exchange 2003 migration from exchange 200 quick question

[nickwebb]

hi there,

i have a windows 2000 domain (sp4) and 1 DC running exchange 2000 (sp3)

I am building a new server with windows 2003 and will make it a DC in the same domain, then installing exchange 2003 onto it.

To move users from the exchange 2000, is this a simple case of using the move mailbox wizard.
will outlook autoupdate the profile to change the server name (the old server will be online for a while after the mailbox move)

is there anything i should be careful of?

many thanks

nick

 

[xmsre]

1. Putting Exchange on a domain controller isn't a best practice.

2. As long as they're in the same site and org, if the old server is up the outlook client should redirect.

 

[nickwebb]

hi there,

thanks for your reply,

why is it not best practice to put it on a DC?
i thought i was better to, as the updates/mailbox creation etc.. was quicker if it was local on it?

thanks in advance

 

[xmsre]

1. Once you install E2K3 on a DC, Dcpromo is not supported. If anything ever goes wrong, your repair/recovery options are extremely limited [you're SOL].

2. Very long shutdown times because AD shuts down before exchange, and DSAcess gets fussy about things like that.

3. Performance will be negatively impacted.

4. Constant DSAccess errors because of response time. Exchange negatively affects the performce of a domain controller and vica versa when running on the same server. Unless you hard code it, DSAccess will most likely choose a GC other than the DC Exchange is installed upon because of the slow response times. This defeats the purpose.

In all but the smallest environments, it's a bad idea. With Mapi compression, if there are that few users in a site then it makes more sense not to have an exchange server in the site.

 

[nickwebb]

many thanks for the information, sounds like its a bad idea then!!

thanks for your help

nick

 

[nickwebb]

another quick question if you dont mind,

whats the best method to move the public folders to the new 2003 server

 

[xmsre]

Just make a replica on E2K3, wait for backfill, and remove the replica from E2K.

 

[gspxit4b]

I am getting ready to move mailboxes from a 5.5 server to a 2003 server, and was wondering the same thing about the user profile updating. What actually causes the profile to automatically update the server to the 2003 box?

 

[bmm1007]

we're moving to 2003 from 5.5 and its fine no problems at all, its EX2k3 and is a DC and we got no problem we're slowly tranfering the mailboxes across using the exchange tasks wizard its really easy. i see no problem with this way of doing things.