Any suggestions for Upgrade? Have read the FAQs!

[surfk4t]

Folks

I am about to upgrade our 1 Exchange 5.5 server to Exchange 2000. This machine still has NT 4.0 on So I need to upgrade this first and change the domain to Native. This is the root domain, and I have 4 children domains.

Has anyone had any problems upgrading NT 4.0 with Exhange 5.5 installed to Windows 2000?

When I have done, I need to upgrade the Exchange.

What issues should I look out for. I do not have a spare machine, so I cannot move the accounts over to a new server.

Do I still need to install ADC?

Do my child domains need changing to Native Mode?

Any help or advice would be welcome.

Cheers

 

[Marcs41]

Stick with mixed mode if there is anything older then 2000 on you LAn.
I don't know how may clients you have but it may be safer, since you dont' have a sceond server, to export all mail to PST's.
Then upgrade, preferred from scratch, to Win2000, next install exc2000 and then import the users and their PST's again.
Do you have any more questions with faq858-3483 ?

Marc
_{If 'something' 'somewhere' gives 'some' error, expect random guesses or no replies at all. Please specify details.
Free Tip: The F1 Key does NOT destroy your PC!}

 

[surfk4t]

Marc

Thanks for the reply.

Regarding clients, we have around 100 email accounts, spread over a WAN, with most users being in the Root Domain of the AD. With around 50 users spread across our small regional offices.

I am interested in why we should not go to Native mode in AD, have you had problems down clients? I did wonder if Win98 client could cope with a Native domain?

Regarding the Exchange upgrade, when I export the .pst how would I create the accounts after the installation of exchange. Would the Exchange server not look at the User accounts in AD and not create the additional attributes for each account by Extending the Schema?

If the Exchange installation 'created' the accounts, do you just import .pst to each specific account? How would this affect the child-domain accounts?

Would welcome your thoughts.

Cheers

 

[Marcs41]

No problems with Native mode, but you should (not must) need at least to have all clients up to a minimum of Win2000 to avoid any issues there. Also, an NT server cannot work with a 2000 server in Native mode, in case you would have some other server somewhere.
You can go from Mixed to Native, but never back.

If you would go the PST route, you also need to export the userinfo from Ex 5.5, which you can then import, see the faq.

For 100 users, I would go the migration way though, since you have them in spread locations. That will also keep the child domains.