Recipe2.6.Verifying That Forest and Domain Preparation Completed

Recipe 2.6. Verifying That Forest and Domain Preparation Completed

Problem

You need to ensure that fore stprep and domainprep have completed successfully so you can install an Exchange server.

Solution

The solution depends on your version of Exchange. For Exchange 2000, there are two methods to validate the forest and one for the domain, while Exchange Server 2003 provides a handy tool that does both. The easiest method to validate the forest preparation on Exchange 2000 is to ensure that event ID 1575 appears in the directory event log on every domain controller that has successfully received the schema and object updates applied during forest preparation. The event message looks like this:

Event Type:    Information Event Source:    NTDS Replication Event Category:    Replication Event ID:    1575 Date:        2/16/2005 Time:        3:18:42 PM User:        Everyone Computer:    BATMAN Description: One or more new attributes has been added to the partial attribute set for  partition DC=test,DC=robichaux,  DC=net. A full synchronization will be performed from source dbb5631d-3dfc- 41bd-b933-382f5d704aa6._msdcs. test.robichaux.net on the next periodic synchronization.

This event actually means that the PAS (e.g., the set of attributes that are replicated to global catalog servers in the forest) has been changed; Exchange makes extensive changes to the PAS during forest preparation.

The alternative method requires the ADSI Edit MMC snap-in, which is installed as part of the Windows 2000 Support Tools:

1. From the Start menu, select Programs Windows 2000 Support Tools Tools ADSI Edit.

2. View the rangeUpper property. A value of 4397 corresponds to the original release version of Exchange 2000; values smaller than that are prerelease. A value of 6870 corresponds to the original release version of Exchange Server 2003.

To validate the domain preparation on Exchange 2000, use the PolicyTest utility on the domain controllers and ensure they have consistent security settings. This utility is provided as a separate utility in the \Support directory of the Windows installation CD-ROM.

Using a graphical user interface for Exchange Server 2003

1. Start the Exchange deployment tools from the product CD.

2. Select Exchange Deployment Tools.

3. Select Deploy the first Exchange Server 2003 Server.

4. Select Coexistence with Exchange 5.5, if this is appropriate to the environment.

5. Move ahead to Phase 2, locate step 3, and enter the information. From here, you can run OrgPrepCheck.

6. After the tool is done, close ExDeploy and look at the ExDeploy logs, which will by default be stored in C:\Exdeploy Logs\Exdeploy.log. The logs will tell you whether the forest and domain preparation steps worked.

Using a command-line interface for Exchange Server 2003

1. Insert the Exchange CD-ROM.

2. Run the following command:

   <drive>: \support\exdeploy\exdeploy.exe /t:orgprepcheck

   
   

3. Look at the logs for forest and domain preparation status.

Discussion

Don't attempt to install Exchange 2000 or 2003 until you've verified that both forestprep and domainprep have been runwhile Setup will forestprep and domainprep your environment for you, it's best to run both steps off-hours, as the results of these steps will need to replicate within your environment.

See Also

MS KB 274737 (How to Verify That ForestPrep and DomainPrep Have Completed Successfully), MS KB 281537 (XADM: Description of the Policytest.exe Utility), Recipe 2.4 for more on preparing the forest, and Recipe 2.5 for more on preparing the domain