While installing Exchange server 2007 R3 in my domain I seem to have run across a number of problems leading to three lessons learned.
1. Don’t bother trying to install MS exchange in a child domain of active directory deployment. I ran across the apparently common error that the Exchange server in the child domain could not contact the schema master, or giving me the error:
Setup needs to contact the Active Directory schema master but this computer is not in the same Active Directory domain as the schema master (DC=davidv,DC=local)
Apparently you can move the schema master to the child domain and then move it back, but that’s a really retarded solution. Anyways even if you install MS Exchange in the parent domain you can limit the scope to the child domain later on (see lesson number 3 below)
2. Keep IPv6 enabled on your network card! Most times admins (including me) disable IPv6 to reduce the traffic and attack surface of a server unless IPv6 is explicitly needed. If you disable IPv6, exchange installer will fail in the “Hub Transport Role” stage and tell you that “Exchange Transport service has failed to reach the "started” stage”. Checking this in services.msc, the aforementioned service seems to hang in the “starting” phase. Luckily came across this article which provided the solution of statically configuring an IPv6 address:
3. By default exchange will only show the existing users in the current (parent) domain. If you would like to configure recipients from existing users in another domain, for example the child domain, you will need to open Exchange Management Console > Right Click on “recipient configuration” > modify recipient scope. From here you can either choose users across the whole domain (view recipients in forest) or limit it to a particular domain / child domain
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