DSAccess has been hard-coded

[This topic is intended to address a specific issue called out by the Exchange Server Analyzer Tool. You should apply it only to systems that have had the Exchange Server Analyzer Tool run against them and are experiencing that specific issue. The Exchange Server Analyzer Tool, available as a free download, remotely collects configuration data from each server in the topology and automatically analyzes the data. The resulting report details important configuration issues, potential problems, and nondefault product settings. By following these recommendations, you can achieve better performance, scalability, reliability, and uptime. For more information about the tool or to download the latest versions, see "Microsoft Exchange Analyzers" at https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkid=34707.]  

Topic Last Modified: 2005-11-18

The Microsoft® Exchange Server Analyzer Tool queries the Exchange_DSAccessDC Microsoft Windows® Management Instrumentation (WMI) class in the ROOT\MicrosoftExchangeV2 namespace to determine the value for the ConfigurationType key. If the value for this key is 0, a non-default configuration message is displayed.

The ConfigurationType property indicates whether the instance describes a domain controller that was detected automatically, or one that was specified manually. Out-of-the-box, the Directory Service Access (DSAccess) component in Exchange Server dynamically detects the Active Directory® directory service topology and locates domain controllers and global catalog servers automatically. On computers that are running Exchange Server 2000 Service Pack 2 or later versions, or Exchange Server 2003, Exchange System Manager includes the ability to enter a hard-coded list of Active Directory servers for use by DSAccess.

Unless the hard-coding of directory servers for DSAccess was performed for a specific reason, you should remove the list of servers and revert to the default setting of auto-discovery. It is recommended that you use automatic topology discovery to take advantage of global catalog failover.

To revert to the default setting

  1. Click Start, click Programs, click Microsoft Exchange, and then click System Manager.

  2. Expand Administrative Groups, <AdminGroupName>, Servers, <ServerName> (where AdminGroupName is the name of the administrative group that contains the Exchange server, and ServerName is the name of the Exchange server that you want to configure).

  3. Right-click the Exchange server, and then click Properties.

  4. Click the Directory Access tab.

  5. In the Show list box, select Configuration Domain Controller.

  6. Select the Automatically discover servers check box.

  7. Click Yes when the following Exchange System Manager prompt appears: "The manually selected server(s) that have been specified will be cleared. Do you want to continue?"

  8. In the Show list box, select Domain Controllers.

  9. Select the Automatically discover servers check box.

  10. Click Yes when the following Exchange System Manager prompt appears: "The manually selected server(s) that have been specified will be cleared. Do you want to continue?"

  11. In the Show list box, select Global Catalog Servers.

  12. Select the Automatically discover servers check box.

  13. Click Yes when the following Exchange System Manager prompt appears: "The manually selected server(s) that have been specified will be cleared. Do you want to continue?"

  14. Click OK to save the changes.

For more information about DSAccess and directory services detection, see the Microsoft Knowledge Base article 250570, "Directory Service Server Detection and DSAccess Usage" (https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkid=3052&kbid=250570).