New Installation of Exchange 2016 CU22 fails at step 9

[ReverseSwing]

Hello Team,

Some Years back, some admin had installed on Exchange 2013 Server and later the desktop's hard drives failed and we lost server.

Now again, there was a need for exchange server and I was initially getting the error for Exchange 2013 version.
Using ADSIEdit tool I deleted the server, and tried to install Exchange 2016 CU22. I failed again pointing errors for system mailboxes, then I deleted the system mailboxes, federated mailbox & discovery search mailboxes.

Re-Prepared all the 3 switches for Schema, AD & AllDomains.

Restarted the server and tried the error and it still failed, but this time at step 9.

rror:
The following error was generated when "$error.Clear(); 
start-SetupService -ServiceName MSExchangeMailboxAssistants

" was run: "Microsoft.Exchange.Configuration.Tasks.ServiceDisabledException: Service 'MSExchangeADTopology' is disabled on this server. ---> System.InvalidOperationException: Cannot start service MSExchangeADTopology on computer '.'. ---> System.ComponentModel.Win32Exception: The service cannot be started, either because it is disabled or because it has no enabled devices associated with it
   --- End of inner exception stack trace ---
   at System.ServiceProcess.ServiceController.Start(String[] args)
   at Microsoft.Exchange.Management.Tasks.ManageSetupService.StartServiceWorker(ServiceController serviceController, String[] serviceParameters)
   --- End of inner exception stack trace ---
   at Microsoft.Exchange.Configuration.Tasks.Task.ThrowError(Exception exception, ErrorCategory errorCategory, Object target, String helpUrl)
   at Microsoft.Exchange.Management.Tasks.ManageSetupService.StartService(ServiceController serviceController, Boolean ignoreServiceStartTimeout, Boolean failIfServiceNotInstalled, Unlimited`1 maximumWaitTime, String[] serviceParameters)
   at Microsoft.Exchange.Management.Tasks.ManageSetupService.StartService(ServiceController serviceController, Boolean ignoreServiceStartTimeout, Boolean failIfServiceNotInstalled, Unlimited`1 maximumWaitTime, String[] serviceParameters)
   at Microsoft.Exchange.Management.Tasks.ManageSetupService.StartService(String serviceName, Boolean ignoreServiceStartTimeout, Boolean failIfServiceNotInstalled, Unlimited`1 maximumWaitTime, String[] serviceParameters)
   at Microsoft.Exchange.Management.Tasks.StartSetupService.InternalProcessRecord()
   at Microsoft.Exchange.Configuration.Tasks.Task.<ProcessRecord>b__91_1()
   at Microsoft.Exchange.Configuration.Tasks.Task.InvokeRetryableFunc(String funcName, Action func, Boolean terminatePipelineIfFailed)".

[#2]

The error looks like it can't connect to AD properly...have you confirmed there is no firewall or network device between the server and your domain controllers?

[#3]

Hello Dan,
Since you gave the pointer, I opened PowerShellas an administrator,
1. Imported ActiveDirectory module & Exchange SnapIn
2. ran Get-AdServerSettings | fl
the output had no values,
3. Using the Set-AdServerSettings I set preferred Global Catalog, ConfigurationDomainController, PreferredGlobalCatalog, RecipientViewRoot
Restarted the server and then tried installing Exchange 2016 CU22, it gave the message that incomplete installation is detected and started once again but failed again.

Can I delete the server from ADSI Edit manually, reformat the partition (D:\) where I was trying to install Exchange, and then try. The old entries in my registry will it affect? I'm not able to uninstall easily also.

[#4]

Can you run the Exchange setup via cmdline and specify the DC?
You can remove via ADSI Edit, but it's not recommended if you can avoid it