You receive error ID 80004005 when you use Exchange System Manager to try to change the domain controller that is specified in the properties dialog box for the Recipient Update Service in Exchange 2000

• The account that you are using does not have permissions to the parent object.
• The serverReference attribute is not set on the parent object.

Step 1: Locate the server object

set connection = CreateObject("ADODB.Connection")
connection.Provider = "ADsDSOObject" 
connection.Open()
set rsObjects =  connection.Execute("<LDAP://CN=Sites,CN=Configuration,DC=Your_Domain,DC=com>" & _
";(objectCategory=ntdsdsa);distinguishedName")
while not rsObjects.EOF
set obj = GetObject("LDAP://" + rsObjects.Fields("distinguishedName"))
set dc = GetObject(obj.Parent)
WScript.Echo "This is the DN of the server:" & dc.distinguishedName
if (dc.serverReference="") _
   Then WScript.Echo "Error: This attribute serverReference is not found" _
   else WScript.Echo "This is the ServerReference attribute of the server:" & _
dc.serverReference
rsObjects.MoveNext() 
wend

Step 2: Resolve the issue

Method 1: Grant your account the permissions that are required for the server object in Active Directory

1. Click Start, click Run, type cmd, and then click OK.
2. Type the following command:
   dsacls "cn=server_name,cn=servers,cn=site_name,cn=sites,cn=configuration,dc=domain,dc=domain_suffix
   In the command, server_name is the name of the server, site_name is the name of the Windows site, and domain and domain_suffix are the forest root domain, for example, dc=contoso,dc=com.

Access list:    
Effective Permissions on this object are:   
Allow DOMAIN\Domain Admins              FULL CONTROL  
Allow NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM               FULL CONTROL  
Allow NT AUTHORITY\Authenticated Users  SPECIAL ACCESS  
                                        READ PERMISSONS  
                                        LIST CONTENTS  
                                        READ PROPERTY  
                                        LIST OBJECT  
Allow DOMAIN\Enterprise Admins          FULL CONTROL    <Inherited from parent> 
Allow DOMAIN\Domain Admins              SPECIAL ACCESS  <Inherited from parent> 
                                        DELETE  
                                        READ PERMISSONS  
                                        WRITE PERMISSIONS  
                                        CHANGE OWNERSHIP  
                                        CREATE CHILD  
                                        LIST CONTENTS  
                                        WRITE SELF  
                                        WRITE PROPERTY  
                                        READ PROPERTY  
                                        LIST OBJECT  
                                        CONTROL ACCESS   
Permissions inherited to subobjects are:   
Inherited to all subobjects   
Allow DOMAIN\Domain Admins              FULL CONTROL  
Allow DOMAIN\Enterprise Admins          FULL CONTROL   <Inherited from parent>  
Allow DOMAIN\Domain Admins              SPECIAL ACCESS <Inherited from parent> 
                                        DELETE  
                                        READ PERMISSONS  
                                        WRITE PERMISSIONS  
                                        CHANGE OWNERSHIP  
                                        CREATE CHILD  
                                        LIST CONTENTS  
                                        WRITE SELF  
                                        WRITE PROPERTY  
                                        READ PROPERTY  
                                        LIST OBJECT  
                                        CONTROL ACCESS

Method 2: Populate the serverReference attribute value for the server object

1. Install the ADSI Edit snap-in if it is not already installed.
   
   The ADSI Edit snap-in is included with the Microsoft Windows 2000 Server Support Tools. To install the Windows 2000 Server Support Tools, run Setup.exe from the Support\Tools folder on the Microsoft Windows 2000 Server CD.
2. Click Start, click Run, type adsiedit.msc, and then click OK.
3. If you want to connect to a different domain controller, click Connect to on the Action menu, click Select or type a domain or server, type the fully-qualified domain name of the domain controller, and then click OK.
4. Expand Configuration Container [Server_Name.Your_Domain.com]
5. Expand CN=Configuration,DC=Your_Domain,DC=com
6. Expand CN=Sites.
7. Expand CN=Site_Name.
8. Expand CN=Servers.
9. Expand CN=Server_Name.
   
   In this step, Server_Name is the name of the domain controller.
10. Right-click the domain controller server object, and then click Properties.
11. Select the serverReference attribute.
12. If this attribute is empty, populate it with the distinguished name of the server object that appears under the domain partition. To do this, follow these steps:
    1. In the ADSI Edit snap-in, locate and then expand Domain NC [Server_Name.Your_Domain.com].
    2. Expand DC=Your_Domain,DC=com.
    3. Expand OU= Domain Controllers.
    4. Expand CN=Server_Name.
    5. Right-click Server_Name, and then copy the value of the distinguishedName attribute. This data can be pasted into the serverReference attribute that is mentioned in step 11.
    Note The procedure in step 12 uses the default location for the server object.