• Article

Exchange Active Directory Provider could not read an attribute from Root DSE of the server

 

Topic Last Modified: 2007-11-16

The Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 Management Pack for Operations Manager monitors the Windows Application log on computers that are running Exchange Server 2007 and generates this alert when the event or events specified in the following Details table are logged.

To learn more about this event, do one or more of the following:

  • Review the description of the event that includes the variables specific to your environment. From the Operator Console, select this alert, and then click the Properties tab.

  • Review all events that have been logged that meet the criteria of this Operations Manager alert. From the Operator Console, click the Events tab, and then double-click the event in the list for which you want to review the event description.

Details

Product Name

Exchange

Product Version

8.0 (Exchange Server 2007)

Event ID

2137

Event Source

MSExchange ADAccess

Alert Type

Critical Error

MOM Rule Path

Microsoft Exchange Server/Exchange 2007/Common Components/Active Directory Access

MOM Rule Name

Exchange Active Directory Provider could not read an attribute from Root DSE of the server. This issue must be resolved before Exchange Active Directory Provider operation can continue.

Explanation

This Error event may indicate that the attribute specified in the event description does not contain any value. It may also indicate that the value could not be read. Root Directory Service Entry, also known as RootDSE, is the root of the Active Directory® data tree on an Active Directory server. RootDSE attributes are used to retrieve distinguished names of the domain, schema, and configuration containers of the Active Directory. This event is caused by a missing or an invalid value in the RootDSE attribute specified in the event description.

For more information about RootDSE attributes, see RootDSE at the MSDN Web site.

User Action

To resolve this error, use LDP.exe to make sure that the Exchange server that logged this event can read defaultNamingContext, schemaNamingContext, configurationNamingContext and rootDomainNamingContext naming contexts from the Active Directory server. Perform the following procedure:

Note

Before you start this procedure, you must install LDP.exe from the Support\Tools folder of the Microsoft® Windows 2000 Server or Microsoft Windows Server™ 2003 installation CD.

  1. Click Start, click Run, type ldp.exe, and then click OK.

  2. On the Connections menu in the LDP window, click Connect.

  3. In the Connect box, type the name of the Active Directory server specified in the event description, and then click OK.

    Details about the Exchange server that connects to the Active Directory server are displayed in the results pane. The output is also known as RootDSE information.

  4. Make sure that the naming context attributes, defaultNamingContext, schemaNamingContext, configurationNamingContext, and rootDomainNamingContext, display correct information. For a sample RootDSE information, see Microsoft Knowledge Base article 837964, Security issues with LDAP NULL base connections.

  5. If the naming context attributes, defaultnamingContext, schemaNamingContext, configurationNamingContext, and rootDomainNamingContext, display incorrect or invalid information, review the Application log and System log on the Active Directory and Exchange server for any corresponding Warning or Error events.

For More Information

To search the Microsoft Knowledge Base articles based on criteria that generated this alert, visit the Search the Support Knowledge Base (KB) Web site.

To review Exchange 2007 event message articles that may not be represented by Exchange 2007 MOM alerts, see the Events and Errors Message Center.

If you are not already doing so, consider running the tools that Microsoft Exchange offers to help administrators analyze and troubleshoot their Exchange environment. These tools can help you make sure that your configuration is in line with Microsoft best practices. They can also help you identify and resolve performance issues, improve mail flow, and better manage disaster recovery scenarios. Go to the Toolbox node of the Exchange Management Console to run these tools now. For more information about these tools, see Toolbox in the Exchange Server 2007 Help.