I'm having an issue getting Exchange 2010 installed for one of my clients. First a bit about our environment: Active Directory was recently extended to 2008 with one 2008 R2 DC running. So we're still in 2003 compatible mode at the domain and forest levels. We have never had Exchange installed here; so this is a brand new install. The Exchange server is in the same AD site as all the FSMO role holders. We're installing Exchange 2010 on a Windows Server 2008 R2, Standard edition server just provisioned for this purpose. I've done dozens of Exchange installs for other clients. First time I've gotten hung up on extending the schema. I tried running the Exchange wizard, but it failed during the "Prepare the Organization" phase. So I tried running the setup.com file from a command prompt. I've tried it from the Exchange server and from the 2008 DC (Schema Master and PDC Emulator). In each case, I get the following error: ---------------------------------------- Configuring Microsoft Exchange Server Organization Preparation ......................... FAILED The following error was generated when "$error.Clear(); install-ExchangeSchema -LdapFileName ($roleInstallPath + "Setup\Data\"+$RoleSchemaPrefix + "schema92.ldf")" was run: "There was an error while running 'ldifde.exe' to import the schema file 'C:\Windows\Temp\ExchangeSetup\Setup\Data\schema92.ldf'. The error code is: 8202. More details can be found in the error file: 'C:\Users\KXknarr\AppData\Local\Temp\ldif.err'". The Exchange Server setup operation did not complete. Visit http://support.microsoft.com and enter the Error ID to find more information. Exchange Server setup encountered an error. ---------------------------------------- The details in the ldif.err file are: ---------------------------------------- Entry DN: CN=ms-Exch-Client-Access-Array,CN=Schema,CN=Configuration,DC=ad,DC=pgcc,DC=edu Add error on entry starting on line 730: No Such Attribute The server side error is: 0x57 The parameter is incorrect. The extended server error is: 00000057: LdapErr: DSID-0C090C3E, comment: Error in attribute conversion operation, data 0, v1db1 An error has occurred in the program ---------------------------------------- The section of schema92.ldf that it is talking about is: ---------------------------------------- dn: CN=ms-Exch-Client-Access-Array,<SchemaContainerDN> changetype: ntdsSchemaAdd adminDescription: ms-Exch-Client-Access-Array adminDisplayName: ms-Exch-Client-Access-Array defaultSecurityDescriptor: D:S: governsID: 1.2.840.113556.1.5.7000.62.50145 lDAPDisplayName: msExchClientAccessArray name: ms-Exch-Client-Access-Array objectCategory: CN=Class-Schema,<SchemaContainerDN> objectClass: classSchema objectClassCategory: 1 rDNAttID: cn schemaIdGuid:: 6VHo0Om020y1HNHtQ6g2ug== subClassOf: top auxiliaryClass: msExchBaseClass possSuperiors: msExchContainer mayContain: legacyExchangeDN mayContain: msExchServerSite mayContain: networkAddress ---------------------------------------- I can't get any further. All other steps are being blocked by this error. Anyone have any suggestions?

Ah. I didn't think of that. I'll try that first thing Monday morning.

Finally had a chance to give this a try. No luck. :( Still fails on the same part of the LDF file import. Guess I'm going to have to call MSFT support. Now to figure out when to fit THAT into my schedule. :P

For Ex2010 setup in Win 2008 R2 (AD server) 1. Locate the server on your network that is the schema master (http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc755631(v=ws.10).aspx#BKMK_CMD) 3. Put the Exchange 2010 DVD in the schema master. 4. Drop to command line and change to the DVD Drive/Directory with the Exchange 2010 setup files in it. 5. Command to run : > setup /prepareSchema If EX2003 in Network then run: > setup /PrepareLegacyExchangePermissions Once successful > setup /PrepareAD (if its the First Exchnage server then the command will fail as won't be able to find any container in the AD) So we have to specify the Organization name. > setup /PrepareAD /Organizationname:"First Organization" Once successful, try the Ex 2010 installation again. It should work.

Thank you for taking the time to reply. So far we've been through 3 levels of escalation and 5 different engineers with Microsoft Product Support. After working with them for 3 weeks, we've been able to get the /PrepareSchema and /PrepareAD commands to finally work. However when we tried to run the full Exchange 2010 setup, it passed the pre-req checks, but them bombed during setup saying that one of the AD objects was malformed. It is back in PSS hands again as they try to discover what the latest error message implies and how to fix it. I wish it had been as easy as running /PrepareSchema from the Schema Master. If so, we would have been past this weeks ago. :)