Setting up Exchange 2003 - Error code 0XC103798A

  • Thread starter Thread starter Joseph Keegan
  • Start date Start date
J

Joseph Keegan

I had this problem the other day while extending the schema in
preparation for an upgrade to Exchange 2003. I searched through a lot
of databases and search engines, and found that a lot of people have
had this problem, but none of the forums led to a clear cut answer to
the issue. So, I thought I'd share my solution to try and help others
out, and save them some time and frustration. I was ready to call
Microsoft support right before I figured this out.

While running forest prep (setup /forestprep), setup failed with Error
code 0XC103798A. It then specified to check the Exchange installation
log for more details. The event log also genereated error code 1002
with the source being ExchangeSetup. Both very generic errors, as you
undoubtedly have seen when you googled the error code.

Going to the Exchange Installation log ("C:\Exchange Server Setup
Progress.log"), the following error was logged every time you clicked
RETRY:

<--------LOG-SNIP---------->
The command

regsvr32 /i /s maildsmx.dll

failed, returning error code 5 (Access is denied.). -- ID:31136 --
ScCreateProcess (f:\tisp1\admin\src\libs\exsetup\hiddenw1.cxx:1821)
Error code 0XC103798A (31114): An internal component has
failed.
<--------LOG-SNIP---------->

There were many suggestions in many of the forums on possible ways to
resovle this issue, ranging from registering the DLL manually to
renaming DLL's in EXCHSRVR\BIN. None of these suggestions worked.
What ended up working for me was:

- Do a NETDIAG /FIX (from the Windows 2000 support tools, on the
Windows 2000 server CD, in folder SUPPORT).
- IPCONFIG /FLUSHDNS.
- IPCONFIG /REGISTERDNS.
- REBOOT.
- Restart Forestprep.
- SUCCESS!

A missing or improperly configured SRV record in Active Directory DNS
was causing this issue. NetDiag detected this and fixed it. I'm
surprised that the Microsoft knowledgebase did not return this
solution more readily; I searched everywhere for more than 2 hours,
and finally ended up dragging the answer out of Microsoft's
knowledgebase. The query that led me to the answer was very far from
what you'd expect.

I hope this helps people that are having issues upgrading/installing
Exchange 2003. It took me all day to get this resolved.

-Joseph Keegan, MCP, MCSE, CCNA, CCA
Senior Network Engineer
Constructure Technologies
631-396-7777
jkeegan at constructuretech dot com
www dot constructuretech dot com
 
Thanks .. and

Hi,
Thanks the post, it helped.
Also, there is an article on microsoft support site which talks of the same solution:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/822583

Also, for me, after fixing the dns problem on the AD machine and after flushing and registering DSN on the machine where I am installing Exchange, I did not have to reboot, I could just continue installing Exchange from the point where it complained with the error message.
 
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