Exchange 2000 Recipient Update Service does not replicate changes successfully in forest functional level 1 or 2 in Windows Server 2003 Active Directory

When you use the Recipient Update Service in Microsoft Exchange 2000 Server to update objects in forest functional level 1 or forest functional level 2 in a Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Active Directory directory service, the Recipient Update Service does not update an object successfully.

This problem occurs because the Recipient Update Service on an Exchange 2000 computer does not accurately detect updates to linked attributes when the updates occur on a domain controller that is part of Windows Server 2003 Active Directory in forest functional level 1 or forest functional level 2.

For additional information about forest functional levels, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

Windows Server 2003 Active Directory has a new feature that is named Linked Value Replication. Linked Value Replication permits individual values of a multi-valued attribute to be replicated separately. In Microsoft Windows 2000 Server, when a change is made to a member of a group or when a new group member is added, the whole group membership value has to be replicated. However, when Linked Value Replication is enabled in Windows Server 2003, and you add a new member to the group, only the new member entry is replicated. The whole group membership is not replicated. When a change to a linked attribute (such as group membership) changes, an update sequence number for an object is updated, but the metadata for these particular attributes does not change. Exchange 2000 searches for metadata changes to particular attributes to decide whether the Recipient Update Service must update an object. Because this metadata does not change when the forest functional level is set to enable Linked Value Replication, the Recipient Update Service does not replicate the object.

When Linked Value Replication is enabled in an Active Directory forest, group membership changes do not replicate between a Windows Server 2003 Active Directory server (in forest functional level 1 or forest functional level 2) and a Microsoft Exchange Server 5.5 computer when that group membership change originates in Active Directory.

For example, if the homeMDB attribute (a linked attribute) is removed from a mailbox-enabled user in Active Directory, the Recipient Update Service should detect the change and repopulate the attribute. When Linked Value Replication is enabled in Active Directory, the Recipient Update Service does not detect the change and does not update the homeMDB attribute of the user.

To resolve this problem, do not switch the forest functional level to 1 or to 2 until you have moved all the Recipient Update Service duties onto an Exchange 2003 computer.

Microsoft has made a hotfix available that resolves this problem if an Exchange 2003 computer is not present. To obtain this hotfix for a server that is running Exchange 2000, follow the instructions in the following Microsoft Knowledge Base article:
If there is no Exchange 2003 computer present, we recommend that you apply this hotfix to the Exchange 2000 computer that is running the Recipient Update Service.

To work around this problem, rebuild the Recipient Update Service. This forces the Recipient Update Service to evaluate each object in Active Directory. To rebuild the Recipient Update Service, follow these steps:

1. Open Exchange System Manager. To do this, click Start, point to Programs, point to Microsoft Exchange, and then click System Manager.
2. Expand the Organization object, and then expand the Recipients container.
3. Click Recipient Update Service, click Recipient Update Service (Enterprise Configuration), and then click Rebuild to force an update.

Note As part of the update process for installing the Exchange 2003 version of Active Directory Connector (ADC), Active Directory Schema is extended (if it has not already been extended) to include the full set of Exchange attributes that Exchange 2003 requires. For additional information, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

Microsoft has confirmed that this is a problem in the Microsoft products that are listed in the "Applies to" section.

For additional information, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: