You receive a "The security ID structure is invalid" error message when you try to create a recovery storage group on a Windows 2000-based Exchange Server computer (840885)

CAUSE

This problem occurs if all the following conditions are true:

Exchange Server 2003 is installed on a Microsoft Windows 2000 Server-based computer that is running in a Microsoft Windows Server 2003 domain.
The Windows 2000-based computer has Windows 2000 Service Pack 3 (SP3) or Windows 2000 Service Pack 4 (SP4) applied.
The domain controllers in your domain do not all use the same language edition of Windows Server 2003.

When you create the recovery storage group and then add a database, the following events occur:

When the security descriptor is copied from one object to another object, Windows must obtain the security descriptor from the source object. The domain controller returns the security identifier (SID) for this object, and the Active Directory Service Interfaces (ADSI) looks up the corresponding friendly name of that SID before returning it.
When the security descriptor is set on the new object and then committed to the Active Directory directory service, the friendly name for that SID is again obtained from Active Directory. However, if this second lookup operation is made from a domain controller with a locale that is different from the locale of the first lookup, the returned friendly name might be in a language that uses a different word for a particular user or group. Therefore, the error message that is described in the "Symptoms" section appears.

This problem does not occur when Exchange Server 2003 is installed on a Windows Server 2003-based computer because Windows Server 2003 caches the initial SID lookup information.

RESOLUTION

Hotfix information

A supported hotfix is now available from Microsoft, but it is only intended to correct the problem that this article describes. Apply it only to systems that are experiencing this specific problem.

To resolve this problem, contact Microsoft Product Support Services to obtain the hotfix. For a complete list of Microsoft Product Support Services telephone numbers and information about support costs, visit the following Microsoft Web site:

http://support.microsoft.com/contactus/?ws=support

Note In special cases, charges that are ordinarily incurred for support calls may be canceled if a Microsoft Support Professional determines that a specific update will resolve your problem. The usual support costs will apply to additional support questions and issues that do not qualify for the specific update in question.

Prerequisites

You must have Windows 2000 Service Pack 4 (SP4) installed to apply this hotfix. l For additional information, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

260910 How to obtain the latest Windows 2000 service pack

Restart requirement

You must restart your computer after you apply this hotfix.

Hotfix replacement information

This hotfix does not replace any other hotfixes.

File information

The English version of this hotfix has the file attributes (or later) that are listed in the following table. The dates and times for these files are listed in coordinated universal time (UTC). When you view the file information, it is converted to local time. To find the difference between UTC and local time, use the Time Zone tab in the Date and Time tool in Control Panel.


   Date         Time   Version        Size     File name
   --------------------------------------------------------------
   06-May-2004  16:12  5.0.2195.6920  184,080  Activeds.dll

MORE INFORMATION

For additional information about how hotfix packages are named, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

816915 New file naming schema for Microsoft Windows software update packages

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

824684 Description of the standard terminology that is used to describe Microsoft software updates