Initialization Failed: The Operation Couldn’t Be Completed Because a Change Occurred in the Remote Forest

Initlalization Failed error message launching Exchange 2010 management console

This error can occur when the server the management console is connecting to has been upgraded to a higher Service Pack or Update Rollup version than the server or workstation that you are launching the management console from.

To resolve the issue upgrade your management server or workstation to the same version as the Exchange servers in your organization.

Related posts:

• Exchange 2010 Certificate Revocation Checks and Proxy Settings
• Exchange Server 2010 Service Pack 2
• Microsoft Releases Update Rollup 6 for Exchange Server 2010 SP1
• Update Rollup 5 for Exchange 2010 SP1 Released
• Microsoft Re-Releases Update Rollup 4 for Exchange 2010 SP1

This article Initialization Failed: The Operation Couldn’t Be Completed Because a Change Occurred in the Remote Forest is © 2011 ExchangeServerPro.com

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This major update to Exchange 2010 includes the following enhancements.

• Hybrid Configuration Wizard - provides customers with a streamlined process to configure a hybrid deployment between on-premises and Office 365 Exchange organizations.
• Address Book Policies - determines the global address list (GAL), offline address book (OAB), room list, and address lists that are visible to the mailbox user that is assigned the policy. Address book policies provide a simpler mechanism to accomplish GAL separation for the on-premises organization that needs to run disparate GALs.
• Cross-Site Silent Redirection for Outlook Web App - enables a silent redirection when a Client Access server receives a client request that is better serviced by a Client Access server located in another Active Directory site.
• Mini Version of Outlook Web App - a lightweight browser-based client, similar to the Outlook Mobile Access client in Exchange 2003.
• Mailbox Replication Service - parameters have been added to the New-WebServicesVirtualDirectory and Set-WebServicesVirtualDirectory cmdlets so that you don’t have to perform the manual configuration: MRSProxyEnabled and MaxMRSProxyConnections.
• Mailbox Auto-Mapping - administrators can turn off the auto-mapping feature by setting the value of the new Automapping parameter to $false on the Add-MailboxPermission cmdlets.
• Multi-Valued Custom Attributes - introduces five new multi-value custom attributes that you can use to store additional information for mail recipient objects.
• Litigation Hold - you can’t disable or remove a mailbox that has been placed on litigation hold.

See also:

• Upgrading to Exchange Server 2010 Service Pack 2
• Error Message “The ‘IIS 6 WMI Compatibility’ component is required” During Exchange 2010 SP2 Upgrade
• Initialization Failed: The Operation Couldn’t Be Completed Because a Change Occurred in the Remote Forest

Read the more about what’s new here, or download Service Pack 2 here.

Related posts:

• Exchange Server 2010 Service Pack 2 Announced
• Upgrading to Exchange Server 2010 Service Pack 2
• Initialization Failed: The Operation Couldn’t Be Completed Because a Change Occurred in the Remote Forest
• Error Message “The ‘IIS 6 WMI Compatibility’ component is required” During Exchange 2010 SP2 Upgrade
• Why Haven’t You Upgraded Your Exchange Servers Yet?

This article Exchange Server 2010 Service Pack 2 is © 2011 ExchangeServerPro.com

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With SP2, the following new features and capabilities will be included:

• Outlook Web App (OWA) Mini: A browse-only version of OWA designed for low bandwidth and resolution devices. Based on the existing Exchange 2010 SP1 OWA infrastructure, this feature provides a simple text based interface to navigate the user’s mailbox and access to the global address list from a plurality of mobile devices.
• Cross-Site Silent Redirection for Outlook Web App: With Service Pack 2, you will have the ability to enable silent redirection when CAS must redirect an OWA request to CAS infrastructure located in another Active Directory site.  Silent redirection can also provide a single sign-on experience when Forms-Based Authentication is used.
• Hybrid Configuration Wizard: Organizations can choose to deploy a hybrid scenario where some mailboxes are on-premises and some are in Exchange Online with Microsoft Office 365. Hybrid deployments may be needed for migrations taking place over weeks, months or indefinite timeframes. This wizard helps simplify the configuration of Exchange sharing features, like: calendar and free/busy sharing, secure mailflow, mailbox moves, as well as online archive.
• Address Book Policies: Allows organizations to segment their address books into smaller scoped subsets of users providing a more refined user experience than the previous manual configuration approach. We also blogged about this new feature recently in GAL Segmentation, Exchange Server 2010 and Address Book Policies.
• Customer Requested Fixes: All fixes contained within update rollups released prior to Service Pack 2 will also be contained within SP2. Details of our regular Exchange 2010 release rhythm can be found in Exchange 2010 Servicing.

One thing to note is that SP2 will require an Active Directory schema update.

In order to support these newly added features, there will be a requirement for customers to update their Active Directory schema. We’ve heard the feedback loud and clear from our customers on multiple occasions regarding delays that can be caused to deployment as a result of needing to update your schema and as such with the release of Exchange 2010 SP2 are communicating the required changes ahead of release in order to assist our customers with planning their upgrade path ahead of time.

This is a service pack I know many customers will be looking forward to.

Related posts:

• Exchange Server 2010 Service Pack 2
• Upgrading to Exchange Server 2010 Service Pack 2
• Initialization Failed: The Operation Couldn’t Be Completed Because a Change Occurred in the Remote Forest
• Error Message “The ‘IIS 6 WMI Compatibility’ component is required” During Exchange 2010 SP2 Upgrade
• How to Install Updates on Exchange Server 2010 Database Availability Groups

This article Exchange Server 2010 Service Pack 2 Announced is © 2011 ExchangeServerPro.com

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• Exchange 2010 SP1
• Exchange 2010 RTM
• Exchange 2007 SP3

The best news of all is that Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 now includes all of the pre-requisite hotfixes for Exchange Server 2010 SP1, so no more manually downloading and installing the 6 or 7 patches that were previously needed.

Original post below:

Henrik Walther has answered the question from many Exchange 2010 administrators as to whether it is supported to run Windows Server 2008 R2 Service Pack 1 (SP1 has just been released) on Exchange 2010 servers.

From Henrik’s blog:

I see more and more questions from folks asking whether it’s supported to install Exchange 2010 SP1 on Windows Server 2008 R2 with the new SP1 applied or even upgrade an existing server Exchange 2010 SP1 server running on Windows Server 2008 R2 to this new service pack.

There’s still no information about this in the Exchange Server 2010 Supportability Matrix, but according to the Exchange team this is not supported with the current Exchange 2010 SP1 build but will be with Exchange 2010 SP2 (or with some luck with a future Exchange 2010 SP1 roll-up update).

So if you were considering the upgrade its best that you hold off until an official support statement is made.

Related posts:

• Initialization Failed: The Operation Couldn’t Be Completed Because a Change Occurred in the Remote Forest
• Exchange Server 2010 Service Pack 2
• Exchange Server 2010 Service Pack 2 Announced
• Avoid Running Out of Transaction Log Disk Space on Exchange Servers
• Exchange 2010 FAQ: Are Wildcard SSL Certificates Supported?

This article Support for Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 on your Exchange 2010 Servers is © 2011 ExchangeServerPro.com

Get more Exchange Server tips at ExchangeServerPro.com

The full list of fixes can be found here, and the download files are here.

I’ve updated our Exchange servers here last night and it went smoothly, no problems encountered.

Make sure you read the release notes to be aware of the main issues encountered with Exchange update rollups:

• customised OWA interfaces (backup your customisations as they will be overwritten by the update)
• CAS-proxy deployments (update the internet-facing CAS first)
• managed code services not starting after update (permit access from the server to the Microsoft CRL)

Link: Update Rollup 6 for Exchange Server 2007 Service Pack 1 (KB959241)

Related posts:

• Exchange 2007 OWA stops working with “reason=0” error
• Update Rollup 6 for Exchange 2007 SP3 Released
• OWA Error: The Mailbox You’re Trying to Access Isn’t Currently Available
• 500 Internal Server Error for Exchange 2007 Outlook Web Access
• Exchange Server 2010 Service Pack 2 Announced

This article Exchange Server 2007 Update Rollup 6 (Critical) is © 2009 ExchangeServerPro.com

Get more Exchange Server tips at ExchangeServerPro.com

The good news is you can slipstream SP2 into your R2 media just as easily as with previous versions of Windows Server.  Both the Disc 1 and Disc 2 media need to be slipstreamed or you will run into errors if you try to add the R2 components onto the server.

Simply copy your R2 Disc 1 and Disc 2 media to your hard drive, download the Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 2 Download, and run the slipstream commands.

C:\>WindowsServer2003-KB914961-SP2-x86-ENU.exe /integrate:C:\Temp\Windows2003R2\Disc1
C:\>WindowsServer2003-KB914961-SP2-x86-ENU.exe /integrate:C:\Temp\Windows2003R2\Disc2

Related posts:

• Initialization Failed: The Operation Couldn’t Be Completed Because a Change Occurred in the Remote Forest
• Exchange Server 2010 Service Pack 2
• Exchange Server 2010 Service Pack 2 Announced
• Support for Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 on your Exchange 2010 Servers
• Exchange Server 2007 Update Rollup 6 (Critical)

This article Slipstreaming Service Pack 2 into your Windows Server 2003 R2 media is © 2008 ExchangeServerPro.com

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Yes I did. The name came about basically like this:

Paul: Hey Steve, I need a good codename for this Exchange project. What do you think?

Steve: Project Coconut.

Paul: …. okay then.

Considering who I asked it could have been much worse.

Project Coconut… what is it?

Project Coconut is the piece of work currently occupying most of my time. It is a project to transition an Exchange 2000 Server organisation to Exchange Server 2007. The organisation is about 1000 users, has a few special bits and pieces requiring some close attention, and is the first (except our in-house upgrade) production deployment of Exchange Server 2007 SP1 I’ll be doing (we’ve done several Exchange Server 2007 RTM deployments to date).

The release of SP1 was well timed as this particular customer wants to implement some site resiliency. Knowing that Standby Continuous Replication was coming with SP1 and having labbed it throughout the beta program we knew this would be a good fit.

The project work will involve some good stuff like bringing the Active Directory up to meet the minimum requirements of Exchange Server 2007, introducing Exchange Server 2007 into the organisation, implementing the Standby Continuous Replication features and testing the DR processes around that, migrating all of the mailboxes to the new server, integrating third party applications into the new messaging environment, removing the legacy Exchange 2000 servers, and bringing the IT staff up to speed on the new administrative features of Exchange Server 2007.

Aaron kept an interesting diary of one of his Exchange Server 2007 projects so I will do my best to write about Project Coconut and the things that others might find useful along the way.

Project Coconut Entries:

• Part 1 – Getting the environment up to scratch
• Part 2 – Sizing the Exchange Server 2007 servers
• Part 3 – Deploying the first Exchange Server 2007 server
• Part 4 – Configuring Standby Continuous Replication
• Part 5 – Its mailbox migration time!
• Part 6 – Finishing the job

Related posts:

• Exchange Server 2007 High Availability
• Exchange Server 2007 Update Rollup 6 (Critical)
• Project Coconut: Part 6 – Finishing the job
• Troubleshooting top Exchange 2007 SP1 SCR issues
• Project Coconut: Part 4 – Configuring Standby Continuous Replication

This article Project Coconut: An Exchange Server 2000 to 2007 Transition – Introduction is © 2008 ExchangeServerPro.com

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[PS] C:>Get-AntispamUpdates   

UpdateMode                  : Automatic
LatestContentFilterVersion  : 3.3.4604.600
SpamSignatureUpdatesEnabled : True
LatestSpamSignatureVersion  : 3.3.4604.600
IPReputationUpdatesEnabled  : True
LatestIPReputationVersion   : 3.3.4604.001
MicrosoftUpdate             : NotConfigured

And here is the same Exchange Server 2007 server immediately after upgrading to Service Pack 1:

[PS] C:>Get-AntispamUpdates   

UpdateMode                  : Disabled
LatestContentFilterVersion  : 3.3.4604.600
SpamSignatureUpdatesEnabled : False
LatestSpamSignatureVersion  : 3.3.4604.600
IPReputationUpdatesEnabled  : False
LatestIPReputationVersion   : 3.3.4604.001
MicrosoftUpdate             : NotConfigured

The Service Pack 1 installation disabled the Anti-spam engine updates. This stung me on a production system that I upgraded shortly after the SP1 release. Eventually someone in the office mentioned the ever increasing volume of spam emails to me and I subsequently made this discovery.

Sadly the Release Notes do not seem to include this issue.

Related posts:

• Exchange SSL Certificate Management Survey
• What Are You Telling Customers About the Epsilon Data Breach?
• Understanding the Exchange Server Spam Confidence Level
• Causes of MapiExceptionNotAuthorized Error Sending to Public Folders
• Review of GFI MailEssentials

This article Exchange Server 2007 SP1 disables Exchange Anti-spam updates is © 2008 ExchangeServerPro.com

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