How to Verify That ForestPrep and DomainPrep Completed Successfully in Exchange 2000 Server or Exchange Server 2003

This step-by-step article describes how to verify that the setup /forestprep command and the setup /domainprep command ran successfully during the installation of Microsoft Exchange 2000 Server or Microsoft Exchange Server 2003. You must have the ADSI Edit snap-in to complete some of these steps.

Exchange 2000

ForestPrep

To verify that the setup /forestprep command completed successfully on a computer that is running Microsoft Windows 2000 Server in an Exchange 2000 environment, use either of the following methods:

• Look for event ID 1575
  Event ID 1575 is recorded in the Directory Service event log of each domain controller where the setup /forestprep command has run. To view event ID 1575 in the Directory Service event log of a domain controller, follow these steps:
  1. Click Start, point to Programs, point to Administrative Tools, and then click Event Viewer.
  2. In Event Viewer, click Directory Service.
  3. In the right pane, click the Event header to sort the events from lowest to highest number.
  4. In the Event list, view the list of event ID numbers to find event ID 1575. If event ID 1575 is not in the list, setup /forestprep did not run on the domain controller.
• Use the ADSI Edit snap-inWarning If you use the ADSI Edit snap-in, the LDP utility, or any other LDAP version 3 client, and you incorrectly modify the attributes of Active Directory objects, you can cause serious problems. These problems may require you to reinstall Microsoft Windows 2000 Server, Microsoft Windows Server 2003, Microsoft Exchange 2000 Server, Microsoft Exchange Server 2003, or both Windows and Exchange. Microsoft cannot guarantee that problems that occur if you incorrectly modify Active Directory object attributes can be solved. Modify these attributes at your own risk. To use the ADSI Edit snap-in to verify that setup /forestprep completed successfully on a computer that is running Windows 2000 Server, follow these steps:
  1. Click Start, point to Programs, point to Windows 2000 Support Tools, point to Tools, and then click ADSI Edit.
  2. Expand Schema, and then click CN=Schema, CN=Configuration, DC=Your_Domain, DC=Your_Domain, DC=Your_Domain.
  3. Double-click the cn=ms-Exch-Schema-Version-Pt object.
  4. In the Select a property to view box, click rangeUpper. Note the value that is in the Value box. If the value is less than 4397, setup /forestprep has been run by a version of Exchange 2000 that is earlier than the original released version of the product. If the value is 4397, setup /forestprep has been successfully run by Exchange 2000. If the value is 6870, setup /forestprep has been successfully run by Exchange 2003.

DomainPrep

To determine if the setup /domainprep command has run successfully, run the Policytest utility on a domain controller. The Policytest utility is located in the Support/Utils/Platform folder on the Exchange 2000 Server Enterprise Edition CD. When you run this utility at a command prompt, all the domain controllers should report the same security settings. For additional information about the Policytest utility, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

Exchange 2003

To verify that the setup /forestprep command and the setup /domainprep command completed successfully in Exchange 2003, run the OrgPrepCheck tool from Exchange 2003 Deployment Tools. To run the OrgPrepCheck tool, use either of the following methods.

Note You must have the LDAP protocol installed on the Exchange 5.5 computer to run Exchange Deployment Tools successfully.

• Start OrgPrepCheck from Exchange Deployment Tools
  Use the OrgPrepCheck tool that is in the Exchange Deployment Tools to determine if the commands have been completed successfully. To do this, follow these steps:
  1. Insert the Exchange 2003 CD in your CD-ROM drive.
  2. On the Welcome to Exchange Server 2003 Setup page, click Exchange Deployment Tools.
     
     Note If the Welcome to Exchange Server 2003 Setup page does not appear after you insert your CD, double-click Setup.exe, and then click Exchange Deployment Tools.
  3. Click Deploy the first Exchange 2003 server.
  4. Click Coexistence with Exchange 5.5.
  5. On the Phase 1 page, click Next.
  6. On the Phase 2 page, locate step 3, enter the required information, and then click Run OrgPrepCheck now.
  7. Close the Exchange Deployment Tools window.
  8. View the following output file to see if the setup /forestprep command and the setup /domainprep command have completed successfully:
     C:\Exdeploy Logs\Exdeploy.log
• Run OrgPrepCheck at a command prompt You can also run the OrgPrepCheck tool at a command prompt. To do this, follow these steps:
  1. Insert the Exchange 2003 CD in your CD-ROM drive.
  2. Click Start, and then click Run.
  3. In the Open box, type cmd, and then click OK.
  4. Locate the CD-ROM drive, and then type the following command:
     CD-ROM_Drive_Letter:\support\exdeploy\exdeploy.exe /gc:global catalog server name /s:Exchange_5.5_Computer_Name /t:orgprepcheck
  5. View the following output file to see if the setup /forestprep command and the setup /domainprep command have completed successfully:
     C:\Exdeploy Logs\Exdeploy.log

Additionally, you can use the ADSI Edit snap-in to verify that the setup /forestprep and the setup /domainprep commands completed successfully in Exchange 2003.

ForestPrep

The Exchange 2003 setup /forestprep command writes many of its changes to the configuration naming context in the Active Directory directory service. One of the last ForestPrep actions sets the objectVersion attribute on the Exchange organization container to a value of 6903. To locate the objectVersion attribute, use the ADSI Edit snap-in or the LDP utility. Warning If you use the ADSI Edit snap-in, the LDP utility, or any other LDAP version 3 client, and you incorrectly modify the attributes of Active Directory objects, you can cause serious problems. These problems may require you to reinstall Microsoft Windows 2000 Server, Microsoft Windows Server 2003, Microsoft Exchange 2000 Server, Microsoft Exchange Server 2003, or both Windows and Exchange. Microsoft cannot guarantee that problems that occur if you incorrectly modify Active Directory object attributes can be solved. Modify these attributes at your own risk.

To use the ADSI Edit snap-in to view the objectVersion attribute, follow these steps:

1. Click Start, point to Programs, point to Windows 2000 Support Tools, point to Tools, and then click ADSI Edit.
2. Expand Configuration Container, expand CN=Configuration,DC=forest_root_domain,DC=com, expand CN=Services, and then expand CN=Microsoft Exchange.
3. Right-click CN=Exchange_organization_name, and then click Properties.
4. In the Select which properties to view list, click Optional.
5. In the Select a property to view list, click objectVersion. View the value in the Value(s) box. If the Exchange 2003 setup /forestprep command has ever been run, the objectVersion attribute has a value of 6903. If the objectVersion attribute does not have a value, or if the value appears in the ADSI Edit snap-in as "<not set>", either the ForestPrep utility has not been run on the forest, or the domain controller that you are connected to has not yet received replication messages from more up-to-date domain controllers.

DomainPrep

The Exchange 2003 setup /domainprep command writes many of its changes to the domain naming context in Active Directory. One of the last DomainPrep actions sets the objectVersion attribute on the Microsoft Exchange System Objects container to a value of 6936. To locate the objectVersion attribute, use the ADSI Edit snap-in or the LDP utility. To view the objectVersion attribute by using the ADSI Edit snap-in, follow these steps:

1. Click Start, point to Programs, point to Windows 2000 Support Tools, point to Tools, and then click ADSI Edit.
2. Expand Domain NC, and then expand DC=local_domain,DC=com.
3. Right-click CN=Microsoft Exchange System Objects, and then click Properties.
4. In the Select which properties to view list, click Optional.
5. In the Select a property to view list, click objectVersion.
6. View the value in the Value(s) box. If the Exchange 2003 setup /domainprep command has ever been run on the domain, the objectVersion attribute has a value of 6936. If the objectVersion attribute does not have a value, or if the value appears in the ADSI Edit snap-in as "<not set>", either the DomainPrep utility has not been run on the domain, or the domain controller that you are connected to has not yet received replication messages from more up-to-date domain controllers.

These steps are useful to determine whether the Exchange 2003 Setup program (the Setup program without any additional parameters) can continue to run on an Exchange 2003 computer. Before the Exchange 2003 Setup program can run, the Setup program verifies that the latest Exchange 2003-specific Active Directory updates are present on the domain controller that the Exchange computer is connected to.

For additional information about the Exchange Server 2003 Deployment Tools, click the following article numbers to view the articles in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: