Move Exchange 2003 to a different domain

[euskills]

Hello all,

I am in the process of migrating all our user and computer accounts to a single domain structure but the problem is these other domains have exchange servers in them. Its a Windows 2000 Native mode domain with all other domains child doms from my forest root. I need to change the domain membership of the exchange servers. Can I do this the simple way of using AMDT or am I at risk of breaking exchange?...

I've done it in a lab enviroment and the only thing I needed to do was manually add the exchange server to the Exchange domain servers security group in the target domain.

Thanks in advance.

 

[markdmac]

Are the servers all part of the same Exchange site?

I hope you find this post helpful.

Regards,

Mark

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[euskills]

Hello,

No, they are in different administrative groups. But they are all part of the same Exchange organisation.

cheers

 

[markdmac]

assuming the servers are not DCs you should be able to change their domain memberships. However I honestly don't knwo what that would do to the Exchange install. However, considering the fact that the users are being migrated to the domain I would suspect you would need to run through an Exchange setup anyway.

My advice would be to backup the user mailboxes using ExMerge to be safe, then migrate the servers and then reinstall Exchange.

I hope you find this post helpful.

Regards,

Mark

Check out my scripting solutions at

http://www.thespidersparlor.com/vbscript

 

[Zelandakh]

The general rule is that if Exchange is on a DC you can't change the domain name but if not you can use rendom to change the domain name.

Now I've never tried this on moving servers around child domains but I don't see why it can't work.

To be honest, if it were my scenario, I'd use ESM to move all mailboxes off one server, blow it away, reinstall into the parent domain, move loads of people into there blowing each server as it is empty. Then not only do you have it all done safely, there is no scope for error, no downtime for the punters AND you have a pile of Exchange servers newly built with no nasty gremlins caused by them being built by fools.

 

[58sniper]

I'm inclined to think you're in for a a world of hurt if you try it.

I'd exmerge the data out of the mailboxes, then rip out Exchange, pull the box out of the existing domain and into the new one, reinstall Exchange, and then import the mail back in.

Pat Richard, MCSE MCSA:Messaging CNA
Microsoft Exchange MVP
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http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc2821.txt