Stuck Migrating Windows Server 2000 AD & Exchange 2000 to Windows Server 2008 AD & Exchange 2007

See this similat thread:https://www.experts-exchange.com/questions/21653702/adprep-forestprep-There-is-a-schema-conflict-with-Exchange-2000.html

If Exchange 2000 is on a Windows 2000 DC, then you are going to be unable to migrate to Exchange 2007.
You will need to migrate to another machine running either Exchange 2000 or Exchange 2003 which is a member server so that you can remove Exchange from that domain controller, then replace the domain controller.

Running DCPROMO on a server with Exchange installed is not supported and will usually break Exchange, something that you don't want to just before the migration.

There aren't any other options available to you.

Simon.

Simon,

Thanks for the info.  I will just have to reverse my strategy and do Exchange first.

Do you have any additional tips for the Exchange migration?  I would like to go from Exchange 2000 to 2007 directly and plan to export all the mailboxes to PST's.  Is there anything more simple?  Or any other gotcha's I should look out for?

thanks again

How are you going to do a PST migration?
You would have to export everything, then remove Exchange completely, do the domain upgrade and then install Exchange. Huge amounts of downtime and you will lose everything in Exchange - so that means all permissions, email addresses etc.

Don't try and shortcut things - that will just cause a huge amount of frustration in your user community and make a lot of work for you.
Standup an interim machine that you can migrate to, even if that means using the machine you have earmarked for Exchange 2007. Migrate Exchange 2000 using a regular swing migration to a new build. Then remove that existing installation and DCPROMO the box out. Rebuild it and swing Exchange back. Done with care it can be done with zero downtime and no impact on the end users.
Then migrate to Exchange 2007 (I hope youa re then migrating to Exchange 2010 or higher).

Shortcuts will give you short term gain for a lot of pain and could cost your company a lot of money in lost productivity.

Simon.

From the sounds of it, I think I may spin up some VM's for this migration process.

If you have the resources to do that, then that is what I would do.

Simon.

It also looks like I can't install Exchange 2007 until I have a DC running Windows 2003 SP1?

So it appears I am stuck again... I can't upgrade AD to 2003 or 2008 schema with Exchange running on the Windows 2000 DC, and I can't install Exchange 2007 until I have at least a Windows 2003 DC running.

Thoughts on the best way to proceed?

You will have to swing to another installation of Exchange 2003 on a member server. That will allow you to remove the old server completely. Then you can upgrade the domain.

Simon.

Simon,

Where can I find the install media for Exchange 2003?  I don't believe we have a copy readily available for such an old product.

Did you purchase the later editions of Exchange on volume licencing? If so then the ISO should be available from the volume licencing site as downgrade rights.

Otherwise you can get it from Technet and MSDN if you have subscriptions to those.

Simon.

We downgraded from MSDN to ActionPack. I will have to look through the old MSDN library of DVDs we have. It's probably in there.

Thanks again

So I found a copy of the Exchange 2003 evuation 180days. But my client is asking if it would be cleaner to simply roll the new server with a fresh domain and start over. Any thoughts here?  

I can tell you that the original domain and AD policies are horribly setup and a pain to work with so I do see some benefit in starting fresh.

Let me know what you think.