So when I try to perform the upgrade, it passes all the preq checks and during the organization check it immediately stops and tells me that it can't connect to my sub-domain. Not sure why this is. I can ping it and access it. now it is physically located a great distance away, however there is no exchange system on it, and it is just there for file storage. Is there a way around this or have the setup ignore it. Thanks B

You could add a domain controller for that domain locally.Ed Crowley MVP "There are seldom good technological solutions to behavioral problems."

Hi B, Is there any update?Please remember to click Mark as Answer on the post that helps you, and to click Unmark as Answer if a marked post does not actually answer your question. This can be beneficial to other community members reading the thread. Thanks Gen Lin-MSFT

No luck so far, during the organizational phase of the installation, it fails stating that it could not contact or locate the domain controller for this sub-domain. dcdaig reports no errors either.

Hello Did you Run setup /PrepareAllDomains or setup /pad to prepare all domains in your organization. check the Active directory site and services you have all the subnets added in it ? try to ping your exchange server from sub domain server or check is there any firewall in between. Thanks Mhussain

I can ping the server by name or ip from the sub-domain and tried to run /PrepareAllDomains same error message: Prepare Domain Progress FAILED The following error was generated when "$error.Clear(); if ($RolePrepareAllDomains) { initialize-DomainPermissions -AllDomains:$true -CreateTenantRoot:( $RoleIsDatacenter -or $RoleIsPartnerHosted); } elseif ($RoleDomain -ne $null) { initialize-DomainPermissions -Domain $RoleDomain -CreateTenantRoot :($RoleIsDatacenter -or $RoleIsPartnerHosted); } else { initialize-DomainPermissions -CreateTenantRoot:($RoleIsDatacenter -or $RoleIsPartnerHosted); } " was run: "Domain domainname.local cannot be reached. Please verify th e connection to this domain and run PrepareDomain for this domain again.". The sub-domain is connected to the forest domain via a permanent VPN connection.