Exchange 2007 SP1 Setup Fails with a Name Property Contains Leading or Trailing Whitespace Error

Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 will reach end of support on April 11, 2017. To stay supported, you will need to upgrade. For more information, see Resources to help you upgrade your Office 2007 servers and clients.

 

Applies to: Exchange Server 2007 SP1

This topic explains how to use the ADSI Edit tool to resolve a problem that may occur when you try to install Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 Service Pack 1 (SP1).

When you try to install Exchange 2007 SP1, the installation fails during the organization preparation part of Setup. In this scenario, you receive the following error message:

The Name property contains leading or trailing whitespace, which must be removed.

When you examine the [drive]:\ExchangeSetupLogs\ExchangeSetup.log file, you see entries that resemble the following:

[<date> <time>] [2] Searching objects of type "EmailAddressPolicy" with filter "(PolicyOptionListValue NotEqual System.Byte[])", scope "SubTree" under the root "Recipient Policies". [<date> <time>] [2] [WARNING] There are recipient policy object(s) that do not contain e-mail address properties. Those policies are not shown unless you use the parameter "IncludeMailboxSettingOnlyPolicy" in the Get-EmailAddressPolicy command. [<date> <time>] [2] Ending processing. [<date> <time>] [2] Beginning processing. [<date> <time>] [2] Administrator Active Directory session settings are: View Entire Forest: 'True', Configuration Domain Controller: '<domainController>.example.com', Preferred Global Catalog: '<domainController>.example.com', Preferred Domain Controllers: '{ <domainController>.example.com }' [<date> <time>] [2] Processing object "<smtpdomain1>.com". [<date> <time>] [2] [ERROR] The Name property contains leading or trailing whitespace, which must be removed. [<date> <time>] [2] Ending processing. [<date> <time>] [2] Beginning processing. [<date> <time>] [2] Administrator Active Directory session settings are: View Entire Forest: 'True', Configuration Domain Controller: '<domainController>.example.com', Preferred Global Catalog: '<domainController>.example.com', Preferred Domain Controllers: '{ <domainController>.example.com }' [<date> <time>] [2] Processing object "<smtpdomain2>.com". [<date> <time>] [2] [ERROR] The Name property contains leading or trailing whitespace, which must be removed. [<date> <time>] [2] Ending processing. [<date> <time>] [2] Beginning processing. [<date> <time>] [2] Administrator Active Directory session settings are: View Entire Forest: 'True', Configuration Domain Controller: '<domainController>.example.com', Preferred Global Catalog: '<domainController>.example.com', Preferred Domain Controllers: '{ <domainController>.example.com }' [<date> <time>] [2] Processing object "<smtpdomain3>.com". [<date> <time>] [2] [ERROR] The Name property contains leading or trailing whitespace, which must be removed. [<date> <time>] [2] Ending processing. [<date> <time>] [2] Beginning processing. [<date> <time>] [2] Administrator Active Directory session settings are: View Entire Forest: 'True', Configuration Domain Controller: '<domainController>.example.com', Preferred Global Catalog: '<domainController>.example.com', Preferred Domain Controllers: '{ <domainController>.example.com }' [<date> <time>] [2] Processing object "<smtpdomain4>.com". [<date> <time>] [2] [ERROR] The Name property contains leading or trailing whitespace, which must be removed. [<date> <time>] [2] Ending processing.

Cause

This issue occurs if a recipient policy name contains leading or trailing white-space characters (blank spaces).

Resolution

To resolve this issue, examine the distinguished name (DN) of each recipient policy to determine whether the DN contains any leading or trailing white spaces. To do this, follow these steps.

Note

You can also use the Dumrprp.vbs script to return the recipient policy information from the Exchange organization. Dumrprp.vbs is a tool that is available to Microsoft support engineers. To obtain the Dumrprp.vbs script, contact Microsoft Customer Service and Support. For information about how to contact support, see Microsoft Help and Support.

1. Start the ADSI Edit tool, and then connect to the Configuration container. To do this, follow these steps:

   1. On a server, click Start, click Run, type adsiedit.msc, and then click OK.

   2. In the navigation pane, click ADSI Edit.

   3. On the Action menu, click Connect to.

   4. Click Select a well known Naming Context if this entry is not already selected.

   5. In the Select a well known Naming Context list, click Configuration, and then click OK.

2. Expand the following nodes:

   • Configuration [<domainController>.contoso.com]

   • CN=Configuration,DC=contoso,DC=com

   • CN=Services

   • CN=Microsoft Exchange

   • CN=<OrganizationName>

3. Under CN=<OrganizationName>, click CN=Recipient Policies.

4. In the details pane, examine the recipient policy DNs to locate any entries that resemble the following:

   CN=<policy name>\,CN=Recipient Policies,CN=<OrganizationName>,CN=Microsoft Exchange,CN=Services,CN=Configuration,DC=contoso,DC=com

5. Note whether any DNs appear together with a backslash character (\) or if any leading or trailing white spaces appear in the DN. A backslash character is used to "escape" the white-space character.

6. Use the Exchange Management Console to remove any white spaces from the recipient policy name. To do this, follow these steps:

   1. In the Exchange Management Console, expand Organization Configuration, and then click Hub Transport.

   2. Click the E-mail Address Policies tab, right-click the appropriate policy, and then click Edit.

   3. Delete any leading or trailing white spaces from the policy name, and then finish modifying the policy.