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Exchange Management Console pointing to wrong server “The attempt to connect to http://server.domain.com/PowerShell using "Kerberos" authentication failed”

Published by Tom Arbuthnot on November 1, 2011

I came across this error during an Exchange 2010 Unified Messaging deployment. The EMC would not connect:

"The attempt to connect to http://server.domain.com/PowerShell using "Kerberos" authentication failed: connecting to remote server failed with the following error message : The WinRM client cannot complete the operation within the time specified.  Check if the machine name is valid and is reachable over the network and firewall exception for Windows Remote Management service is enabled.  For more information, see the about_Remote_Troubleshooting Help topic."

There are various blog posts on the internet around how to fix the connectivity problem to the server, but in this case the server EMC was pointing to had been decommissioned properly and was no longer listed in AD. EMS would connect fine to a different working server.

In my case I had to take two actions to fixed it.

Close EMC

Under C:\users\<specific user>\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\MMC\Exchange Management Console\ there is a config file. Delete it

In the registry under HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Exchangeserver\v14\AdminTools\NodeStructureSettings delete the value NodeStructureSettings

Only after both of these are done, did the EMC correctly rediscover an active Exchange 2010 server. If one or there other is done, the incorrect server information is retained.

Also as a workaround I could add a “new” Exchange forest and connect, but I wanted to actually fix the issue.

Published inExchange

63 Comments

  1. wrx7m wrx7m

    DUDE!!!! Thank you so much for this! I was going around in circles thinking that it was IIS or DNS. I ran the EMC troubleshooter and it came back without any errors. I have no idea why, but I get more corrupt profiles on this server than I have in my whole life. hal the time when I do a standard reboot, I get the nice message telling me that my profile is running in temp mode or whatever and I have to delete the registry key so it will allow me to create a new profile upon login.

    # November 29, 2011 Reply
    • Tom Arbuthnot Tom Arbuthnot

      Your welcome. Thanks for taking the time to comment. Always nice to know the blog posts are helping people.

      # November 29, 2011 Reply
  2. Elias Elias

    Tom,
    The above fixed my EMC and it launches now, but the Shell still gets the same error. Any ideas?

    # December 7, 2011 Reply
    • Tom Arbuthnot Tom Arbuthnot

      Hi there, Nothing comes to mind off hand, can you start a thread on technet forums with the details. That is the best place to go. I will try to take a look there too.

      # December 7, 2011 Reply
  3. Ashwin frankie Ashwin frankie

    I had the same problem and followed this post and the problem is now resolved.

    Thank you kindly for this fix.

    # December 20, 2011 Reply
  4. Mark DeRosia Mark DeRosia

    This fixed the issue for me after searching for 2 hours. Thank you much for posting this. What a pain this was.

    Thanks again

    # December 22, 2011 Reply
  8. Chuck Finley Chuck Finley

    Outstanding Sir, out standing in the rain….. Hooah. Saved me a ton of time after a “server” rename to match the previous technicians certificate subject alternate names :) Kudos and thanks…..

    # February 7, 2012 Reply
  9. Wehnke Botha Wehnke Botha

    Unfortunately I was not as lucky as the above readers, my problem persists – been going though plenty troubleshooting guides from TechNet and the like, and about to pull my hair outta my skull.
    Any further ideas would be appreciated !

    # February 22, 2012 Reply
  10. Wehnke Botha Wehnke Botha

    I am actually going through some more guides – Technet thread will be next – what a pain !
    Also unable to open the Exchange Management Console for some reason..
    Will keep digging, but omw im getting short of temper now :'(

    # February 22, 2012 Reply
    • Tom Arbuthnot Tom Arbuthnot

      Glad it worked. More than happy for you to link to the article.

      Cheers

      Tom

      # March 6, 2012 Reply
  12. Bunny Mack Bunny Mack

    This help me too. EMC in my DR site was trying to connected to a server in Production site when the it was not accessable.

    My EMS worked fine.

    Thanks

    # March 9, 2012 Reply
  13. Jan Schutter Jan Schutter

    Spot on! After removing an Exchange 2010 server I couldn’t start the Exchange management console on the other server (failed to connect to the removed server). This post fixed the issue!
    Many thanks!

    # March 19, 2012 Reply
  14. Gary E Gary E

    Your article saved me a ton of frustration. I banged my head on the wall for a couple of hours trying to figure out why my console kept pointing to a server that had been decomissioned.

    I even opened a trouble ticket with MS and the Exchange Engineering team had no clue. I can’t necessarily blame them. Exchange is such a monster and this particular issue appears to be uncommon.

    In any case, it’s a long shot but if you ever find yourself in Las Vegas, Nevada USA. I will buy you a beer.

    # May 9, 2012 Reply
    • Tom Arbuthnot Tom Arbuthnot

      Thanks for the comment

      My favourite comments are the ones that offer me beer :-)

      All the best

      Tom

      # May 14, 2012 Reply
  15. Sunny Sunny

    Heyyy !! I had the same error. I perfromed the above operation but its not resolved .. Help me out please!! When again reconnet my EMC I get the same error again :S :S

    # May 15, 2012 Reply
    • Tom Arbuthnot Tom Arbuthnot

      Does the CP work in another server? Prob best to post a thread on Technet Forums and I’ll try to take a look. Thanks

      # May 17, 2012 Reply
  16. Cameron Cameron

    Thanks. I’m sitting here with a client (who’s annoying) and this popped up just at the end of a very long day. Your fix worked and I will soon be able to leave :)

    # June 26, 2012 Reply
  19. Mitch_J Mitch_J

    Perfection! We installed the first exchange server for a client and then they told us to rename the server. I uninstalled Exchange, renamed the server and reinstalled. After reinstalling, EMC was still using the old name. This fixed the issue perfectly.

    I owe you a beer.

    # November 13, 2012 Reply
  21. Scott Scott

    So I don’t see a config file I only see eventvwr, Exchange Mangement Console, and SerManager files in the C:\Users\administrators.Domain\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\MMC folder. I did not seem to have a Exchange Mangement Console folder. I did go into the registry and deleted the Node Structure settings and still not working. I now get the following.

    You cannot call a methos on a null-valued expression. It was running the command “discover-exchagnserver -User WIA $true -SuppressError $true -CurrentVersino ‘Version 14.1 (bulild 218.15)’.

    I did not delete the Exchange Management Console file that was present in the folder above. Should I have?

    # November 20, 2012 Reply
    • subrat debasisa subrat debasisa

      This settings doesn’t work for me, I have a member server which is pointing to wrong server(UM server) while opening management console and it doesn’t open at all.

      Error is Initialization failed.

      # July 22, 2013 Reply
  24. Eliezer Eliezer

    High, thank you so much for this!!

    In my case did not solve the problem, but gave orientations to solve it!

    I had a support user with the EMC installed on a Win7 machine and hi got this error and after the procedures showed here, the problem was not solved, the Win7 keep finding the wrong address.

    What I did was export the registry branch “AdminTools” from the server, which opens the EMC correctly, delete it on the Win7 machine, and import the registry branch, voilá, worked as a charm!!!

    Many tnaks again :)

    # March 19, 2013 Reply
    • Ken Ken

      This solution worked for me. I was installing the console on a remote computer and ran into this error. Tried deleting the console config and registry key and the error kept coming back. I exported the registry from the actual Exchange server and imported on the remote server. Worked!

      # November 8, 2013 Reply
  27. Gamal A Osman Gamal A Osman

    hi sir,
    I have one question ,,

    I have main forest in city and more servers in another city I have exchange server 2010 in the forest can I install exchange server 2010 in the other city with all rules and connect it to the main exchange server in the forest and how if it possible?

    # May 15, 2013 Reply
  28. Kashif Kashif

    Hi Tom,

    Thanks a lot, it saved my tons of time, just i renamed the below registry key. And it was working.

    In the registry under HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Exchangeserver\v14\AdminTools\NodeStructureSettings delete the value NodeStructureSettings

    God Bless you!

    # June 3, 2013 Reply
      • gonden gonden

        Hi, Tom:

        The problem is still on after I try your method. I have a Complex domain environment:one parent domain and four subdomain. There have diffrent mail server in this environment including:Exchange 2003\Exchange 2007\Exchange 2010. My local domain is upgrading Exchange 2003 to Exchange 2010. I follow you advice, and the result is when the Exchange 2010 initialized it will find another Exchange 2010 server in our forest. The normal is it can point to our local domain mail serve. So I don not know what I do to solve this problem. Thank a lot for your help!

        # June 15, 2013 Reply
  29. mohammad mohammad

    please i make the up steps without solved , please can help me to for this error :the following error occurred while searching for the on-premises exchange server, and i have problem on active dir

    # June 29, 2013 Reply
  31. Danny Callahan Danny Callahan

    You are the master! I’ve been looking for days for this info – and it worked! Thanks

    # March 6, 2014 Reply
  32. mansoor mansoor

    Dear TOM

    i have same problem in DAG server one node given this below error. i did what you give the information above but still same problem… please help me !!!

    many thanks….

    Initialization failed

    The following error occurred while searching for the on-premises Exchange server:

    [server]Connecting to remote server failed with the following error message : The WinRM client cannot complete the operation within the time specified. check if the machine name is valid and is reachable over the network and firewall exception for windows Remote Management service is enabled. For more information, see the about_Remote_Troubleshooting Help topic. It was running the command “discover-ExchangeServer -UseWIA $true -SupperssError $true -CurrentVersion “Version 14.2 (Build 247.5)”.

    Click here to retry…

    # July 22, 2014 Reply

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