Sometimes you can trace the solution to your problem by looking at the concepts behind the technology.
Curing an Exchange Hiccup
Sometimes you can trace the solution to your problem by looking at the concepts behind the technology.
Recently we ran into a hiccup while trying to install
Microsoft Exchange Server 5.5 and join an existing site.
We received this error message in the application event
log on the first, or primary, Exchange Server in the site:
Event ID: 1171
Source: MSExchangeDS
Type: Error
Category: Internal Processing
Description: Exception 0xe0010002 has occurred with
parameters 9 and 0. Please contact Microsoft Product
Support Services for assistance.
TechNet offered no articles citing this specific error
message, and Microsoft’s technical support couldn’t
help us either. The Microsoft engineers we worked with
had no reference to the error message. In an effort to
close the incident, they insisted that with Exchange Server
version 5.5, Standard Edition, you can have only one server
per site.
Of course, we knew this last suggestion was incorrect.
The Microsoft Exchange Connector (also known as the Site
Connector) that was available separately for version 5.0
was included with the 5.5 release. How could Microsoft’s
own support engineers make such a mistake? Their misinformation
could have cost our client some $5,000 for an upgrade
from Standard Edition to Enterprise Edition. As it was,
it cost us several hours of unbillable time to argue with
them about their own product. (The only explanation for
this is that Microsoft evolved Exchange so quickly, with
so many different releases and so many new licensing and
bundling changes, its technical staff couldn’t keep
up.)
So we figured out the answer to the problem ourselves.
When attempting to add an Exchange 5.5 Server to your
site, you may experience a directory replication error
during installation. The error involves a problem with
name resolution. Faulty name resolution can prevent successful
installation of a server and the joining of a site. (In
our case, the client had two servers and two copies of
Exchange Server, Standard Edition.)
How does this happen? By default, TCP/IP is the first
protocol in the Server Binding Order. TCP/IP resolves
names in the following order:
- Using the local HOSTS file.
- Using a DNS server.
- Looking at the NetBIOS cache.
- Using a WINS server.
- Broadcasting.
- Looking at the local LMHOSTS file.
You can confirm a problematic name resolution by using
the standard “ping,” or “RPC” utility
from the Exchange Server CD.
From the Windows NT server you were attempting to install
Exchange on, ping the primary server in the site, using
the server name. If the ping succeeds, note the IP address
returned and compare it to the actual IP address of the
primary server. This is important! You may have incorrect
entries in the HOSTS/LMHOSTS file or a DNS may have incorrect
information. If the ping fails, you need to make sure
that one of the above name resolution methods is capable
of resolving the server name.
From the primary server, ping the NT server that will
become the additional Exchange server. If the ping succeeds,
compare the IP address returned by the ping utility with
the actual IP address of the primary server. It must be
the same. After correcting name resolution, ensure you
remove all registry keys and files from the aborted installation
on the NT server. These encompass the following:
Exchange Services
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM
\CurrentControlSet\Services\<Exchange Service>
Event Log Settings
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM
\CurrentControlSet\Services\EventLog
\Application\<Exchange Service>
Licensing Settings
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM
\CurrentControlSet\Services\LicenseInfo
\MSExchangeIS
Detect Previous Installations
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE
\Microsoft\Exchange\Setup
Exchange Admin Settings
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software
\Microsoft\Exchange\MSExchangeAdmin
Delete the EXCHSRVR directory and all the sub-directories
under this directory from the hard drive. If you have
multiple hard disks on the computer, delete the EXCHSRVR
directory from all of them. Don’t forget to rename
or delete Exchange Server Setup.log on the system partition.
Now you’ll be able to install Exchange 5.5 and join
an existing site. And, yes, you can have multiple 5.5
servers in a site with Standard Edition!
About the Author
René Larivière, MCSE, MCT, CNE, CNE GroupWise, is a systems
consultant and trainer through his company, Zentzu, Inc.,
based in Calgary, Alberta. He has extensive experience
in designing and implementing LANs and WANs with Windows
NT, Banyan VINES, NetWare, and LAN Manager.