Win2K SP2 and broken Exchange2K servers

Error, error, error.....

By Thomas C Greene in Washington DC • Get more from this author

Posted in Software, 21st May 2001 16:52 GMT

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We've received anecdotal reports from Exchange2K users having no alternative but remove Win2K SP2 to make Exchange work again.

One source speaks of dealing with eleven such cases in ten hours, and another says Exchange can't even be installed on his machine with SP2 in place.

In the latter case the install was completely clean, from a re-format. First 2K server, then SP1, then SP2, then Exchange.

"Ran Exchange 2000 forestprep. Forestprep almost completed before receiving an error message that simply stated something to the effect of, 'Exchange 2000 Forestprep could not complete.' Tried running domainprep just to see what would happen -- of course it wouldn't run. Ran forestprep again and got the same results as the first time. After I removed SP2 I was able to successfully run forestprep, domainprep, and finally setup."

We understand there's also an issue where SP2 breaks DNS and Exchange2K behind MS Proxy Server 2.0, which could account for the differences in the two anecdotes above.

We've no idea how the systems mentioned were configured, though we'll post more information as it becomes available. In the mean time, we hope readers experiencing noteworthy stuff-ups with SP2 might rattle our cage with the details as we try to get to the bottom of it and untangle the knots. ®