When you modify the membership of a Microsoft Exchange Server 5.5 distribution list, changes may be lost (884064)

SYMPTOMS

When you modify the membership of a Microsoft Exchange Server 5.5 distribution list that has hidden members, those membership changes may be lost. For example, if you remove members or add members, those changes may be lost.

Additionally, you experience the following symptoms in the Active Directory directory service:

The distribution group that corresponds to this Exchange Server 5.5 distribution list has the msExchALObjectVersion attribute incremented very frequently.

Note This attribute may be incremented up to one time every minute.
If you stop the Recipient Update Service for the domain where you experience this problem, you no longer experience these symptoms

CAUSE

This problem occurs if all the following conditions are true:

You have a parent domain such as parent.com.
You have a child domain for that parent domain, such as child.parent.com.
Exchange Server 5.5 is running on a computer in the child domain.
You install the Active Directory Connector in the child domain to replicate distribution list information to the parent domain and to replicate distribution group information from the parent domain to Exchange Server 5.5.
You install Exchange Server 2003 in the child domain, and then you create a new Recipient Update Service that points to the parent domain.

Note This Recipient Update Service stamps distribution groups that are created in the parent domain.
You add users to an Exchange Server 5.5 distribution list that has hidden members, or you remove users from such a distribution list.

In this scenario, the Recipient Update Service repeatedly stamps distribution groups that contain hidden members. This causes the msExchALObjectVersion attribute to be updated very frequently. In this scenario, new membership modifications to a distribution list in Exchange Server 5.5 may be overwritten by previous membership information from the corresponding distribution group in Active Directory. This behavior occurs when the Active Directory Connector connection agreement replicates this information to Exchange Server 5.5.

RESOLUTION

Service pack information

To resolve this problem, obtain the latest service pack for Exchange Server 2003. For more information, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

836993 How to obtain the latest service packs for Exchange Server 2003

Hotfix information

A supported hotfix is now available from Microsoft, but it is only intended to correct the problem that is described in this article. Only apply it to systems that are experiencing this specific problem. This hotfix may receive additional testing. Therefore, if you are not severely affected by this problem, we recommend that you wait for the next Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 service pack that contains this hotfix.

To resolve this problem immediately, 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

Because of file dependencies, you must be running Exchange Server 2003 Service Pack 1 (SP1) to install this hotfix. For additional information, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

836993 How to obtain the latest service packs for Exchange Server 2003

Restart requirement

You do not have to 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 file attributes) 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
   ---------------------------------------------------------
   29-Sep-2004  18:31  6.5.7232.39       584,192  Abv_dg.dll