Member Avatar for troverman

I'm trying to add a bunch of contacts with external e-mail addresses to my distribution group. Upon adding the contact's SMTP address and clicking apply, I get the following error message after a brief delay:

An Exchange Server could not be found in the domain.
Check if the Microsoft System Attendant service is running on the Exchange Server.

ID No: c10308a2

Anyway, I'm attempting to add these contacts directly from the Exchange Server, which is not a DC and has the ADUC snap-in installed. On my DC, ADUC does not have the option of adding e-mail enabled contacts. This exchange server is also a VM run by Hyper-V. I've logged in as Administrator.

Any help? Project is due by end of day tomorrow.

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Quick expert note for anyone hitting the error "An Exchange Server could not be found in the domain (ID No: c10308a2)". As discovered, that message means the Exchange management code on the machine you’re using cannot locate a functioning Exchange server (or the Microsoft Exchange System Attendant service) to complete the mail-enabling operation. The following checklist covers the common, verifiable causes and practical fixes.

  • Verify the System Attendant: on the Exchange server open services.msc and confirm "Microsoft Exchange System Attendant" is running and set to Automatic. If it won’t start, check the Application and System event logs for related Exchange/DS errors and resolve those first.
  • Ensure proper management tools: the Exchange property pages in ADUC require the Exchange admin tools (Exchange System Manager / ADUC Exchange extensions) installed on the machine you’re using. Without those extensions ADUC won’t mail-enable contacts.
  • Check network, DNS and RPC: from your admin workstation confirm name resolution and connectivity to domain controllers and the Exchange server (nslookup, ping). Firewalls or blocked RPC ports (TCP 135 + dynamic RPC) will prevent discovery.
  • Confirm permissions and AD health: use an account in Exchange Organization Admins or Domain Admins. Also verify AD replication and that Exchange configuration objects are present on the domain (replication problems can hide Exchange servers).
  • If you need to do many contacts: create plain AD contact objects in bulk (CSVDE/LDIFDE) then mail‑enable them via Exchange System Manager (or populate proxyAddresses correctly if doing programmatic mail-enabling). Test a small batch first.

If the System Attendant and connectivity are healthy but management still fails, reinstalling the Exchange admin tools on a properly domain‑joined admin workstation or checking the Exchange server’s event log usually reveals the blocking issue.

Member Avatar for troverman

Solved this problem myself...I cannot add these contacts directly from the exchange server. I added an ADUC snap-in with exchange tabs on a Windows XP workstation...it works.

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