Question

Change Exchange 5.5 Server Domain

Asked by: PaulADavis

Right now we have an exchange 5.5 server running on windows 2000 server in an NT 4 domain. We also have a mixed mode A.D. in place. The NT domain is on it's way out. Right now all user and computer accounts and 98% of our servers are in the A.D. domain. Of course, we have a two way trust set up between the NT and AD domains. The user accounts used by exchange 5.5 are all in the AD domain, because of the trust set up this is not a problem.

We are thinking of upgrading to exchange 2003 and placing the exchange server in the AD domain. But that might be a while since we have to work out how much this will actually cost :-). In the meantime, I'd like to move the exchange server into the AD domain. So far i've only found info geared towards an upgrade to exchange 2000 or exchange 2003 across domains using ADMT, etc. But in this situation there will be no upgrade initially.

What I'd like to know is if I can simply remove the windows 2000 server (with exchange 5.5 on it) from the NT domain and just rejoin it to the AD domain. I realize that I would have to use the Active Directory Connector (ADC) since exchange 5.5 is not AD aware... but since we have all the mailboxes mapped to user accounts in the AD domain, how feasible would simply joining the exchange 5.5 server to the AD domain be ?

Would there be any severe consequences to doing this?

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Asked On
2005-07-24 at 09:22:53ID21502444
Tags

change

,

domain

,

exchange

,

rejoin

,

server

Topic

Exchange Email Server

Participating Experts
2
Points
250
Comments
6

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Answers

 

by: Exchange_AdminPosted on 2005-07-24 at 14:15:11ID: 14514884

You will need to make sure that the Exchange Service Account has been migrated to the new domain.

Just creating a new account with the same name is not good enough.

 

by: PaulADavisPosted on 2005-07-25 at 13:55:31ID: 14521795

the account that exchange is using is actually in the AD domain as well :-)

so, this would be great news for me if it could actually be as simple as changing the server's domain membership...
we want nothing to change but the computer's domain membership... the organization, site, mailboxes, public folders, etc should (has to) remain the same.

would the clients need to be reconfigured? Once the mail server is in the AD domain DNS and WINS will have a record for the server, which will have the same name.

I have to test this out in a lab situation....but from your response I take it that this is very possible and pretty straight forward?

 

by: Exchange_AdminPosted on 2005-07-25 at 15:10:06ID: 14522384

Yes it does seem possible.

You have a good idea trying this out in the lab first.

One thing you may want to do is to stop the MS Exchange System Attendant and set it to manual.
This way when you remove the server from the first domain and reboot, you do not have to worry about the service trying to start. Then join the new domain and reboot again.

Now set the System Attendant service to automatic and manually start the services.

It would also be a good idea to make a backup of the DIR.EDB, PRIV.EDB and PUB.EDB prior to doing this.

You can never be too safe.

 

by: flyguybobPosted on 2006-01-03 at 10:49:17ID: 15601211

 

by: PaulADavisPosted on 2006-01-03 at 17:39:26ID: 15604573

I was able to test this using microsoft virtual machines... all went well. I used the ADC to make exchange 5.5 and AD work as one in terms of account creation. I'm still testing this right now, i need to duplicate the test but only this time, i need to test further by creating some public folders with various forms to see the effect of moving the exchange server.

Thanks to exchange admin for confirming that this is possible and thanks to flyguybob for the nice article.... i'll split the points now since i've had the question open forever, but please feel free to post any additional info as this is still an ongoing project.

 

by: flyguybobPosted on 2006-01-05 at 10:52:11ID: 15621478

The one thing that I have had to do in some past organizations was toss up the interOrg replication tool to handle public folders.  Generally this is not the case, but was once.

20120131-EE-VQP-002

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