I am attempting to install the following 3 servers on a test lan. DNS server: Windows Enterprise Server 2003 ACTIVE DIR server: Windows Enterprise Server 2003 EXCHANGE 2007 server: Windows Enterprise Server 2008 x64 I have setup DNS and Active Directory successfully. When I attempt to run the setup.exe for exchange it comes back with the error that it cannot contact the Active Directory server. It also reports that I have to be logged in with a user onto the domain. So, I created a user on the AD server - gave it all rights as the Administrator... I log in on Exchange server as that user, but when I attempt to run the setup.exe for Exchange - it fails, saying "Setup encountered an error and has to close". So, it appears to be permissions related, but I have tried everything from giving this user local and domain level rights, etc... Thanks for any help, Mike

Hi, The exchange server must be joined to the domain, configured to use the DNS server on the tcp/ip stack and you must be a member of the domain admin and schema admin groups in active directory. This might help: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc785455(EXCHG.80).aspx If above is correct you can look for clues in the exchange setup logs. Leif

Dear customer: If you are deploying a new Exchange organization, and you are preparing your Active Directory schema and domain(s) by using a computer running Windows Server 2008, you must first install the Active Directory management tools on Windows Server 2008 prior to preparing the schema or a domain by using the following command: ServerManagerCmd -i RSAT-ADDS For more information about How to Install Exchange 2007 SP1 Prerequisites on Windows Server 2008, please refer to the following article: How to Install Exchange 2007 SP1 Prerequisites on Windows Server 2008 http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb691354(EXCHG.80).aspx Hope it helps. If anything is unclear, please feel free to let me know. Rock Wang - MSFT

I did join to the domain, and we configured it to use our DNS server we setup. I also went into the AD server and made sure the account was a member of the domain admin and schema admin groups in AD.However, it appears to be a permission issue, because when I try to run the setup utility to install Exchange with the account we setup - it errors out saying "Setup has encountered an error and has to close". But, if we use the local Administrator account, we do not get that error, and it starts installing, but fails at the prerequisite checks saying, "the account has to be logged onto the domain." "Unable to contact the domain" and so on. I have given the account we created on the domain full admin rights locally, as well as at the domain level, and added to all the necessary groups, but we still get the same issue.I guess I can start over and then follow the link you posted, and just try again.Thanks for all the help.