Unable to contact the server. This may be because this server does not exist, it is currently down, or it does not have the Active Directory Web Services running.

[Akaizoku]

Issue

When no email address is specified and the Unattended switch is used, if the Active Directory is not accessible, the activation will fail with the following error message:

Unable to contact the server. This may be because this server does not exist, it is currently down, or it does not have the Active Directory Web Services running.

Description

If the configuration property LicenseEmail is not specified and the script is ran in unattended mode, a query is made to the active directory (Get-ADUser). If the active directory is not accessible then the script will fail to retrieve the email address and generate an error that will stop the script.

Error message

Unable to contact the server. This may be because this server does not exist, it is currently down, or it does not have the Active
Directory Web Services running.
[...]
    + CategoryInfo          : ResourceUnavailable: (<UserName>:ADUser) [Get-ADUser], ADServerDownException
    + FullyQualifiedErrorId : ActiveDirectoryServer:0,Microsoft.ActiveDirectory.Management.Commands.GetADUser

Solution

In order to prevent this issue from happening, the property LicenseEmail should be specified in the custom script configuration file (custom.ini) or the active directory should be made accessible.