Exchange slow to add new users to GAL

Exchange was very slow to dsiplay new users... when I say very slow, I mean several hours wait.

I'd put it off for a while as there weren't many people joining, but eventually I realised it was something I was going to have to fix.

Taking a look at the Event Viewer gave no clues, so I headed onto the properites on the server just to see if I could spot anything obviously wrong.

Opening up the Directory Access tab, I noticed that none of my Domain Controllers (or indeed Global Catalogs) were listed.

Hmmm, something is up...

First I tried to manually add my DCs, but I thought better about this.. there must be a reason why this is behaving this way.

Then I got a suggestion that I should take a look at the AD to check if the DomainPrep changes were applied. I thought this was ridiculous as Exchange has been running perfectly for the last five years in this environment... heck I've even DomainPrep'd it for Exchange 2007... ah!

After running the Policytest tool found on the Exchange 2003 install disk, I got the following results.

DC = "DC1"
In site = "USA"
!!! Right NOT found !!! 

DC = "DC2"
In site = "USA"
!!! Right NOT found !!! 

DC = "DC4"
In site = "USA"
!!! Right NOT found !!!

Great.. now I know what's wrong.. one swift reinstallation of the DomainPrep later ( X:\setup\i386\setup /DomainPrep) and everything is cool.

I ran the Policytest tool again and watched as the schema changes were replicated to my three DCs, then opened up properties on the Exchange Server node and saw that it was now using the local servers.

Phew!

I hope this helps you out.. if it does, please click on the ads on this page to show your appreciation.