JSI Tip 5885. Opening Active Directory Snap-ins or Exchange System Manager causes error messages?

When you open an Active Directory Snap-in you receive:

Naming Convention could not be located because:
No authority could be contacted for authentication.
Contact your system administrator to verify that your domain is properly configured and is currently online.

Naming information cannot be located because:
No authority could be contacted for authentication.
Contact your system administrator to verify that your domain is properly configured and is currently online.

The configuration information describing this enterprise is not available. No authority could be contacted for authentication. 

When you open the Exchange System Manager, you receive:

A local error has occurred.
Facility: Win32
ID no: 8007203b
Exchange System Manager

These errors may occur if the Kerberos realm is NOT equal to the NetBIOSdomain name. 

To fix this problem:

1. Use the Regedt32 to navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESECURITY.

2. Use the Security / Permissions menu to grant Full Control to Administrators.

3. Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESECURITYPolicyPolAcDmN.

4. Select the Value Name and press Display Binary Data on the View menu.

5. The ASCII text in the Binary Data is the Kerberos realm, which must be the same as the NetBIOS domain name. To check it, navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESECURITYPolicyPolPrDmN, select the Value Name and press Display Binary Data on the View menu. Select the Byteoption on the Binary Data dialog. The ASCII text is the NetBIOS domain name. If the Kerberos realm is equal to the NetBIOS domain name, exit this procedure.

6. Double-click the Value Name at HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESECURITYPolicyPolPrDmN.

7. Press CTRL+C to copy the data from the Binary Editor to the clipboard.

8. Double-click the Value Name at HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESECURITYPolicyPolAcDmN.

9. Press CTRL+V to paste the NetBIOS domain name from the clipboard to the Kerberos realm in the Binary Editor.

NOTE: After making the above change, repeat steps 3 through 5 to verify that theKerberos realm and the NetBIOS domain name are equal.

NOTE: You must shutdown and restart your server for these changes to take effect.