Here is my set up and why I am asking this question
(3) Windows 2000 domain controllers (latest sp) running in native mode
(2) Exchange 2003 servers
(1) Exchange 5.5 server
Active Directory Connector 2003 running for replication between the 5.5 server and the exchange 2003 servers
A couple of other NT 4.0 member servers
What gotchas do I need to look out for in a setup like this or am I good to go with running adprep and start upgrading the DC's to windows 2003 per MS's instructions?
This Question has been solved and asker verified All Experts Exchange premium technology solutions are available to subscription members.
Experts Exchange has been collecting answers to technology questions since 1996…3 million and counting! If you have a question, chances are we already have your answer.
If you can't find the exact answer you're looking for, ask our exclusive community of 50,000 experts. You’ll get a personalized answer from a trusted professional.
Thousands of free tech tips, tricks, how-to’s and tutorials are available in our peer reviewed articles section. See for yourself how smart our experts are, no login required.
Save solutions to your questions, answers you’ve discovered through searching plus helpful articles in your personal knowledgebase for easy future access.
Access the answers to your technology questions today.
30-day free trial. Register in 60 seconds.
Members of the expert community talk about why the experience at Experts Exchange is different than what you will find anywhere else.
Try it out and discover for yourself.
30-day free trial. Register in 60 seconds.
Join the community of experts here and help other tech pros by answering question in your area of expertise. You can earn FREE access to all Experts Exchange's premium features and resources.
I may not have the luxury of buying new machines for the windows 2003 dc's so an in-place upgrade is the path I would need to take.
However, if I could get one new machine, build it as a 2003 server, dcpromo it and make it a GC (of course all of this after adprep is run), reconfigure the ADC to point to this new server, could I easily upgrade the windows 2000 boxes?
It doesn't have to be a new machine. It can be anything. A desktop, virtual machine - anything like that.
I don't do in place upgrades, except for NT4 to 200x AD. Upgrades can cause problems - so I find that for reliability of the machine that wiping the machine (after DCPROMO out and dropping in to a workgroup) and installing fresh provides a better solution.
A mixed forest/domain is fine. You will just find that you do most domain management on the 2003 servers as they are just easier to work with.
Simon.
Let me also ask this - if I drop one of the dc's out of the 2000 ad (not the gc) and wipe that and inbstall win2k3 then run adprep, I assume that machine will become the new GC?
Does anything with the dns service records change or will they look the same? I ask this because in our really odd setup, we dont have ddns. Our unix bigots have no confidence in windows dns or ddns in general so we had to hard code the service records into their dns.
Only the first domain controller in the domain is automatically a global catalog. All additional DCs have to be given the role manually.
DNS will be just the same, you will just need to take care to get things switched round.
When you are dropping the domain controllers, make sure that it doesn't have any of the FMSO roles - if it does, move it to one of the other servers before you drop it from the domain.
You can use RPC over HTTPS with a mixed domain. There just needs to be a Windows 2003 GC/DC that Exchange can use.
Simon.
Business Accounts
Answer for Membership
by: SembeePosted on 2006-01-14 at 07:13:32ID: 15700226
Should be fine.
You are already running the AD connector at the latest version so that doesn't have to be considered. Just make sure you don't put the Exchange org in to native mode in error.
The only thing I recommend is that you leave at least 30 minutes between the prep for replication and don't inplace upgrade the domain controllers - build a fresh one and then remove the existing.
I would look at building a fresh Windows 2003 DC and move the connector to it so that you don't have any worries while the other machines are being worked on. Make that machine a global catalog as well and move the Exchange servers to use that new server for their DC.
Simon.