XADM: You Cannot Manually Add Domain Controllers to the Directory Access Topology in Exchange System Manager (329166)

SYMPTOMS

You may not be able to manually add a domain controller or a configuration domain controller from another site to the Directory Access topology by using the Directory Access tab in Exchange System Manager.

When you try to add a domain controller or a configuration domain controller, only the domain controller in your site may be listed in the Select Domain Controllers dialog box, or in the Select Configuration Domain Controller dialog box.

If you type the name of a domain controller that you want to add, and then click Check Names or OK, you may receive one of the following error messages:

Cannot find ServerName. Correct the spelling or click Remove to delete the item.

-or-

Cannot find ServerName. Check the spelling of the name.

If your site does not contain a domain controller, you may receive the following error message:

Cannot display objects from this location because of the following error: The search filter cannot be recognized.

The following event ID message is logged in the Event Viewer Application log where ServerName is the name of the domain controller that you want to add: Event Type: Error
Event Source: MSExchangeDSAccess
Event Category: (5)
Event ID: 2061
Description:
Process WINMGMT.EXE (PID=1384). An LDAP search call failed - Server=ServerName. Error code=8004090a. Base DN=<GUID=A2B22AEF-8712-4DF2-8C47-22B2C369181F>, Filter=(objectclass=*), Scope=0.

CAUSE

This issue occurs because the Directory Services tab in Exchange System Manager lists only the domain controller and the configuration domain controllers that are in the site where you are currently located. Domain controllers and configuration domain controllers that are in other sites are not included in the search filter.

WORKAROUND

To work around this issue, manually edit the registry to statically assign the servers that you want DSAccess to use. For additional information about how to do this, click the article number below to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

250570 XADM: Directory Service Server Detection and DSAccess Usage

MORE INFORMATION

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

246228 XGEN: DSAccess profiles

To add or configure a domain controller:

Click to clear the Automatically discover servers check box.
On the Directory Access tab of the ServerName Properties dialog box of a server in Exchange System Manager, click Add.

To increase the diagnostic-logging level for MSExchangeDSAccess:

Start Exchange System Manager.
Right-click the server, click Properties, and then click the Diagnostics Logging tab.