Exchange 2013 Troubleshooting: Setup encountered problem while validating the state of Active Directory

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Issue

Prepare schema fails during Exchange 2013 CU install.  

Symptom

[ERROR] Setup encountered a problem while validating the state of Active Directory: The Active Directory schema version (15281) is higher than Setup's version (15137). Therefore, PrepareSchema can't be executed.

Cause

Exchange Management Shell was adding the source directory as C:\Program Files\Microsoft\Exchange Server\V15\bin instead of running the setup from the current directory

Log

Exchange setup Log has the below info:

[11/17/2016 20:34:14.0385] [0] Command Line Parameter Name='prepareschema', Value=''.

[11/17/2016 20:34:14.0385] [0] Command Line Parameter Name='iacceptexchangeserverlicenseterms', Value=''.

[11/17/2016 20:34:14.0385] [0] Command Line Parameter Name='sourcedir', Value='C:\Program Files\Microsoft\Exchange Server\V15\bin'.

[11/17/2016 20:34:14.0666] [0] RuntimeAssembly was started with the following command: '/PrepareSchema /IAcceptExchangeServerLicenseTerms /sourcedir:C:\Program Files\Microsoft\Exchange Server\V15\bin'

Resolution

  1. Use command prompt and navigate to exchange CU install directory 
  2. Run setup.exe /Prepareschema /IccceptExchangeServerLicenseTerms