Exchange 5.5 Migration from NT4.0 to Win 2k

[Actsh]

Hi,
I'm currently in phase 2 of Migrating from NT 4.0 to Win 2003. I have 2 domains running in parallel - the new Win 2003 Domain and the original NT 4.0 Domain. At this point I have migrated all users, PCs, printers etc into the new Domain and all users are actively logging on to the new Domain. My exchange server is still in the original NT Domain and happens to sit on the PDC of that Domain. I now need to demote this PDC to member status and migrate to the new Domain. We have a site link between ourselves and our Corporate Exchange which should remain intact throughout. What I do need to do as part of the server migration into the new domain is to rename the server using a pre-agreed convention. I'm concerned that this will impact the Exchange service. Has anyone performed something similar in the past and what do I need to look out for. This will also impact Outlook clients, again what can I do to rename this server as part of the migration to the new Domain. I am using a 3rd party migrating tool from FastLane for the actual migration and a PDC demote tool from UTools.

Thanks,
Liam

 

[Actsh]

Any takers on this one folks.

Rgds,
Liam

 

[CliffP]

You can't demote an NT 4.0 PDC, not a possibility. Renaming an Exchange server has it's own set of impossibilty issues. Possibility - set up a Win2k server in new domain, set up Exchange on the new server as an additional site server, use Ed Crowley method to move everything from old server to new server.

 

[Actsh]

<<Cliffp wrote - You can't demote an NT 4.0 PDC, not a possibility. >>

Actually you can use a 3rd party tool called Utool.exe which enables you to demote a PDC to a server member, promote a member to BDC or promote BDC to PDC without having to perform any rebuilds.

I believe you are right about renaming the Exchange server.

 

[N0ktar]

Forcing PDC demotion.
Start regedt32 as SYSTEM using AT scheduler:

at 11:53 /interactive regedt32.exe

Modify for your own time. Interesting security implications for this tip, particularly if you have denied your users administrative access. This will not work if the Scheduler service is not started. You now have access to the registry as SYSTEM. In HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Security\Policy\PolSrvRo, double click on the default value and change 03000000 to 02000000. Restart the server. When it comes back up, it should come up as a BDC.

I performed these steps on my NT PDC production server when migrating to Active Directory, it works just fine.