An Exchange 2010 Install That Didn’t go Smoothly

The Scenario

An Exchange 2010 coexistence install with Exchange 2003 (here we install Exchange 2010 from the Exchange 2010 SP1 media). Previously we have done a Domain Controller uplift to 2008 R2 and ran the Active Directory Domain Services Best Practice Analyzer, which checked out fine except for a warning regards a Domain Trust. The Domain Trust was checked-out and assumed to have been in-place for a Windows NT4 domain upgrade, but it wasn’t doing any harm so it gets left … (big mistake!)

The First Error

The Exchange 2010 install is run from the command line:

setup.com /mode:Install /roles:CA,HT,MB /EnableLegacyOutlook /LegacyRoutingServer:Exchange2003.exchange.com /ExternalCASServerDomain:mail.exchange.com

And it all runs through fine until at the end with installing the Mailbox Server Role, we get:

Mailbox Server Role FAILED

Couldn't resolve the user or group "…/Microsoft Exchange Security Groups/Discovery Management."

If the user or group is a foreign forest principal, you must have either a two-way trust or an outgoing trust.

The Exchange Server setup operation didn't complete.

Exchange Server setup encountered an error.

The error points to a problem with a Domain Trust, and – with the result of the Active Directory Domain Services Best Practice Analyzer in mind – we remove both outgoing and incoming trusts.

Image: Removing old domain trusts

The Second Error

Since everything appears to be in-place – all roles are installed and there is a mounted Mailbox Database, even though the install script failed on the Mailbox Server Role – we continue configuring Exchange 2010.

Then we come to upgrade to Exchange 2010 SP2 and this errors with:

Some controls aren’t valid. – Setup previously failed while performing the action “Install”. You can’t resume setup by performing the action “BuildToBuildUpgrade”.

Image: Exchange SP2 Setup failed while performing the action “Install”

Investigating the error points to needing to delete the strings Action and Watermark in the registry key – HKLM\Software\Microsoft\ExchangeServer\v14\MailboxRole

Image: The Action and Watermark strings

We delete the strings and reboot.

The Third Error

Then we re-attempt installing Exchange 2010 SP2 and get the following error:

The ‘IIS 6 WM Compatibility’ component is required. Install the component via Server Manager

  

Image: IIS 6 WMI Compatibility components is required

We duly install the component.

The Fourth and Final Error

On re-attempting the install of Exchange 2010 SP2, it runs fine until reaching the Mailbox Role, upon which it fails with the error:

This server role can’t be installed because the following roles aren’t current: AdminToolsRole

Image: Mailbox Role error – server role can’t be installed

Investigating this error points to a problem with the ConfiguredVersion string in the registry key –

HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Exchange Server\v14\MailboxRole

– and to compare the value with the value from the AdminTools key.

Checking this uncovers that the ConfiguredVersion string is missing:

Image: AdminTools key

Image: MailboxRole key (missing ConfiguredVersion)

We add the ConfiguredVersion string into the MailboxRole key, with the same value as the ConfiguredVersion string in the AdminTools key.

Image: MailboxRole key with ConfiguredVersion String Added

Success

Now the Exchange 2010 SP2 installs successfully!

And all subsequent Exchange Rollups complete successfully too!

The Motto of the Story

Pay attention to Best Practice Analyzer results!