Newbie Help - Setup

Well where to start. I am the lone IT clown at my company, and the IT manager wants Exchange install on our new SQL Server so we can IM in office and other things. I am running Windows 2000 Server with SQL Server 2000. I know NOTHING about Exchange, Active Directory, or DNS Server, etc... I am a programmer trying to administer a network I donâ??t yet understand. I have been reading extensive Knowledge base stuff, and have an idea of what I'm doing. Before I install Exchange I must
1) Set up DNS Server (I Think this is done, seems to work
2) Set Up Active Directory(Which I know NOTHING about, and was already installed before I started here
3) Then Install Exchang

I have tried to set up the DNS Server as best I can, and it seems to work, but documentation says four folders should be present
_msdc
_site
_tc
_ud

I don't even know where these folders should be, never mind if they are there. When I run the utility "DCDIAG" for Active Directory, man it looks bad. All sorts of stuff not connecting and running. I did not set up AD nor do I know what is required for it. When I go into AD Sites And Services, under Sites -> Default First Site -> Servers, my named DNS Server is not there, looks like a NetBios name. That seems important. When I try to install Exchange, it says
"Multiple Components cannot be assigned the requested action(s) because
-Setup is unable to access the Windows 2000 Active Director
-Failed to contact the Schema Master server for the Active Directory Forest

I am not looking for someone to hold my hand (but you can...ha ha), but I just want someone with experience to try and help me trudge through this, or at least tell me where I may go wrong, common hang ups, etc... Any help is greatly appreciated, and for someone going far and above the call, I'll even mail $5, seriously!!! Thanks in advance
Gerar

jann
Wed Jan 14 12:50:36 CST 2004

If the IT Manager is so bright, s/he can do it her/himself and show you at
the same time...

But a positive suggestion would be to read Brelsford's 'Small Business
Server 2000 Best Practices' and Tulloch's "Administering Exchange 2000
Server". And trawl through this newsgroup including the Google archives.

HTH

anonymous
Wed Jan 14 13:16:06 CST 2004

Thanks,
Gerard

David
Thu Jan 15 08:12:48 CST 2004

Hi Gerard,

Although there are many [far!] more knowledgeable folks here in this
newsgroup, the newsgroup itself is SBS2000-based. Is this particular server
running SBS2000 or plain W2k? I'm sure that there are folk who'll be able
and prepared to help regardless but as a first step, it's probably a good
idea of we can clarify this point.

Cheers,



David



"Gerard" <anonymous@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:4098A408-5371-476C-BFD4-B23C31ACB916@microsoft.com...
> Well where to start. I am the lone IT clown at my company, and the IT
manager wants Exchange install on our new SQL Server so we can IM in office
and other things. I am running Windows 2000 Server with SQL Server 2000. I
know NOTHING about Exchange, Active Directory, or DNS Server, etc... I am a
programmer trying to administer a network I don't yet understand. I have
been reading extensive Knowledge base stuff, and have an idea of what I'm
doing. Before I install Exchange I must:
> 1) Set up DNS Server (I Think this is done, seems to work)
> 2) Set Up Active Directory(Which I know NOTHING about, and was already
installed before I started here)
> 3) Then Install Exchange
>
> I have tried to set up the DNS Server as best I can, and it seems to work,
but documentation says four folders should be present:
> _msdcs
> _sites
> _tcp
> _udp
>
> I don't even know where these folders should be, never mind if they are
there. When I run the utility "DCDIAG" for Active Directory, man it looks
bad. All sorts of stuff not connecting and running. I did not set up AD
nor do I know what is required for it. When I go into AD Sites And
Services, under Sites -> Default First Site -> Servers, my named DNS Server
is not there, looks like a NetBios name. That seems important. When I try
to install Exchange, it says:
> "Multiple Components cannot be assigned the requested action(s) because:
> -Setup is unable to access the Windows 2000 Active Directory
> -Failed to contact the Schema Master server for the Active Directory
Forest"
>
> I am not looking for someone to hold my hand (but you can...ha ha), but I
just want someone with experience to try and help me trudge through this, or
at least tell me where I may go wrong, common hang ups, etc... Any help is
greatly appreciated, and for someone going far and above the call, I'll even
mail $5, seriously!!! Thanks in advance,
> Gerard
>