I am trying to prepare my development/test forest for Exchange 2007 deployment so that we can do testing and development work prior to deployment in production.WhenI run the'setup.com /preparead' command, I get the following error:Organization Preparation ......................... FAILED Cannot bind argument to parameter 'Identity' because it is null.When this first popped up, our highly paid consultants who are supposed to be helping us with this told me that it was because we had prepped our test forest for Exchange 2003, but had never had an Exchange2003 server installed. So I set up an Exchange2003 server. Same error.I have successfully run the 'setup /pl' command in the only domain where I have an Exchange 2003server (the forest root); I've successfully run the 'setup /ps' command; All of the servers/DC's in this forest are in the same domain and site as the schema master. In fact, I am running the /preparead command ON the forest root DC/schema master/GC/you name it (though I also tried running it on the Exch 2003 server as well.)All of my forest DC's are 2003, SP1.I've searched MS for this error and have found NOTHING that helps me. What IS "Identity", why is it NULL and who do I fix this?????Ed Ed Bell - Specialist, Network Services, Convergys

did all other prep work complete successfully?you should go in this order i believe. If you have run the first two and all is well, then the only other thing i could think of would be the domain functional level is not at 2003. Please let me know and i will try to assist.setup.com /preparelegacyexchangepermissionssetup.com /prepareschemasetup.com /prepareAD -Jason Pope

Hi Ed,Check and correctany error if you get in ExBPA readiness check of Exchange 2007. http://msexchangeteam.com/archive/2006/07/28/428506.aspx Additionally detailed error info from setup log helps to identify the issue. http://msexchangeteam.com/archive/2007/05/07/438433.aspxAmit Tank || MVP - Exchange || MCITP - Exchange 2007 || http://ExchangeShare.WordPress.com

Jason:Thanks for replying.Yes, all of the other prep work has completed and they were done in order. And both the forest and domain are at the2003 level.EdEd Bell - Specialist, Network Services, Convergys

i guess one thing you could try is to run the preparedomain or alldomains portion. it is my understanding that this switch will check everything and try to run the pl , ps, and pad if needed. -Jason Pope

Given that I eventually ended up rebuilding my entire forest from the root up (I was able to keep the root domain intact) to fix other problems, I don't know if I found the ultimate fix for this or not, but what I finally ended up doing was this: I had to logon directly on the PDC emulator in each child domain, running "setup /pd" as an EA. EdEd Bell - Specialist, Network Services, Convergys