Exchange System Attendant does not start after you rename a Windows Server 2003 domain

After you use the Rendom.exe utility to rename an existing domain on a Microsoft Windows Server 2003-based system, the Microsoft Exchange System Attendant service on your Exchange 2000 servers and your Exchange 2003 servers does not start.

Domain rename operations are not supported when Exchange 2000 servers reside in a Windows Server 2003 forest. If you do rename the domain, and your domain contains Exchange 2000 servers, the Microsoft Exchange System Attendant service does not start.

If only Exchange 2003 servers with Exchange Server 2003 Service Pack 1 (SP1) installed on them reside in a Windows Server 2003 forest, a tool must be used to enable the Exchange 2003 SP1 servers to function correctly after a domain rename. If the tool is not used, the Microsoft Exchange System Attendant service will not start. This tool and the domain rename operation only work if all Exchange servers are Exchange 2003 with Exchange Server 2003 SP1 installed.

To resolve this issue when Exchange 2000 servers reside in the Windows Server 2003 forest, use Rendom.exe to rename your domain back to its original name.

To resolve this issue when Exchange 2003 servers reside in the Windows Server 2003 forest, use the Exchange Server 2003 Domain Rename Fix-up tool. For additional information, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

Currently, domain rename operations are not supported by Exchange 2000. However, you can still rename a domain that includes Exchange 2000 servers because there is no mechanism to block a domain rename operation when the domain contains Exchange 2000 servers.

Windows 2003 also permits you to rename domain controllers. If you rename your domain controllers, there are some potential issues to consider if you have Exchange 2000 servers or Exchange 2003 servers in your domain. These include the following:

• Active Directory Connector (ADC) connection agreements no longer replicate because the information that is on the Connections tab still points to the old domain controller names.
• DSAccess can no longer query domain controllers correctly because domain controllers that were manually specified on the Directory Access tab in Exchange System Manager refer to the old domain controller names. When this is the case, the Exchange services no longer function.
  
  Note To locate the Directory Access tab in Exchange System Manager, right-click a server, and then click Properties.
• Domain controllers that are automatically discovered by DSAccess may not be used until the Exchange servers are restarted. This issue occurs because DSAccess stores the old domain controller names in memory.

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