I have a domain with single Windows 2008 R2 DC with a 2008 R2 forest and domain functional level. I used to have Exchange 2003 running on one of the member servers while back but uninstalled. Now I am in process of installing Exchange 2010 on another member server and creating new Exchange Organization. I am running the setup and the "readiness check" comes back with: "Cannot find at least one domain controller running Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 1 or later in domain" and prevents me from completing the install. What is going on? Why would the Exchange 2010 setup care about Windows 2003 SP1 domain controller. I googled and googled on this without finding anything that would solve it and now I am stuck. Any help with pointers to information helping me to proceed is appreciated. DDD

What is the exact error code its producing when this happens? Can you post the relevant info regarding this error from the Exchangesetup.log? MVP Exchange Server

Can you run the Pre-Deployment Analyzer and post any errors or warnings? http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/details.aspx?FamilyID=88b304e7-9912-4cb0-8ead-7479dab1abf2&displaylang=en Tim Harrington - Catapult Systems - http://HowDoUC.blogspot.com

Is it joined correctly to the domain and have contact, try rejoining it Check DNS settings And also like the others said , more info so we can help youJonas Andersson MCTS: Microsoft Exchange Server 2007/2010 | MCITP: EMA 2007/2010 | MCSE/MCSA Blog: http://www.testlabs.se/blog

Tim, when I run the Pre-Deployment Analyzer it fails at the first step which is "Connect to Active Directory" with the error message: "No Exchange organization container was found in the domain". I remember while back when uninstalling old Exchange 2003 installation in this domain I deleted manually organization container in the schema as per some KB article how to clean up AD from Exchange... I would consider this being a "clean" domain which has no Exchange organizations in it...?

Is it joined correctly to the domain and have contact, try rejoining it Check DNS settings I just ran dcdiag and it passed most of the tests - assuming all ok communicating with the DC. This is a fresh server - joined to domain right after clean install.

After analyzing exchangesetup.log in more details and looking at my AD setup I notice two things: 1) The one and only domain controller in this domain is in a custom OU rather than in the default "Domain Controllers" OU. The specific error message is: [10/08/2010 05:45:37.0198] [1] [ERROR] Cannot find at least one domain controller running Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 1 or later in domain 'DC=lab,DC=local'. This could be the result of moving domain controller objects in Active Directory. Check that at least one domain controller running Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 1 or later is located in the 'Domain Controllers' organizational unit (OU) and rerun setup. The error suggests the DC should be in "Domain Controllers". Is there a way to instruct setup of the actual location of the DC object? I hate to move DC back to "Domain Controllers" as it may have implications on some other services (not related to Exchange) I have running in this lab which reference it directly. This is actually weird since earlier in the log it appears it was able to find the domain controller without any problems: [10/08/2010 05:36:25.0319] [0] ExSetupUI was started with the following command: '-mode:install -sourcedir:D:" /FromSetup'. [10/08/2010 05:36:25.0959] [0] Setup is choosing the domain controller to use [10/08/2010 05:36:26.0396] [0] Setup is choosing a local domain controller... [10/08/2010 05:36:28.0489] [0] Setup has chosen the local domain controller two.lab.local for initial queries [10/08/2010 05:36:28.0708] [0] PrepareAD has either not been run or has not replicated to the domain controller used by Setup. Setup will attempt to use the Schema Master domain controller two.lab.local [10/08/2010 05:36:28.0708] [0] The schema master domain controller is available [10/08/2010 05:36:28.0708] [0] The schema master domain controller is in the local domain; setup will use two.lab.local [10/08/2010 05:36:28.0739] [0] Setup is choosing a global catalog... [10/08/2010 05:36:28.0739] [0] Setup has chosen the global catalog server two.lab.local. [10/08/2010 05:36:28.0770] [0] Setup will use the domain controller 'two.lab.local'. [10/08/2010 05:36:28.0770] [0] Setup will use the global catalog 'two.lab.local'. 2) The log file indicates setup was able to find an existing Exchange Organization in the forest. I thought I have cleaned up all the references to previous install of Exchange 2003 in this domain and setup should assume this is brand new install. Do you have any clues where this reference is coming from??? [10/08/2010 05:36:28.0786] [0] Exchange configuration container for the organization is 'CN=Microsoft Exchange,CN=Services,CN=Configuration,DC=lab,DC=local'. [10/08/2010 05:36:28.0786] [0] Exchange organization container for the organization is 'CN=Lab Exchange Org,CN=Microsoft Exchange,CN=Services,CN=Configuration,DC=lab,DC=local'. [10/08/2010 05:36:28.0833] [0] Setup will search for an Exchange Server object for the local machine with name 'EX1'. [10/08/2010 05:36:28.0895] [0] No Exchange Server with identity 'EX1' was found. Should I just delete the "CN=Microsoft Exchange,CN=Services,CN=Configuration,DC=lab,DC=local" container and setup will assume this is a brand new install? All your help is really appreciated.

Is “DC=lab, DC=local” a correct domain controller for Windows Server 2008 R2? If not, please delete the “DC=lab, DC=local” name. For more information to delete Exchange 2003 completely via ADSIEDIT tool, please refer to the following article: How to remove Exchange Server 2003 from your computer Please ensure that you have met all the requirements before preparing the AD, and then run the commands below directly, monitor the application log and traces in the install log: Setup.com /PrepareAD /on:"E14 OrgName" Resources: Exchange 2010 System Requirements Raise the forest functional level Note: After removing Exchange organization container exists under CN=Microsoft Exchange,CN=Services,CN=Configuration,DC=<root domain >, you must specify an organization name by using the /OrganizationName parameter. The organization container will be created with the name that you specify. Prepare Active Directory and Domains If the issue persists, please upload the whole installation log and Event log to Skydrive (www.skydrive.live.com), and then share the link to me for research. Thanks. Novak Wu-MSFT

Is “DC=lab, DC=local” a correct domain controller for Windows Server 2008 R2? If not, please delete the “DC=lab, DC=local” name. For more information to delete Exchange 2003 completely via ADSIEDIT tool, please refer to the following article: How to remove Exchange Server 2003 from your computer Please ensure that you have met all the requirements before preparing the AD, and then run the commands below directly, monitor the application log and traces in the install log: Setup.com /PrepareAD /on:"E14 OrgName" Resources: Exchange 2010 System Requirements Raise the forest functional level Note: After removing Exchange organization container exists under CN=Microsoft Exchange,CN=Services,CN=Configuration,DC=<root domain >, you must specify an organization name by using the /OrganizationName parameter. The organization container will be created with the name that you specify. Prepare Active Directory and Domains If the issue persists, please upload the whole installation log and Event log to Skydrive (www.skydrive.live.com ), and then share the link to me for research. Thanks. Novak Wu-MSFT Novak - thank you so much for your reply. I have followed the instructions in the KB article as well as checked the requirements. I have uploaded the logs generated by the setup.com /PrepareAD /on:"DabLocal Organization" command to the following link (sorry my company blocks access to skydrive ;-) http://rapidshare.com/files/426404372/ExchangeSetupLogs.zip The AD domain name is dab.local, the Windows 2008 R2 DC is two.dab.local and the Windows 2008 R2 member server on which i am installing E14 is ex1.dab.local Keep in mind what I have posted in my previous reply. The DC object in AD is not in the default "Domain Controllers" OU --- my AD structure in this lab domain is different - i.e. i have placed the domain controller to All Computers/Domain Controllers OU and i have a feeling this is portion of the problem. Any ways - i will let you take a look at the logs and wait for your reply. Many thanks

Hi Mark, If these answers did not help, then the issue may need a more in-depth level of support at this point Please visit this link to see the various paid support options that are available to better meet your needs. http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?id=fh;en-us;offerprophone

Mark - Can you temporarily move one of the DC objects to OU=Domain Controllers,DC=DAB,DC=LOCAL and then attempt the install? IMPORTANT: You should link the necessary GPOs to the Domain Controllers OU to avoid an outage as GPO applies to DCs every 5 minutes. Once Exchange 2010 setup completes move the DC back out and unlink any GPOs added earlier.

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