The Microsoft Exchange System Attendant service does not start on a computer that is running Exchange Server 2007 after you rename a Windows Server 2003 domain

You use the Rendom.exe utility to rename an existing Microsoft Windows Server 2003 domain. After you do this, the following services do not start on computers that are running Microsoft Exchange Server 2007:

• Microsoft Exchange EdgeSync
• Microsoft Exchange Information Store
• Microsoft Exchange System Attendant
• Microsoft Exchange Transport

This issue occurs because domain rename operations are not supported when Exchange Server 2007 is installed in a Windows Server 2003 domain. If you rename the domain, and if the domain contains computers that are running Exchange Server 2007, the Microsoft Exchange System Attendant service does not start.

To work around this issue, use Rendom.exe to rename the domain its original name.

Warning The domain rename operation is not supported if you are using Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 or Exchange Server 2010. There is no mechanism to block a domain rename operation when the domain contains Exchange Server computers. The Domain Name System (DNS) domain rename operation is supported in Exchange Server 2003. However, renaming the NetBIOS domain name is not supported in any version of Exchange Server.

Windows Server 2003 also lets you rename domain controllers. However, if you rename the domain controllers, and if you have Exchange 2007-based computers in the domain, you should consider the following issues:

• The Directory Service Access (DSAccess) component can no longer correctly query domain controllers. This issue occurs because domain controllers that were specified manually in Exchange Server 2007 refer to the old domain controller names. In this case, the Exchange-related services no longer function.
• Domain controllers that are automatically discovered by DSAccess may not be used until the Exchange Server servers are restarted. This issue occurs because DSAccess stores the original domain controller names in memory.

For more information about the domain name renaming operation, visit the following Microsoft website:For more information about Windows Server 2003 domain rename tools, visit the following Microsoft website:For more information about how to specify the domain controller that DSAccess uses, view the information about the Set-ExchangeServer cmdlet. To do this, visit the following Microsoft website: