existing 5.5 server, but no indication of why it failed. Neither server is actually communicating with our DNS servers when it does the bind request.

What's confusing is I can run LDP from the new server and bind to the LDAP directory on the exiting 5.5 server quite happily. It even lets me browse the directory, so why the heck won't the setup routine bind????

It's driving me mental :(

Stefan

P.S. Just to add, I ran Exmerge and I can list all the users mailboxes.

right, this is definetly a DNS issue mate.....IMO
I had probs last week transferring FSMO roles accross, which uses a bind routine & I fixed that with DNS.
go back through your dns entries again...easy said I know, but I bet this is the prob

shunty

Do you know if MS have a list of the correct DNS entries?

Our site is pretty basic, with just a couple of DC's, some member servers and a single AD forest/site/domain.

Stefan

miles or chris metioned this earlier:

http://www.jsiinc.com/SUBF/TIP2900/rh2961.htm

just double check again that it's not same port assignment prob..
I have exchange 2003 up & running BUT I didn't do an upgrade. However IIRC we had this ldap bind issue (or similar) when last company upgraded to 2000.

shunty

I know it's 2000 but 2003 stil uses same type connection

you got dns primary zone on new ex 2003 server ?? is dns replicating ok, you used replication tool to check ??

also what exact error do you get now ?

shunty

The new (and existing) Exchange servers aren't DC's, so the LDAP port problem AFAIK isn't relevant.

Not sure what you mean by the primary zone & the new ex 2003 server. We have a single DNS server (for the time being). I've given the new Exchange box a static IP address and set the local DNS server value.

I've check the local event logs and there's no DNS errors to suggest it's not registering itself with our local DNS server.

Stefan

This is the error from the setup routine

http://www.hosw08898.pwp.blueyonder....ges/ex2003.jpg

Stefan

I'll email you my works number, give me a ring to discuss..

shunty