Exchange 2000 and a new Domain Controller

[Barkus]

First, here's our environment; I have one DC here at our Southern Location and another up at our Northern location. Our Exchange 2000 server is located down south. I recently had to scrap and replace our DC down south and this involved forcefully removing it from ADS and putting the new one up under a different name. All is running smoothly except for Exchange.

The new server now hosts our DNS and DHCP services as well as being a GC host (in addition to the server up north being a GC host).

In this whole process, the only configuration changes I made on the Exchange box was it's static assignment to the new DNS server (different IP address than before) and changed the Recipient Update Services to point to the new DC.

What we're experiencing is that when I set the Directory Access settings on the Exchange server to automatically pick a server for it's DC, GCS, and DC Config needs, it selects the DC up north. Then when I statically assign these properties the exchange server won't function. We're having an issue because our Exchange server is having trouble pulling all of it's DC resource needs across the WAN from up north when really, it should be pulling that stuff from the new DC down here. The new DC has a fully replicated copy of our ADS structure but I'm wondering if there's a setting I missed somewhere to make the Exchange server pull from the new DC instead of the DC up north.

I understand that I'm not an expert at Active Directory or Exchange but I'm doing my best with what I have. If I didn't explain myself in a clear enough fashion, any further inquiries are understood and appreciated. Thanks...

 

[GrantThomas]

since it isnt in the same location you can manualy set the config controller in exchange. Goto system manager, then goto your server in the administrative groups and goto properties.

From there you will see a Directory Access Tab and you can change your configuration controller (gc/dc) to what ever server you want. After the change it may be a good idea to restart all the services mainly system attendant or just reboot the server, I prefer the reboot of server method.

Someone may have a better method on this, but this would be a idea. Also make sure there is NO EXTERNAL DNS on that exchange server or you will have dsaccess problems all the time!

 

[GrantThomas]

overlooked what you said sorry, after you manually set the DSACCESS did you reboot? Do you have a external DNS running?

Try running NETDIAG on the Exchange server and make sure things are looking normal, if you get a WINS error that is okay.

Run POLICYTEST from the exchange CD in the i386 folder make sure it passes.

 

[Barkus]

Thank you Grant for your reply. I must apologize though because I solved this issue recently during a late night work session.

It turns out that running the Exchange setup with the /domainprep option propagated what needed to be there on the new DC for the Exchange instance to read it for Directory Access needs. I personally was under the impression that I wouldn't need to run a domainprep on a new DC that had already received the ADS replication upon being promoted from a member server. But apparently I was wrong. I've found numerous articles on what exactly forestprep and domainprep does (I understand the fundamentals of their individual actions but never got too granular into what changes occurred). I just haven't had the time to read through to find out why and how this worked.

Again I thank you for your response and I apologize for not updating this post sooner. Cheers...

 

[GrantThomas]

your welcome, yeah if you would have rant he policy test you would have probably noticed that it didnt read properly. I am glad you solved the issue!