In Exchange 2000 Server, Connection Agreements disappear after you remove Active Directory Connector

When you use ADSI Edit or Exchange System Manager to remove the Active Directory Connector (ADC) server and you do not properly remove the ADC or Connection Agreements first, the Connection Agreements are no longer associated with the server object. The Connection Agreements remain in ADC, but you receive the following error message when you try to open them in the Active Directory Connector snap-in: If you click OK on the error message, the information appears shaded.

However, when you use the LDP utility or ADSI Edit you can still see the Connection Agreement objects. When you reinstall the ADC on a different server, and then start the ADC Manager snap-in, you do not see any Connection Agreements.

This behavior can occur because when you remove the ADC server the connection breaks between the Connection Agreements and the ADC server. When you install a new ADC server, it creates a new server object and distinguished name. The Connection Agreement is still associated with the old ADC server object and, therefore, does not exist in the ADC Manager snap-in.

To resolve this behavior, re-associate the old Connection Agreements with the new ADC server. To do so, you must change the msExchHomeSyncService attribute on each old Connection Agreement (or Connection Agreements).

Note The easiest way to do this procedure is to create a new Connection Agreement, and then copy and paste the msExchHomeSyncService attribute to the Connection Agreement that exists.

Alternatively, you can copy the distinguished name of the ADC object that is under Sites and Services by using the ADSI Edit tool. To do this, follow these steps:

1. Click Start, click Run, type adsiedit.msc, and then click OK.
2. Expand the Configuration container.
3. Expand the CN=Configuration container.
4. Expand the CN=Sites container.
5. Expand your CN=Site container, where Site is the name of the Exchange site. By default, this container is CN=Default-First-Site-Name.
6. Expand CN=Servers.
7. Expand CN=Server, where Server is the name of the Exchange computer.
8. Click CN=Exchange Settings.
9. In the right pane, right-click CN=Active Directory Connector (Server), and then click Properties.
10. In the Attributes list, double-clickdistinguishedName.
11. Copy the value that is in the Value box.

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.

1. Start the ADC Manager snap-in.
2. Create a new Connection Agreement.
3. Start ADSI Edit.
4. Expand Configuration, expand Services, expand Microsoft Exchange, and then click Active Directory Connections.
5. In the right pane, open the properties of the Connection Agreement that was just created.
6. In the Select a property to view drop-down list, click msExchHomeSyncService.
7. Copy the whole attribute from the Value(s) box, and then click OK.
8. Open the properties of one of the Connection Agreements that you must re-associate.
9. Click the Select a property to view drop-down list, and then click the msExchHomeSyncService attribute.
10. Paste the copied value into the Edit Attribute box.
11. Click Set, click Apply, and then click OK.

Your Connection Agreements re-associates with your new ADC server.

Another way to resolve this behavior is to delete the Connection Agreements through an Active Directory editor, and then re-create Connection Agreements through the ADC Manager snap-in. However, depending on the number and type of Connection Agreements required, it may be much easier to edit the msExchHomeSyncService attribute as noted earlier.