Exchange 2007 & Server 2008

So at the new job we're setting up a lab and it was up to me to get Exchange 2007 running in it. The Exchange server is a 2003 x64 machine and the dc is a 2008 machine. Got the OS installed properly on both and joined to the domain. Exchange wasn't having anything to do with it though. Kept saying it couldn't find a gc on test 2-4 though it passed test 1. We re-did the environment a number of times but still got the same error. Even made the Exchange server a dc and put the gc on it but still no love. Finally put dns on it and then it would work properly. So my question is does anyone know why Exchange wasn't liking the dns on the 2008 server? I don't have time to experiment with it now to dig into the issue and find out what was blocking things. And yes I took the firewalls down on both machines. My guess is that it has something to do with security on the 2008 machine but I'm not familiar enough with Server 2008 yet to really be able to pinpoint what. I'll be trying it out in my lab back home this weekend if I get some time though. So just looking for any ideas?

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Comments

astorrs

Stupid question, I'm asking it anyway - you checked for the GC records in DNS?

undomiel

1st thing I checked. The gc records were there and were fine. Problem was resolved by setting up the Exchange server as a secondary DNS server so all the data was replicated from the primary DNS server so that points towards there was nothing wrong with the DNS data.

HeroPsycho

Did your DC's have W2K3 SP1 or better? E2K7 servers will not use anything less.

royal

HeroPsycho wrote:

Did your DC's have W2K3 SP1 or better? E2K7 servers will not use anything less.

Exchange won't install if it doesn't detect at least one server with at least W2k3 SP1. DSAccess will find the W2K3 SP1 server and use it. So my guess would be he had one.

cnfuzzd

just a shot in the dark, but...

if this were Exchange 03, I would be most confident it was a wins issue. As it is 07, i think wins is only required if you are setting up a cluster on 03 servers.

Still, I have been told that wins is dead and not used, but everytime something breaks on exchange, it always ends up being wins.

Now im intrigued, i am going to google. thanks from keeping me from studying for my 647.

john

royal

There's a few scenarios you need WINS for in Exchange 2007:

1. Clients earlier than Outlook 2003
2. Cross-Forest Mailbox Moves (WINS dependency not required if everything is Outlook 2007 Post-SP1 hotfix here.
3. Inter-operating with Exchange 2000/2003 due to 2000/2003 storing configuration using its shortname in the configuration partition in AD

Slowhand

We had a hell of a time getting Exchange 2007 to work with Server 2008 on my last contract-job. The IT administrator for that company, who did the bulk of the Exchange setup, is a member on this forum. I'll see if I can get him to share some of his thoughts on this thread.

royal

Issues like I outlined here?

undomiel

The DC was a Server 2008 machine. The member server that Exchange 2007 was being installed upon was a Server 2003 machine with SP2 installed. IPv6 wasn't installed on the 2k3 server and after I set up the secondary dns on that machine it worked fine so I don't think it was an issue with v6. I hope I'll have time to replicate the scenario tomorrow here at home but we'll see what happens.

Slowhand

royal wrote:

Issues like I outlined here?

Yup, we ran into just about all those. I'll check with my cohort and see if he knows of anything else that we saw that hasn't been mentioned.

wedge1988

It could have been your permissions on the DNS servers DNS records.

I did read somewhere that if you install exchange before you tell the server you install it on where the global catalog is, you can have replication problems.

Just a small note; im assuming the server exchange is installed on has the same domain functional level as the domain controller? or at least compatable?

royal

double post

royal

wedge1988 wrote:

Just a small note; im assuming the server exchange is installed on has the same domain functional level as the domain controller? or at least compatable?

Domain Functional Level is a domain wide setting. It's not set on a per-system basis.

wedge1988 wrote:

It could have been your permissions on the DNS servers DNS records.

So Exchange could not read the DNS records? If that was the case, you'd have a ton more problems on your plate than Exchange not installing.

wedge1988 wrote:

I did read somewhere that if you install exchange before you tell the server you install it on where the global catalog is, you can have replication problems.

If you have all Windows Server 2003 SP1+ systems, Exchange 2007 install will automatically find an appropriate DC/GC. If you don't have all Server 2003 SP1+ systems, you need to use setup.com and force it to use a specific DC/GC. If you didn't do this, your install would fail. An Exchange install doesn't mess with AD replication at all other than the Exchange data replication. If that was the case, that'd be the same thing as allowing a user on Vista to be able to destroy your AD replication.

undomiel

Ok, so for an update on this. Finally got my test environment at home configured like the one at work and gave it a run. Worked just fine. So that leaves me thinking either a driver problem, a nic problem, or a switch problem. Sadly I won't be able to troubleshoot to find out where specifically the problem is as we already worked around the problem.