Office Communications Server and RODCs

Another reason I don't like read-only domain controllers

It's common knowledge that OCS, like Exchange, requires a writable DC (and GC) in the same AD site in order to function. However, if there are ANY RODC's in the same AD site as an OCS server it will cause major problems.

The first problem comes during the installation process. Once you click "deployse.exe" for standard edition or "deployee.exe" for enterprise edition it will bring up a window and a popup saying "Determining deployment state...". This is where the setup application checks to make sure the schema has been extended, if there are any roles already installed on the system, if the prerequisites have been installed, etc and normally takes about 30 seconds. However, if there is an RODC in the site it will hang for ~45 minutes and then continue. When it does continue sometimes it will report a schema error and other times it will just finish normally.

The OCS installation app goes through this process many times throughout installation so this can add a lot of time and frustration to what's otherwise a quick and easy task.

In other words, ensure there are no RODCs in the site where you plan to deploy OCS.

• Microsoft
• Active Directory
• AD
• DC
• Microsoft
• OCS
• Office Communications Server