We have a test environment which was 2008R2 AD.  We properly went through the migration path and are currently at 2012R2 Active Directory functional level.

I'm installing Exchange 2013 with Sp1 into the domain.  I have successfully prepared the domain as outlined on technet, and verified its success with the logs and looking in ADSI edit.  No errors.  All seems to have ran correctly.

When I attempt to install the first exchange mailbox server, the Readiness check fails saying "the local domain needs to be prepared using Setup /PrepareDomain before server roles can be installed"...  1 forest, 1 root domain, 1 child domain.  The account I'm using is a member of Schema Admins, Enterprise Admins, Domain admins etc.  

Has anyone else come across this or have any suggestions?

• Edited by randkflem 18 hours 0 minutes ago

try setup /preparealldomains

Also, is there any reason you are going with SP1(this is CU4 with a fancy marketing name) and not a newer CU release (like 7 or 8) MSFT only supports 2 CU's back

Can I do a new install with the latest RU?  Yes, I've done setup /prepareall domains.  

Yes.  Each CU contains a full installation of Exchange 2013.

Thanks!  I'll use that install from here on out.  I downloaded CU7, put the code on one of the root DC's, ran the Prepareschema, Prepareactivedirectory and Preparealldomains.  All completed successfully...I also ran repadmin /syncall after each one.

I then went to the server which I'm installing exchange on (2012R2 domain member), run the setup as administrator (the domain account I'm logged in as has all the necessary rights) and got the same "issue" on the Readiness check..."Error:  The local domain needs to be prepared using Setup /PrepareDomain before server roles can be installed.  

So...I logged onto on of the DC's in the child domain and ran the preparedomain.  Attempted Exchange install again...same thing.

can you verify that AD replication has occurred? this sounds like it hasn't happened yet 

Hi randkflem,

Thank you for your question.

Are there multiple DCs in child domain?

Please make sure all DCs on child domain could be replicated. We could make sure Exchange server could connect to DC without any problems(include DNS resolution).

If the issue persist, we could restart the DC and Exchange server on child domain to check if the issue persist.

If there are any questions regarding this issue, please be free to let me know. 

Best Regard,

Jim

Thanks for the replies.  Yes, replication has occurred.  We have 2 DC's in the root, and 2 DC's in the child.  After each prepare I ran "repadmin /syncall", each time completing successfully.  I also verified the settings in ADSI edit, and all match up correctly to the chart.  The exchangesetup logs indicate each prepare runs successfully.

I have also rebooted all 4 DC's and the Exchange server I'm trying to install.  I have verified the record in DNS.  Where is the script that the Readiness check is running?  I may look into taking that check out of the script!

Also, looking at the exchangesetup log, it is showing different information in it than before (same error on the GUI screen).  

[04/09/2015 12:21:46.0081] [1] Failed [Rule:DomainPrepRequired] [Message:The local domain needs to be prepared using Setup /PrepareDomain before server roles can be installed.]
[04/09/2015 12:21:46.0081] [1] [REQUIRED] The local domain needs to be prepared using Setup /PrepareDomain before server roles can be installed.
[04/09/2015 12:21:46.0081] [1] Help URL: http://technet.microsoft.com/library(EXCHG.150)/ms.exch.setupreadiness.DomainPrepRequired.aspx
[04/09/2015 12:21:46.0097] [1] Ending processing test-SetupPrerequisites
[04/09/2015 12:21:46.0097] [0] Exchange Server installation failed during prereq check. Trying to restore the server state back to active.
[04/09/2015 12:21:46.0097] [0] RestoreServer Script Path: C:\Windows\Temp\ExchangeSetup\RestoreServerOnPrereqFailure.ps1
[04/09/2015 12:21:46.0222] [0] Beginning processing Write-ExchangeSetupLog
[04/09/2015 12:21:46.0222] [0] Trying to restore server state.
[04/09/2015 12:21:46.0222] [0] Ending processing Write-ExchangeSetupLog
[04/09/2015 12:21:46.0222] [0] Active Directory session settings for 'Get-ExchangeServer' are: View Entire Forest: 'True', Configuration Domain Controller: 'npsdom002.xxxx.xxxxx.pri', Preferred Global Catalog: 'npsdom002.xxxxx.xxxxx.pri', Preferred Domain Controllers: '{ npsdom002.xxxxx.xxxxx.pri }'
[04/09/2015 12:21:46.0222] [0] User specified parameters:  -ErrorAction:'SilentlyContinue' -Identity:'NPSXMB002'
[04/09/2015 12:21:46.0222] [0] Beginning processing get-ExchangeServer
[04/09/2015 12:21:46.0222] [0] Searching objects "NPSXMB002" of type "Server" under the root "$null".
[04/09/2015 12:21:46.0238] [0] Previous operation run on domain controller 'npsdom002.xxxx.xxxx.pri'.
[04/09/2015 12:21:46.0238] [0] Previous operation run on domain controller 'npsdom002.xxxxxx.xxxxx.pri'.
[04/09/2015 12:21:46.0238] [0] Preparing to output objects. The maximum size of the result set is "Unlimited".
[04/09/2015 12:21:46.0238] [0] The operation couldn't be performed because object 'NPSXMB002' couldn't be found on 'npsdom002.xxxxx.xxxxx.pri'.
[04/09/2015 12:21:46.0238] [0] The operation couldn't be performed because object 'NPSXMB002' couldn't be found on 'npsdom002.xxxx.xxxxx.pri'.
[04/09/2015 12:21:46.0238] [0] Ending processing get-ExchangeServer
[04/09/2015 12:21:46.0238] [0] Beginning processing Write-ExchangeSetupLog
[04/09/2015 12:21:46.0238] [0] [WARNING] NPSXMB002 is not an Exchange Server. Unable to set monitoring and server state to active.
[04/09/2015 12:21:46.0238] [0] Ending processing Write-ExchangeSetupLog

• Edited by randkflem 18 hours 11 minutes ago

Hi randkflem,

If child domain name is child.contoso.com, we could run the following command on DC in child domain, then make sure replication complete.

Setup.exe /PrepareDomain:child.contoso.com /IAcceptExchangeServerLicenseTerms

Then, we could install Exchange to check if the issue persist.

You could post more detail steps for our troubleshooting.

If there are any questions regarding this issue, please be free to let me know. 

Best Regard,

Jim