Changing Password of Install ID

[dennisbeach1]

Security is demanding that we change the password of the special ID we used to install all our exchange servers and used for backup, virus etc addons. We are aware of all the places we have to make changes on the stuff we added and realize we have to check all the exchange services to determine which of those we need to change. What we need to know, is are there any other places exchange used this ID and password, that need to be changed. I assume there is not, but with the importance of e-mail at our company and 12,000 users all over the world, we want to make sure we make this change with as little disription as possible.

 

[jonarden]

You mention "exchange servers" but don't mention whether you are in a Mixed Exchange or NT environment. You may want to take a look at MS Knowledge Base article 307630 XADM "HOW TO: Change the Exchange Server Service Account in a Mixed Environment" for one perspective on some of those issues. There's a 27 page whitepaper 266041 XADM: "How to Change the Exchange Server 5.5 Service Account" (last reviewed 5/14/2003), and 152808 "XADM: How to Change the Service Account". The whitepaper has a section on "Special Considerations". You may also want to do an Advanced Search of the MS Knowledge Base (if you haven't done so already) using "Change the Service Account" & "Exchange 5.5" as search parameters to scan for other potential issues.

You already mentioned anti-virus and backup software; take time to check for any other software that was installed on the Exchange servers which uses service account permissions. Sorry, no checklist here (and you may have reviewed all this already) but perhaps some of these resources might be helpful in developing a sequenced plan for the change.