Exchange2000 To Exchange2003 Upgrade Questions 1

[zoeythecat]

Hi All,

I was hoping to get some feed back on people who have upgraded their environment from Exchange2000 to Exchange2003 and from Windows2000 to Windows2003. I plan on doing this soon. I have a couple questions I hope I could have answered: First of all here is what my enviroment looks like:

Single Windows2000 Domain
Native Exchange2000 on a Member Server
3 Domain Controllers
4 Member Servers


Questions
(1) Do I upgrade my Exchange2000 Server to Exchange2003 server before I upgrade the domain to Windows2003? I'm getting mixed signals on this. From what I've been reading I think I need to upgrade this first. Could someone verify this is what I need to do?
(2) If the first step is correct do I upgrade my Member Servers first to Windows2003 then proceed to upgrading my Domain Controllers?
(3) Or do I upgrade my Domain Controllers first, then upggrade my Member Servers (including my Exchange2000 Server?

Thanks in advance for any help and suggestions. If someone could also note any good Exchange2003 Upgrade books I could reference.

Zoey

 

[markdmac]

OK, so from what I am reading here, your Exchange is not on a DC which is good.

All you will need to do is to run the Exchange Setup.exe with both /ForestPrep and /DomainPrep on your DC first. That will extend your AD Schema to allow the Exchange upgrade to run on your Exchange server.

You can do your upgrade independent of the DCs and member servers.

When you have Exchange 2003 running you will then want to upgrade the OS that Exchange runs on. because it is a member server, there is no issue with AD there.

To take advantage of Outlook over HTTP, you will then need to upgrade your DCs. Again you will need to prepare AD. This time by running ADPREP with both /ForestPrep and /DomainPrep switches. Then you can upgrade the DCs.

Upgrading the member servers has no bearing on any of the above. You can do them first, last or not at all.

I hope you find this post helpful.

Regards,

Mark

 

[zoeythecat]

Mark,

This is what I thought. Thanks for laying everything out for me. According to what you are saying then, I should:

(1) Upgrade my Exchange2000 to Exchange2003 on my Windows2000 Member Server (After running ForestPrep and DomainPrep on my DC (I assume on my main DNS Server)
(2) Upgrade the Windows2000 Server (Exchange2003) to Windows2003 Member Server
(3) Upgrade my Windows2000 Member Server to Windows2003 Member Server
(4) Upgrade my DC's (after preparing by running ADPREP, ForestPrep and DomainPrep)

Please confirm.

Thanks again for laying this out for me. This was very helpful and confirms what I have been reading.

Zoey

 

[markdmac]

Yes, you now have it. You will run the /ForestPrep and the /DomainPrep on the FSMO role holder which should be whatever DC you created first.

I hope you find this post helpful.

Regards,

Mark

 

[zoeythecat]

Great. Thanks for your help.

 

[zoeythecat]

Mark,

Thanks again for your help. I upgraded the server to Exchange2003 and to Windows2003. We have not upgraded the Domain Controller and therefore have not extended the schema there. Could this cause any issues at all with Exchange? so I have exhange2003 participating in a Windows2000 Domain. Reason I ask is one problem I am having is when opening owa2003 emails that have Internet links you get prompted with the login screen. To pull up the link you have to enter the DomainName\usernam where before the upgrade I did not have this problem. I also am having an issue with the Exchange Server not displaying the login screen on bootup. What are your thoughts on this? We did not plan on upgrading the Domain Controllers until Wednesday of this week.

Thanks for any thoughts,
Zoey

 

[zoeythecat]

Mark,

Disregard my last post. I found a solution to the server not booting up to the login screen. It was due to a couple of APC UPS Services I needed to disable. I will post back when I know the solution to the owa internet links prompting a login page.

Thanks,
Zoey

 

[markdmac]

Funny, I had to battle the APC software issue myself last night.

I hope you find this post helpful.

Regards,

Mark

 

[asktheman]

why not install the new DC first with the adprep command run. this will fully extent the schema to 2003 ad standard (not native mode 2003 i know that comes later) and then install exchange 2003..

this would be better

 

[zoeythecat]

Found a resolution to the Internet Links problem.
1. In Internet Services Manager, view the properties of the "Exchweb" virtual directory.
2. On the Directory Security tab, click the Edit button under anonymous access and authentication control.
3. Click to select the Basic Authentication check box, include the default domain name, and then click OK.
4. When prompted to select which "child nodes" to include, click the bin node.
-which resulted in the removal of integrated from the Bin directory.

 

[markdmac]

Asktheman, you can not upgrade to Windows 2003 if you have a version of Exchange less than 2003. (I am referring to the Exchange box only, you can upgrade the DCs prior to an Exchange upgrade.)

You should also note that both Windows 2003 and Exchange 2003 make seperate and different schema updates.

I hope you find this post helpful.

Regards,

Mark