Effect on Exchange 2003 if FSMO roles are moved from one DC to another / role of ADC
Last year, I migrated from Exchange 5.5 to Exchange 2003 (on a Win2003 SP1 box), for which I recently installed SP2 (which caused havoc with OWA, but that's a different question). This is a multi-part question, involving 3 servers - Exchange 2003, DC1 (currently holding all FSMO roles), and DC2 (which I want to become the primary server in our single domain):
1) I notice that on my Exchange 2003 box, the ADC and Exchange 5.5 Admin are still there under Start/Programs/MS Exchange. Do I still need those? It isn't ADC that allows me to manage Exchange from Active Directory on my FSMO server, is it? If I can get rid of one or both of these, is there a preferred approach?
2) Speaking of my FSMO server, I now want to transfer all FSMO roles to DC2, and demote DC1 to a member server. Will any of this effect email? Currently on DC2, I do not see the Exchange tabs for users in ADUC.
Thanks,
NHadmin
1) I notice that on my Exchange 2003 box, the ADC and Exchange 5.5 Admin are still there under Start/Programs/MS Exchange. Do I still need those? It isn't ADC that allows me to manage Exchange from Active Directory on my FSMO server, is it? If I can get rid of one or both of these, is there a preferred approach?
2) Speaking of my FSMO server, I now want to transfer all FSMO roles to DC2, and demote DC1 to a member server. Will any of this effect email? Currently on DC2, I do not see the Exchange tabs for users in ADUC.
Thanks,
NHadmin
ASKER
Thanks. What's the best way to remove the ADC so that there's no trace of it remaining anywhere? Also, I assume I can go ahead and remove the Exch. 5.5 Admin. Do you know how I should go about that?
ASKER
Is there anything I have to set on the Exchange box to stop pointing to DC1, and point to DC2?
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You can move FSMO roles around quite happily. All Exchange cares about is a GC/DC.
However if you are going to start removing domain controllers you may find Exchange becomes unresponsive to the users. I usually suggest that a DC removal is done out of hours and you restart the Exchange services immediately afterwards so that Exchange learns the DC has gone.
Simon.