Lost access to AD during Exchange 2007 install

[hayabusaukuk]

This is a very strange problem

I was installing Exchange 2007 on a network, which apparently installed correctly. I then created a few mail databases and mail enabled some users to test AD integration.

No problem, i thought, i was able to enable users in different OU's



Then, after a reboot of the exchange box i was unable to log back onto the domain... as was everyone else, all 1000 users.

The error everyone was getting was alone the lines of make sure your username and password are correct. A Microsoft support call was unable to see any problem as that error is only displayed when someone enters the wrong password. (Three were over 1000 users unable to log on, so thats not right)

As of right now, no users what-so-ever can log on, and no-one can access AD to see the problem

Sadly this company do not back up AD, AD had replicated between all DC's and shadow copy was not enabled on either DC to access previous versions of the AD dit database.

The DC's are up and running and DNS DHCP et al are servicing the network correctly.

Basically, what can i do??

No users can log on and no one can access AD to see why....

It seems like all users have been disabled or their passwords changed on mass somehow?

I am assuming it is Exchange 2007 related as the local technicians assure me they were not doing anything AD related at the time....

Thanks for any help offered, obviously this is a mission critical issue for us

 

[58sniper]

I'm curious to see what the event logs on the DCs say.

Pat Richard MVP

 

[hayabusaukuk]

Nothing out of the ordinary. The "engineers" from the Microsoft support call couldn't see anything that would indicate this.

odd

 

[58sniper]

Sadly this company do not back up AD

That's sad to see a company that doesn't want to stay in business.

If you create a new user, can you logon as that user?

So there are no errors on any of the DCs? Are they all Global Catalogs?

Pat Richard MVP

 

[hayabusaukuk]

Just 1 DC is Global Catalog, i have also tried enabling Universal Group Caching on the non GC CD to bypass GC....
but no


There are errors on the DC (Which i cant get access to until tomorrow am) but they were regarding NTP, and a few permissions errors, all which were occurring before the problem.

I will have another look and post them when i get access

Sadly i cant logon to the DC's as any user, so cant access AD to see whats happened/create new users....

As for not backing up AD.... yeah i know....

 

[hayabusaukuk]

This error in the event logs looks interesting

any ideas?

Active Directory successfully created an index for the following attribute.

Attribute identifier:
0
Attribute name:
objectClass