I put this post up on another forum but the advice I was given from from 2008 and there was a note if it had to do with Exchanged 2013, to come here. Here goes ...
We are currently using Exchange 2013 CU14 on Windows 2008 and I'd like to get a fresh install of Exchange on 2012 R2 since 2008 is out of support next month. Since CU14 is no longer available, I was looking to upgrade to CU23 so we would at least be on a supported version of 2013 on a supported server OS.
So far, I have a new 2012 R2 VM that is patched and up to date.
I've run repadmin /syncall on by DCs and they are error free
I've run dcdiag on my DCs and they are in synch
I ran setup /PrepareSchema /IAcceptExchangeServerLicenseTerms successfully.
I reran the two utilities above as well as repadmin /showreps ... everything cleared.
When I try to run setup with the /PrepareAD parameter, it errors out.
-----------------------------
D:\Exchange Install\Exchange2>setup /PrepareAD /IAcceptExchangeServerLicenseTerms
Microsoft Exchange Server 2013 Cumulative Update 23 Unattended Setup
Copying Files...
File copy complete. Setup will now collect additional information needed for
installation.
Performing Microsoft Exchange Server Prerequisite Check
Prerequisite Analysis COMPLETED
Configuring Microsoft Exchange Server
Organization Preparation FAILED
The following error was generated when "$error.Clear();
initialize-ExchangeUniversalGroups -DomainController $RoleDomainControll
er -ActiveDirectorySplitPermissions $RoleActiveDirectorySplitPermissions
" was run: "System.NullReferenceException: Object reference not set to an instan
ce of an object.
at Microsoft.Exchange.Management.Tasks.InitializeExchangeUniversalGroups.Crea
teOrMoveEWPGroup(ADGroup ewp, ADOrganizationalUnit usgContainer)
at Microsoft.Exchange.Management.Tasks.InitializeExchangeUniversalGroups.Inte
rnalProcessRecord()
at Microsoft.Exchange.Configuration.Tasks.Task.<ProcessRecord>b__b()
at Microsoft.Exchange.Configuration.Tasks.Task.InvokeRetryableFunc(String fun
cName, Action func, Boolean terminatePipelineIfFailed)
at Microsoft.Exchange.Configuration.Tasks.Task.ProcessTaskStage(TaskStage tas
kStage, Action initFunc, Action mainFunc, Action completeFunc)
at Microsoft.Exchange.Configuration.Tasks.Task.ProcessRecord()
at System.Management.Automation.CommandProcessor.ProcessRecord()".
The Exchange Server setup operation didn't complete. More details can be found
in ExchangeSetup.log located in the <SystemDrive>:\ExchangeSetupLogs folder.
----------------------
When I go into ADSI Edit and look at Configuration, Services, Microsoft Exchange properties and drill down to the contents of the OtherWellKnownObjects attribute, I can see the full path of where it is currently set. When I look in AD, I can drill down into the OU and see the Managed Availability Servers group. On the members tab, I can see our existing Exchange server.
Since the OtherWellKnownObjects attribute can't be edited, how can I resolve the issue to get AD Prep'd and Exchange installed? Am I going about this the wrong way? My thoughts were to bring up a second exchange server, migrate the mailboxes and other settings and then make the necessary DNS modifications.
From the other forum I posted in, I was pointed to this link but as I said, it is from 2008.
https://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/ff537d3d-9da8-4a69-ab09-4310726246ca/fail-preparead-object-reference-not-set-to-an-instance-of-an-object
Once on the page, I hovered over this part of the link: "Exchange Previous Versions - Setup, Deployment, Updates, and Migration" and it led me here.
Would this:
The Microsoft Exchange Security Groups object container needs to be deleted from the advanced view of AD Users and Computers or ADSIEDIT.
make our present server unmanageable?
Any thoughts?