I have Exchange 2003 running in an environment with 2 domain controllers. One of the domain controllers crashed hard and is unrecoverable. This is the dc that was the global catalog along with the FSMO roles holder. I had to seize the roles to the other dc and make it a global catalog. I have rebooted the other dc after making it a gc. Since then, people are able to utilize Exchange. They can open their mailboxes and send and receive messages. However, I am unable to create new mailboxes. It gets stuck at the Updating Attributes part. I checked the Recipient Update Services and they were pointing to the offline dc that had crashed. I was able to change the Enterprise RUS, but the Domain RUS would not let me change it. It said the domain was unavailable. I tried to create a new one and got a similar error. The error codes I am getting in the application log are 8260, 8026 and 8231. I checked under the server properties in system manager and it is utilizing the working dc for Config, GC and DC. Where else do I need to check to get it to stop looking for the offline DC. I have removed all metadata in AD referring to the offline DC.

Hello,Change all the FSMO roles to the new DC and do the metadata cleanup for the old DC.Check on all the dcs and confirm that we dont have any entries of the crashed dc.Check the binding and provider order on the new server which you made GC and correct it. Check the DNS pointing on it and point it towards itself. Create the zones in the DNS and make them as AD integrated. If you got error then change them to primary first and then tried to convert them to AD integrated Create the AD integrated Zone. Run a Netdiag/fix on the server Make sure that the GUIDs are registered and all the records for the DC are there in the DNS. Try to do a nslookup to check the name resolution on it.If name resolution works fine , then we are good to go.Now point the exchange to the new DNS server and reboot.In dsaccess tab you will be able to see the new DC as DC, CDC and GC.Now try to change the DC in enterprise and domain RUS.You will be able to change it now.Thanks,Vinod

Hi, Recipient Update Service (RUS) Uses WINS for Name Resolution. This problem seems to be with DNS Entry. So, Make sure your Domain Name resolution working fine. RUS Objects are stored in Active directory. 1. Enterprise RUS CN=Recipient Update Service (Enterprise Configuration)CN=Recipient Update Services, CN=Address Lists Container, CN=Organization Name, CN=Microsoft Exchange, CN=Services, CN=Configuration, DC=Domain,DC=Com 2. Domain RUS CN=Recipient Update Service (Domainname), CN=Recipient Update Services, CN=Address Lists Container, CN=Organization Name,CN=Microsoft Exchange, CN=Services, CN=Configuration, DC=Domain,DC=Com To Resolve this Problem you may follow these articles. Ref to : Exchange Recipient Update Service creation may autoselect a domain controller that is not available http://support.microsoft.com/kb/271328/en-us Creating Exchange Recipient Update Service instances for remote domains http://support.microsoft.com/kb/275294 RPC errors with Recipient Update Services http://forums.msexchange.org/m_150390300/mpage_1/key_/tm.htm#150390300 If Still the problem not resolved, follow this 1. Make a System State backup of your active directory 2. Goto Adsiedit 3. Navigate to CN=Recipient Update Service (Domainname), CN=Recipient Update Services, CN=Address Lists Container, CN=Organization Name,CN=Microsoft Exchange, CN=Services, CN=Configuration, DC=Domain,DC=Com 4. Remove it 5. Goto Exchange System Manager 6. Create New Domain RUS pointing to New Domain controller 7. Try to Create new Mailboxes. All the Best :) Sathish Kumar Elango | MCSE 2003 & MCSA Messaging | http://msexchangehelp.wordpress.com

It was a DNS issue. There were still several entries referring to the old dc, including all the entries for global catalog. Once I changed those and deleted any other entries pointing to the old dc, I was able to create the RUS pointing to the working dc. Thank you so much for your help.