Hi. I am having problems getting past the initial stages of installation for exchange07. I am installing on a new server which is to be the new exchange server. I am getting the error message "The Exchange Organization is not in Native mode" when running setup.com /PrepareAD or /PrepareSchema - the same problem occurs when attempting to run from setup.exe after the prerequisite checks. My company installed an earlier version of Exchange several years ago but it never got off the ground. The server on which it was running has since been removed from the organisation, along with the exchange software. However, I dont believe this was uninstalled and therefore has probably left a footprint in AD. Upon looking in AD, the user profiles do not have any mailbox options or tabs and there is little or no evidence that Exchange existed apart from 2 user groups: "Exchange DomainServers" and "Exchange Enterprise Servers". I have used ldp.exe to inspect the dn=domain;cn=configuration;cn=services folder and within it there is a "Microsoft Exchange" container. This has 2 containers; "Active Directory Connections" & "My Organization Name" - these also contain further containers. My domain functional level is set to Windows 2003 Server (Native Mode) but I am aware this is not related the "Exchange Native Mode". I am at a loss as to how to either remove all trace of previous versions of Exchange from my system (if at all possible) prior to doing a fresh install of Exchange07, or to manually change the organisation to Native Mode - which after looking all over the web, seems impossible without using the Exchange System Manager (which I cant do if I dont have Exchange installed in the first place!). Alternatively, what would happen if I just deleted the cn=Microsoft Exchange folder from cn=services;cn=configuration;dn=domain ? I have come across one document to manually remove old versions but this seems quite drastic and as the server containing the software is no longer with us, then it all seems unecessary as I am sure the only changes required are to manually remove some entires from AD setup. http://support.microsoft.com/kb/833396/ Thanks in advance.

You can delete your old Exchange organization with ADSI edit or LDP http://support.microsoft.com/kb/325323/en-us then starta over with all the schema updates etc.

First of all, you can install Exchange System Management console on a server without installing Exchange Server Messaging and collaboration suite, this is done by choosing custom in the type of installation and choose only Exchange System Management Component only, then you can open your exchange organization configuration, and i think but i am not sure about it , you can change the mode of exchange organization to native, by right click the organization name and click on properties and then change the mode to native. now, since it is only possible to have one Exchange Organization accross your AD Forest, then either you do the above steps to change the mode of your Exchange Organization, or if you want to create a new Exchange organization then you need to completely remove all exchange organization settings and data from active directory by using the /RemoveOrg switch with setup.exe of Exchange Server 2000(SP2 or later) or Exchange Server 2003,then install a new exchange server 2007 organization. in order to know how to completely remove our current exchange organization from your AD, here is the link to do it: How to completely remove Exchange 2000 or Exchange 2003 from Active Directory http://support.microsoft.com/kb/273478/en-us#appliesto

Thanks for your answers guys. They are both solutions to the problem. I actually found out about the /removeorg option earlier yesterday and managed to use an old Exchange2003 CD to run it on my AD. It successfully removed the old information and I am now half way through installing 07 as we speak. Thanks for your advice.

I found this post most insightful and I'm hopeful it will solve my current dilemna. Having the same issue as the original poster of this msg. Just wanted to thank you for the reply Alaa.

Ahhh I'm having seemingly the same problem! I'm trying to install Exchange on Server 2008 with a 2008 R2 Domain Controller! I created a new domain for Windows 7 and then installed another Exchange 2003 to try and move the mailboxes to the other domain! Not realising that the exchange servers need to be in the same domain before moving the mailboxes. So, as the new exchange server was on Hyper V I simply deleted the VM and removed its account from AD. Then when trying to install E2K7 it says exchange organization not in native mode! After I found this forum I performed the /removeorg and now during setup it asks whether there are any more exchange servers rather than making me provide one! But still the problem remains!! However, I did actually delete the Microsoft Exchange folder in ADSI Edit before Reading this forum! Any ideas? My domain functional level is Server 2003 and I have a 2008 R2 DC, 4 Server 2008's and a Server 2003 file server! JakeT

I figured it!! When going into ADSI Edit I was going into the 'naming something' section so when rooting around I saw that you could connect to other sections! So, I did and was able to delete the other Microsoft Exchange folder and exchange installed beautifully! JakeT