XADM: You Cannot Create a Routing Group Connector If Both Routing Groups Do Not Contain a Virtual Server Instance

In a mixed Exchange 2000 and Exchange Server 5.5 organization that contains multiple routing groups, you cannot create a routing group connector from a routing group that contains only Exchange Server 5.5 computers. When you try to create a routing group connector from the routing group that does not contain an Exchange 2000 server, you receive the following error message: You also receive this error message if you create a new routing group that does not contain any servers, and then try to create a routing group connector from that routing group.

This issue occurs because the routing group does not contain a Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) virtual server. To successfully create a routing group connector, you must specify an SMTP virtual server instance to manage the outgoing messages from that routing group. An SMTP virtual server does not exist if there is no Exchange 2000 server in the routing group.

Routing groups in Exchange 2000 are designed to function in a manner that is similar to sites in Exchange Server 5.5. Therefore, a routing group connector is comparable to a site connector. One of a routing group's primary functions is to control replication traffic. For additional information about how to set up a routing group connector correctly, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: