Hi, I've got a domain with exactly two machines in it.. They're both DCs, and GCs in the same site (although they're across the WAN from each other) and one of the DCs has Exchange 2000 Enterprise loaded on it. From the server that does NOT have Exchange loaded on it, I have loaded the Exchange management tools. Everything works fine as I expand the administrative group, the server, and the Storage group, but then when I double-click on the store, to list the users in the right pane, the ESM freezes immediately and consistently. Everything works fine from the machine which Exchange is installed on. This infrastructure is in place specificallly to support a Cisco Unity voicemail system on top of it, which is why it's such an odd production config. I am having problems with the overlying Unity which I believe is being caused by whatever problem is causing ESM to fail. Both servers have been rebooted, and I have verified DNS, hosts/lmhost files all have correct information in them, and that AD is replicating properly. Since there is a WAN (and a firewall) in between, initially I was blaming a blocked port, but right now, I convinced the WAN guy to allow any/any/tcp and any/any/udp just to test, and it didn't help a bit. Ping times are in the 18-22ms range, and wan bandwidth is DS3, so there's no shortage of access.. Can anyone point to something that would stop ESM from listing/managing the users in a store, while not stopping almost any other Exchange related admin function? Thanks in advance!! -Steve

How long have you let it sit in a frozen position? It could just be taking a while to enumerate. Especially if you have a lot of mailboxes. It sounds like the WAN probably isn't your issue though if you allowed any/any, however if you'd like to confirm RPC connectivity RPINGS.exe is an excellent tool that you can get from the MS site. Also, have you got the same build of ESM on each machine?

I let it sit at least an hour.. I dont think it's a timing thing. RPINGS is a good idea - Is that the ONLY connectivity that would be needed for a remote machine to manage the Exchange list like that? At that point would the ESM be polling the Exchange services or AD/GC? If it's trying to talk to a GC to enumerate users, potentially it's talking to itself because that machine is a GC too.. Same version of ESM is a good hint too.. I'll check that. I wasn't the original installer. Presumably they are, since the installer would only have had the Cisco "Message store" disk to install from (Re-labeled Exchange disk) but it is possible he put a service pack or patch on the one with Exchange on it. Thanks! -Steve