forest prep for exchange 2003 not working

[watts3000]

Yesterday we went into a client office to setup a exchange 2003 server. The client already had a windows 2000 dc that was running all of apps it was also running exchange 2003. So we unistalled 2003 from the dc. After that was done we setup the new dell server that was just bought. The client also wanted the new server set up as a domain contoller to provide some fault tolerance. So I ran ad forest prep and domain prep on the 2000 server box than I set up the new 2003 server. After that I tried to install exchange 2003 on the new server but forest prep would not run. My account had scheme,enterprise and domain admin rights. I tried the install it from the command line serveral time. Has anyone here came across a problem like this before? After a million trys it installed but at the end of installtion it said forest prep has not been performed.

 

[BeanDip]

Did you check the Event Logs to see if the reason was logged there?

Also I think it logs things to a .log file in the root of the system drive... you might look around there.

Why did you uninstall Exchange 2003 from the DC? Were they not using it for email? Normally if you are wanting to move the server you create a secondary Exchange server that is part of the same organization and then move the mailboxes over.

Since they already had an Exchange 2003 server you may not need to do the Forestprep or Domainprep because all they do is add the attributes to AD for Exchange. Try just installing the server and see what happens.