Exchange 2007 Beta 2: Can't install, or uninstall.
I think I've gotten myself a bit outside the box: I had tried to do an install of Exchange 2007 on a WIndows 2003 x64 test machine. The machine is a member of a production domain containing an Exchange 2003 SP2 server. The install had failed installing the client access role. I had tried removing and reinstalling several times without success. I did a web search and found some posts that recommended uninstalling and deleting some AD entries using adsiedit. I removed the entries, and the following day, the hard disk failed in my test machine, and I had to rebuild the OS. I did not restore anything from backup, but did rejoin the domain. Yesterday I tried once again to install Exchange 2007 and got an error message that the exchange state was inconstent and the only option was data recovery mode. Still more searching lead me to believe that I could run setup /mode:recoverserver This has made things worse. I have a copy of Exchange 2007 that is installed according to add/remove programs (but won't allow me to uninstall or change). When I run setup /mode:unistall, I get error 1603. Is there any way to remove this from my computer, so I can start fresh? Shaun
September 29th, 2006 5:31pm

Tried running setup /mode:prepareschema and that was fine. setup /mode:preparead gives me the following: Performing Microsoft Exchange Server Prerequisite Check Organization Checks ......................... COMPLETED Configuring Microsoft Exchange Server Organization Preparation ......................... FAILED The well-known object entry B:32:A7D2016C83F003458132789EEB127B84:CN=Exchange Servers\0ADEL:e44e9be8-69db-4d4e-bc4d-77c1cae89cfc,CN=Deleted Objects,DC=local,DC=mississauga,DC=ca of the otherWellKnownObjects attribute on container object CN=Configuration,DC=local,DC=mississauga,DC=ca points to an invalid DN or a deleted object. Please remove the entry and rerun the task. The Exchange Server setup operation did not complete. Visit http://support.microsoft.com and enter the Error ID to find more information. Exchange Server setup encountered an error.
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September 29th, 2006 6:07pm

I had problems uninstalling aswell. Delete the exchange registry keys from HKLM\System\Current Control Set\Services. Set any remaining services in services console to manual.Reboot and run from the command line exsetup /mode:uninstall. Worked for me
October 10th, 2006 6:29pm

The above step worked great. I had a heap of other errors like "Cant connect to DC"....ADAM cant be found....etc I deleted the registry keys and set the service startup to Manual and all worked great! It would be nice if Exchange automatically removed the mailboxes and public address books during the UnInstall process... Cheers
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October 23rd, 2006 6:28am

I'd settle for a simple way to remove the Exchange 2007 info from the AD, so I can reinstall. I need to be careful not to remove my Exchange 2003 info, though. Is there a kb anywhere for this? Shaun
November 16th, 2006 7:23pm

I have the same problem!I had a problem with exchange, I tried to remove it... It did go all well. But now I'm trying to install it again, but at setup /mode:preparead I get stuck again... Performing Microsoft Exchange Server Prerequisite Check Organization Checks ......................... COMPLETED Configuring Microsoft Exchange Server Organization Preparation ......................... FAILED The well-known object entry B:32:A7D2016C83F003458132789EEB127B84:CN=Exchange Servers\0ADEL:55aededc-b582-4141-92c9-b8a9fa3957e1,CN=Deleted Objects,DC=hartbc,DC=be of the otherWellKnownObjects attribute on container object CN=Configuration,DC=hartbc,DC=be points to an invalid DN or a deleted object. Please remove the entry and rerun the task.I searched like hel for this entry, but can't find it. And can't find any other information on the internet... Somebody have a clue?
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November 16th, 2006 9:34pm

I tried this approach - It does not work. When you try to uninstall you get a message to disable the mailboxes. When you try to do this using the Exchange command shell - it needs the various exchange services running before it will disable that. So back to square one. Anyone know how to cleanly uninstall exchange 2007 and then run a fresh install?
November 29th, 2006 1:02am

I have the same problem too! It is a Custumo-installation, and the customer has install the beta into a produktive enviroment :-( *History* On my question way?, he says me: I will test the Exchange, but on the MS page he get a text to use the Beta and the 2003 demo ist not downloadabel. He install it on a old Server, but after 1 Day, the drive with the Exchange installation is going defect. * End History* Has everyone a way to solve the problem? I have treid to remove it with the 2003 sp2 update.exe (switch: /remove) but I get an error.
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November 29th, 2006 1:18am

I was able to eliminate the setup /preparead problem by opening adsiedit, expanding configuration, right clicking on CN=configuration,DC=(domain),DC=com and clicking properties. I then selected the otherWellKnownObjects atribute, clicked edit, just clicked the add button (essentially adding nothing) and clicking ok. Regards, hakkatan
December 1st, 2006 10:58pm

thangs!!!, this fix my problem!!!
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December 3rd, 2006 6:47pm

thangs, it works fine and fix my problem
December 27th, 2006 3:07am

the previous reply did not work for me. by clicking configuration, DC, DC - CN=Services, Microsoft Exchange. then go down to otherwellknown. do the same thing as previously mentioned, click edit, (type nothing). what was displayed prior was ";; ;".
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January 14th, 2007 4:19am

hakkatan wrote: I was able to eliminate the setup /preparead problem by opening adsiedit, expanding configuration, right clicking on CN=configuration,DC=(domain),DC=com and clicking properties. I then selected the otherWellKnownObjects atribute, clicked edit, just clicked the add button (essentially adding nothing) and clicking ok. Regards, hakkatan hakkatan- I've been trying to change the value in my lab (which was previously running Beta 2, now trying to install RTM) and when I do I get "The Server is Unwilling to Process the Request". I've seen this a few times in the past and it was always permissions related, but even after granting the account I'm using explicit rights I still cannot modify the attribute. Time permitting I'll probably try a force uninstall, I'm wondering if this attribute is linked to something else and that's causing my problem. Erik
January 23rd, 2007 2:56am

My mistake. I had thought that the error message I recieved was in regards to the "WellKnownObjects" attribute and not the "otherWellKnownObjects" After fixing the correct attribute I was able to get past this portion of the install.
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January 23rd, 2007 3:13am

I'm having this problem as well, although resetting the OtherWellKnownObjects to <not set> as described above (using adsiedit snap in) results in exactly the same error. Is there anything else I can try to remove this error?
January 24th, 2007 7:29pm

polkyb wrote: I'm having this problem as well, although resetting the OtherWellKnownObjects to <not set> as described above (using adsiedit snap in) results in exactly the same error. Is there anything else I can try to remove this error? Can you post the error you get during the install?
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January 24th, 2007 10:08pm

Exactly as above, but here it is anyway. I get the same error using setup with and without the /preparead switch. Welcome to Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 Unattended Setup Preparing Exchange Setup No server roles will be installed Performing Microsoft Exchange Server Prerequisite Check Organization Checks ......................... COMPLETED Configuring Microsoft Exchange Server Organization Preparation ......................... FAILED The well-known object entry B:32:A7D2016C83F003458132789EEB127B84:CN=Exchange Servers\0ADEL:2347ac96-27b9-4d39-a496-9687887dccd7,CN=Deleted Objects,DC=antler,DC=co,DC=uk of the otherWellKnownObjects attribute on container object CN=Configuration,DC=antler,DC=co,DC=uk points to an invalid DN or a deleted object. Please remove the entry and rerun the task. The Exchange Server setup operation did not complete. Visit http://support.microsoft.com and enter the Error ID to find more information. Exchange Server setup encountered an error. The error is also mirrored in the exchange setup logs, this is a copy of the output to screen with the /preparead switch.
January 25th, 2007 10:46am

OK. I figured it out. I had to repeat the fix on all of my domain controllers for it to work. May be because there was nothing there before and nothing there after the fix, the DCs decided not to replicate the fix. Thank youall for the help
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January 25th, 2007 12:13pm

polkyb wrote: OK. I figured it out. I had to repeat the fix on all of my domain controllers for it to work. May be because there was nothing there before and nothing there after the fix, the DCs decided not to replicate the fix. Thank youall for the help You'd think the USN would still get updated so replication would occur, strange that it didnt. In any case glad to hear it's working now. Erik
January 25th, 2007 7:11pm

i got the error messages too, when i use adsi edit try to edit otherwellknownobjcets, I got the message "There is no editor rgeistered to handle this attribute type",can somebody help me???(our exchange server is 2007 standard)
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May 15th, 2007 9:00am

It worked! first, we use setup /prepareAD , receive error about "the wellknownobject" blarblar... use ADSIedit , go to the CN=Exchange Server, right click and select Properties, found WellKnownObjects, it shows as ";; ;" , we add a blank data to set it to <Not Set> and exit. after that , re-run setup /prepareAD, it finished successfully. Reinstall Ex2k7, everthing is fine! Cheers~
May 24th, 2007 3:16pm

Hi there Guys, Thanks for all your help. I am getting the wellknownobject error when I try to install. My problem is that when I used the ADAM ADSIEdit and try to replace that ,,,, with no data it says that there is no editor registered to handle this attribute. I was wondering if anyone has found anything to fix this problem. I have hunted around a bit but I can't seem to find anything. Any help would be appreciated. Cheers Mark
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September 13th, 2007 2:22am

hey guys,had the same problems. and couldn't use the fix here.but this page has the solution:http://www.techhead.co.uk/removing-exchange-from-active-directoryyou want to remove the whole rubbish exchange installation in active directory. then you don't even have to run the prepareAD anymore, just install from scratch and it won't complain about needing to run setup /prepareADnote you might have to run adsiedit on the first domain controller (which might not be the machinge you are installing exchange on) or the configuration section might not show up by default.
April 1st, 2008 9:45pm

I'm only found that deleting domain and recreate it works. I'm no found solution from Microsoft on adding editor to fix.
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July 24th, 2008 3:47am

Um. when I looked up that Well Known Object (withwhatever code it has on the end) I found that it was actually a permissions problem. With one of the folders. It changed the directories permissions just slightly from Full Control to Read Only and it couldn't do anything with it. I would suggets to look up that error you have found in the uninstaller information and then see if it leads to you to any particular folder to check for permissions. I know it took me 2 days to figure that out. But yeah. Cheers Xterminat
July 28th, 2008 9:08am

I had this problem in my LAB. The problem ended up being that I was not connecting to ADSIedit using a 2003 Server. When we installed the domain, we were using Server 2003 and then upgraded all of our DCs to be Server 2008. I removed Exchange and was wondering why I was getting the error "There is no editor registered to handle this attribute type." It all came down to connecting to ADSIedit.msc using a 2003 member server that had the resource kit installed. I connected to the three DCs in my LAB, set the otherwellknownobjects to <net set> (followed the instructions above to add nothing to the value of the object). I found one value that was set to a couple ";". AFter I made sure the value was set on all objects on all DCs, I re-ran PrepareAD and it ran.In conclusion, if you get the error and you are reinstalling in a domain in which you have removed the 2003 DCs and are now running Server 2008, connect to ADSIedit using a 2003 member server and you will save yourself a lot of frustration with the "There is no editor registered to handle this attribute type." error.Hope it helps. Thanks to everyone for all the input that led me down this road.
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January 7th, 2009 7:40pm

if you are battling to find it, also look underCN=Configuration,DC=AED,DC=localCN=ServicesCN=Microsoft Exchange...Right click "Properties" look for "WellKnownObjects and otherWellKnownObjects"has to have a <Not Set> value, if not the click "edit" and a click "add" to add a "nothing" value.........should work, battling with this for a week and finally working, non off the other replies did solve it however they put me on the right track, thanks guys!!! Oh and remember to do it on all servers!
March 4th, 2009 5:25pm

Here is what I did to finally get past this error:First this iswhat I wasgetting (same as you but thought I'd still paste here): Performing Microsoft Exchange Server Prerequisite Check Organization Checks ......................... COMPLETED Configuring Microsoft Exchange Server Organization Preparation ......................... FAILED The well-known object entry B:32:A7D2016C83F003458132789EEB127B84:CN=Exchange Servers\0ADEL:7e647ab6-b65b-47ef-ab2c-664082c4bd59,CN=Deleted Objects,DC=MyDomain,DC=com of the otherWellKnownObjects attribute on container object CN=Configuration,DC=selco,DC=eng points toan invalid DN or a deleted object. Please remove the entry and rerun the task. The Exchange Server Setup operation did not complete. For more information, visit http://support.microsoft.com and enter the Error ID. Exchange Server setup encountered an error.I used LDP to remove the entries because I had more than one so I had to rerun PrepareAd until it completed successfully. In my case it was about four times.What I discovered was there are two entries with the 'otherWellKnownObjects' one for CN=configuration,dc=yourdomain,DC=com and beneath itone for CN=Microsoft Exchange,CN=Services,CN=Configuration,DC=yourdomain,DC=com. The second object had the entries I needed to remove. Open LPD: Connect to: CN-Configuration,DC=yourdomain,DC=com Click on 'Connection' again and choose Bind Expand the container location CN=Services,CN=Configuration,DC=yourdomain,DC=com and expand this Highlight CN=Microsoft Exchange,CN=Services,CN=Configuration,DC=yourdomain,DC=com The entries to delete are under the attribute 'otherWellKnownObjects located on the right hand pane of LDP Right mouse click on CN=Microsoft Exchange,CN=Services,CN=Configuration,DC=yourdomain,DC=com Choose 'Modify' Make sure that Attribute is 'otherWellKnownObjects' copy the value from the entry as entered on the right hand side of LDP using the error generated by the PrepareAd to locate it Click'Enter' Then Click the 'Run' button Double click on CN=Microsoft Exchange,CN=Services,CN=Configuration,DC=yourdomain,DC=com to refresh the view so reflect the deleted entry Rerun PrepareAd until there are no more entries to deleteAfter doing this the setup.com /preparead ran successfully for me.Hope this helps!
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March 20th, 2009 1:24am

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