IP_V6 is a must if you are trying to install Exchange 2010

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I am getting ready to write the whitepaper for Exchange 2010 address list segregation and I ran in to a problem where my setup was failing with no errors. I decided to open up the application log and MSEXCHANGEADTOPOLOGYSERVICE.EXE was nice enough to throw the following error for me:

Event Type: Error
Event Source: MSExchange ADAccess
Event Category: Topology
Event ID: 2114
User: N/A
Description:
Process MSEXCHANGEADTOPOLOGYSERVICE.EXE (PID=1936). Topology discovery failed, error 0x80040a02 (DSC_E_NO_SUITABLE_CDC). Look up the Lightweight Directory Access
Protocol (LDAP) error code specified in the event description. To do this, use Microsoft Knowledge Base article 218185, "Microsoft LDAP Error Codes." Use the information in that article to learn more about the cause and resolution to this error. Use the Ping or PathPing command-line tools to test network connectivity to local domain controllers.

Like everyone else I see on the internet I also went to the following KB article, and to my surprise the article was outdated and of little use. I will see what I can do to get this fixed for everyone.

From here I went to check my network card settings to make sure that my DNS servers were set properly and I found that my IPV6 settings were unchecked. This is a huge problem. The Exchange 2010 services need to have IPV6 enabled for them to start. Once I enabled the IPV6 the transport service started and then I was able to reinstall all of Exchange 2010.

NOTE: If you need to disable IP_V6 for any reason the correct way to do this would be to do the following:

1. Uncheck IPV6 in the network card properties on both the DC and the Exchange server.
2. You must apply a registry key and reboot each machine to completely remove IPv6:

Key: HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Tcpip6\Parameters
Value Name: DisabledComponents
Value Type: DWORD
Value: FF

3. Once this key is set reboot both the your domain controller(s) and the Exchange server.
4. run an Ipconfig /all
5. On each machine and ensure you see no IPv6 addressing in the output.
6. Once this is complete, elevate diagnostic logging for ADAccess and NSPI, use the following cmdlets:

  • get-eventloglevel –id “MSExchange ADAccess\*" | set-eventloglevel –level:medium
  • Get-eventloglevel –id “MSExchangeSA\*" | set-eventloglevel –level:medium
  • Get-eventloglevel –id “MSExchangeSA\NSPI Proxy" –Level:high

7. Recycle the ADAccess and System Attendant services, let the machine run for 5-10 minutes, and send me the resulting application log.

Dave