XADM: Directory Replication Portion of Exchange Setup Fails (155867)

SYMPTOMS

During Exchange 4.0 Setup, you may get the following error message:

A connection could not be made to the remote directory service, possibly due to network failure.

This error message can occur during the directory replication portion of Setup if you have elected to add an additional server to an existing site, and can occur even though you have initially been able to join an existing site by typing the name of any online server in the site when prompted during Exchange Setup.

CAUSE

The initial connection to the server specified in the "join an existing site" dialog box can be successful using any of the available protocols installed on the server in the Networks tool in Control Panel.

However, after this initail connection, the replication process is limited to protocols specified in the RPC_Srv_Binding_Order registry entry. This may cause the directory replication process to time out due to name resolution failure.

For example, the server may use NetBIOS name resolution to make the initial connection to the existing server in the site and then use TCP/IP name resolution when making the RPC connection to perform directory replication. If name resolution fails over TCP/IP, the RPC will time out, aborting the replication process and causing Setup to fail.

RESOLUTION

Normal name resolution troubleshooting will resolve this problem. For example, if directory replication is failing due to name resolution failure over TCP/IP, the solution is to check and make sure that name resolution is successful using HOSTS files, DNS, WINS, or LMHOSTS files.