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Exchange 2003 - cannot add new mailboxes

Hi All,

This is an interesting problem that i hope you can help with

We recently installed a new exchange 2003 server to our network and migrated everything from our old exchange 2000 server across - i used this guide

http://www.msexchange.org/tutorials/Migrating-Exchange2000-Exchange-2003-Hardware.html

after completing that successfully - i left the old server alone (it was also a print server and a few small custom apps). everything was fine, i could add new users to AD and they would get mailboxes and it was all good, the mailboxes were being added to the OLD server, but that didnt worry me too much as it was going to be retired anyway - i just exchange task'd them to move to the new server.

now, i have uninstalled exchange from the old server and my problem begins

if i add a new user, and get it to make a mailbox - everything looks like it is working, except the mailbox never gets created on the exchange server. i have also noticed that the new user doesnt have their email address automatically created (as the receipient policy should be doing)

if i try to exchange task move the user - it says it is already on the new server (and doesnt give me any other options to move as there is no alternative server anyway)

so i am fairly confident that i have missed something in the migration, the fact that new users were still being homed on the old server tells me that. but what do i do now - i have the option of installing exchange 2000 back on the old server (if i have to)

this issue isnt urgent yet - i noticed it when adding a new user and instead cheated and renamed a dead user's account - but i only have about 2 of them left.

max points as i want it fixed

thanks all

red

SOLUTION

Sembee

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redseatechnologies

ASKER

i know it sounds like the recipient update server, but it is definately homed on the new (and only) server

KB 307917 is the guide i used to decomission the old server, i will go through it again, but am pretty sure i missed nothing

any other ideas? or does it seem pretty clear cut?

red

redseatechnologies

ASKER

interesting

i just checked the server and confirmed that the recipient update service was pointing to the right places (it was)

but thought for the fun and games of it all, i would browse and select to servers again

on doing so - one of the services couldnt locate the domain controller when i tried to set it again - i received the following error

-------

Select Domain Controller

An Object (User or Other object) with the following name cannot be found: "servername". Check the selected object types and locations for accuracy and ensure that you have typed the object name correctly, or remove this object from the selection.

"Close"

-------

i have another domain controller, which it seems happy enough to point too (although, the other service will quite happily point to the 'troubled' server)

i dont know if it matters but on the recipient update service properties page the exchange server is

servername

while the domain controller is

server2.domain.com

SO, i have pointed both services to the server that it likes (which isnt the GC)

i have "Update Now"'d and "Rebuild"ed

i will keep you informed, i havent gone through that other document again yet, although this seems promising

red

SOLUTION

Sembee

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redseatechnologies

ASKER

i have 5 servers

a web server which is also a dc (but not a gc) win2k
a fileserver which is a dc and the gc win2k
the new exchange server (exch2k and win2k3 - not dc)
the old exchange server only a dc (win2k)
a terminal server (win2k3 - non dc)

so the dc that i point to must be a gc as well? i will give that a go now

thanks for clarifying the netbios / fqdn thing for me, that is at least one less possibilty

i have trawled through the event logs a lot, looking for any clues, i will see if there is any now that it has had a good 15 hours with a non gc dc to point to

will be back soon

thanks

red

redseatechnologies

ASKER

ok, i have configured the other dc (where RUS points to) to a GC

I went through the event logs on all the servers and fixed a few very minor dns issues (w32time and such)

other than that, there is not much else happening in the logs

i did however take the opportunity with RUS to try to point to the original server - which now lets me select it (!?)

I also added another RUS - couldnt see why not

one thing to note, the old exchange server was a dc, the new one is not - i was under the impression that was a good idea, am i wrong? could that help here?

either way, in creating the new RUS, it set the old exchange server (which is a dc) to be the dc for that RUS

I am going to reinstall exchange 2000 on the old server tomorrow, hopefully that will fix whatever was broken. but at some point, i will still need to remove it entirely

do you know why when creating new mailboxes they were automatically being created on the old server? where is that controlled and how do i change it?

thanks for your help

red

redseatechnologies

ASKER

i am confident now that this is definately RUS related

i added a few new accounts with exchange mailboxes (by various different methods) and pushed the RUS attributes out - nothing

i also changed the alias of an account (that was already working) and made sure that RUS used the alias to generate email addresses, then pushed it out again - nothing

I found this (Missing permissions cause the Recipient Update Service not to process accounts in Exchange 2000 Server and Exchange Server 2003)

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/254030

and am running through it

i will keep you informed

red

redseatechnologies

ASKER

i am waiting to restart the exchange services, as per some doco i found - just waiting for all the users to go away

in the mean time, i found that if i add a new user on the old email server (which still is a dc) that i dont get the option to give it a mailbox - and further to that, i have NO option to do the 'exchange tasks'

that seems pretty major - hopefully this is ringing alarm bells to someone

thanks

red

redseatechnologies

ASKER

ok, i am making some headway here

i just restarted the services (system attendant and dependancies(?)) and RUS started doing it's job!

i had new accounts getting email addresses and i could connect to them

things i did were

1. deleted the RUS and recreated it
2. reinstalled exchange services on old exchange server (just management and adc)
3. removed an entry in the recipient policy %m@domain.com (microsoft gave me that one so i have readded it now) (UPDATEL just confirmed it wasnt this)
4. i also went through and confirmed in AD that exchange enterprise servers had access to what it should, and that administrator and all members of domain admins (as well as schema and enterprise) had the option selected to 'allow inheritable permissions to propogate...'

i am assuming the clincher was reinstalling exchange services on the old exchange server - do all dc's require you to have exchange services installed on them?

i will work on it more tomorrow and then close the question in a day or so - as it stands Sembee, i will give the points to you with a B grade, you pointed me at RUS and deserve the points

thanks

red

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Sembee

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redseatechnologies

ASKER

the next thing i am going to do as far as decomissioning the old server, is to uninstall the exchange services

then restart everything and see what happens when the smoke clears

now that i have had this problem, and resolved it - i will just do everything slowly and test it in between to find problems as they happen

thanks very much for your help Simon