XADM: Error Message When Joining an Exchange Server 5.5 Site: "This Account Must Be Valid Before Continuing" (297921)

The information in this article applies to:

Microsoft BackOffice Server 2000
Microsoft Exchange 2000 Server

This article was previously published under Q297921

SYMPTOMS

While you are running Setup or Setup /forestprep to join an existing Microsoft Exchange Server 5.5 organization, you may experience the following behavior on the Service Account page. The User name box will have the correct Exchange Server 5.5 service account, but if you type the correct password for that account into the Password box, you may receive the following error message:

Microsoft Exchange 2000 Installation Wizard

This account must be valid before continuing.

CAUSE

If the Exchange Server 5.5 service account is in a different domain than the server that you are running Setup on, this problem can occur.

This problem occurs with BackOffice 2000 CD sets.

The exsetdata.dll file from the SBS 2000 CD set also contains this bug, however, since SBS is single domain only, and this bug only manifests itself in a multi-domain topology, SBS users should never be affected by it.

RESOLUTION

To resolve this problem, obtain the latest service pack for Microsoft Exchange 2000 Server. For additional information, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

301378 XGEN: How to Obtain the Latest Exchange 2000 Server Service Pack

NOTE: Run the update /forestprep command from the Exchange 2000 Server Service Pack before you run Setup.exe from the Exchange 2000 Server CD.

WORKAROUND

To work around this problem, create a temporary account in the domain that the server that you are running Setup is in, with the same user name and password as the Exchange Server 5.5 service account. After Setup or ForestPrep has successfully completed, you can delete the temporary account.

STATUS

Microsoft has confirmed that this is a problem in Microsoft Exchange 2000 Server. This problem was first corrected in Microsoft Exchange 2000 Server Service Pack 2.

Modification Type:	Minor	Last Reviewed:	4/28/2005
Keywords:	kbbug kbExchange2000SP2Fix kbfix KB297921