Exchange 2000 in 2000 domain moving to 2003
I am not familiar with Exchange. I used to be a Lotus Notes person in my former life. I have a client who is currently on 2000 server with Exchange 2000. I am wanting to put in a 2003 server with exchange 2003. Can someone tell me what is involved in that? I dont mind doing the research but I am not familiar enough with exchange jargon to do fruitful searches. I need to know if there is a way to just tranfer AD to the new server including all the exchange info or if you have to rebuild everything from scratch. Any tips you can give me would be GREATLY appreciated. Thanks!
Software/Hardware used:
Software/Hardware used:
ASKED:
May 3, 2005 5:12 PM
UPDATED:
May 9, 2005 11:53 AM
Answer Wiki:
Exchange 2003 properly embeds itself into the Active Directory through schema extensions, so not a rebuild really but you'll have to be a schema admin. As part of the install process it will get you to do this. It should also sniff out your existing installation and get you to migrate it across, as Exchange is capable of dealing with multiple server instances. Exchange 2003 installs aren't that bad, as usual Microsoft's third proper stab at things actually works. Moving 5.5 to 2003 is the pig. 2000 to 2003 is easy.
To see all answers submitted to the Answer Wiki: View Answer History.
If I’m correct you should generally be able to do the following and if I miss a step I apologize:
1. Make the new Windows 2003 Server a member of the existing Windows 2000 domain and install Active Directory on it.
2. Synchronize the Windows 2000 Server Active Directory with the Windows 2003 Server Active Directory.
3. Demote the Windows 2000 Server and make the Windows 2003 Server the primary server.
Unfortunatly, I am not too familiar with migrating from Exchange 2000 to Exchange 2003, but if I find any information I will keep you posted.
Exchange migration 2000 to 2003 is not a nightmare!
Some preliminary remarks
- Exch2003 runs only on Win2003 and not on Win2000. So you have first to migrate the OS then Exchange.
- Your AD is up and running
- Think about regular backups !
If you have a new server it makes all the work very easy. Setup the new server with Win2003, make it member of your AD (having Ex2003 on a DC is not very recommended), install ex2003, in the same site as your Ex2000.
From here, move the mailboxes (pull them is better than push), replicate the public folders (take care to the free busy folder if used) and the connectors). Once it’s done, shut down your first server and wait some days. If you miss anything, restart the server, correct the situation and shut it down again.
Once everything is OK, Restart the old server, cut the public folder replication and remove Ex2000 from the site (Very important!) or better uninstall Exchange 2000.
And normally you can have a bier at this moment
HaeCons, one important correction:
Exchange 2003 runs on Windows 2000 or 2003, but Exchange 2000 will not run on a Windows 2003 server. Exchange 2000 can be used in a Windows 2003 domain as long as it is installed on a Windows 2000 server.