Need upgrade help

G

Guest

Well here are some questions for the Microsoft gurus:


1) We are having 5 domain controllers. Two in suburb one in Downtown,
One in Singapore and one in Barcelona.. All running windows 2000 server.

2) We are running exchange 2000 in a cluster here running under two
nodes.

We have to upgrade the system here with 2003. Should we do the exchange
first or the Active directory and what would be the order. How can we
implement the whole upgrade? Any help would we greatly appreciated.
Thanks.
 
C

Cary Shultz [A.D. MVP]

This question would be much better suited in the Active Directory news group
as well as the Exchange Admin news group.

Post it there and I am sure that you will get lots of answers.

I would suggest that this is not a simple undertaking and should be done by
someone with the necessary experience. If you are asking these questions
you are *probably* not that person.....well, not at the moment. Please
understand that I am not trying to be harsh or rude. This is a significant
undertaking. I would hate for you to find yourself in a very bad
situation.....

Here is one way for you to do this:

First you would have to run adprep /forestprep ( located on the WIN2003
Server CD ) on the Domain Controller that holds the fsmo role of Schema
Admin using a user account object that is a member of the Schema Admins.
Let that replicate throughout the forest.....this may take some time. I am
assuming that you have properly set up Sites and Services via the Active
Directory Sites and Services MMC.

Then you would want to run adprep /forestprep on the Domain Controller that
holds the fsmo role of PDC Emulator in each domain using a user account
object that is a member of the Domain Admins. It sounds like you have only
one domain and are making good use of Sites and Services ( I hope that I am
assuming correctly and if I am then that is a very good thing! ). Let this
replicate to all Domain Controllers throughout each domain.

You might then want to run the fix for the 'Mangled Attributes' that can
occur if you are running a WIN2000 AD environment with Exchange 2000 and use
adprep to prepare the domain for the introduction of a WIN2003 Domain
Controller. Please see the following MSKB Article:

http://support.microsoft.com/?id=314649


Let this replicate throughout the forest. Again, this could take a good
while to do.

You could then either introduce a WIN2003 Domain Controller or upgrade the
DC that holds the fsmo role of Schema Master ( er, or would the PDC Emulator
be the wiser choice? ).

I would ask about Exchange in the Exchange Admin news group.

I know that you asked about an upgrade. I have not done this so I am simply
speculating that what I suggested above would be a proper approach ( er,
only regarding the 'upgrade the DC that holds the fsmo role of Schema
Master' part ). Please verify this with the Microsoft documentation and
with those who have actually done this!

I have cc:ed the two news groups that I suggested at the top of this post so
that you do not have to duplicate anything.....

--
Cary W. Shultz
Roanoke, VA 24014
Microsoft Active Directory MVP

http://www.activedirectory-win2000.com
http://www.grouppolicy-win2000.com
 
G

Guest

Hi Cary
Thanks a lot for your reply. It's a great help that you extended. We are in
planning phase now. Your plan makes a good sense to me. I am working on
figuring out the best way to do all this upgrade. Either active directory
first or excahnge first.
I am waiting for the response from the exchange group that you posted to see
what they say.
Can I have your email address so that I can communicate you directly just in
case if get into problems.
Thanks again for your help.
 
C

Cary Shultz [A.D. MVP]

Sukhan,

Sorry for the delay in responding. Wife was in the hospital for a couple of
days. Naturally everything else is completely forgotten and my focus is on
her! Still will be for the next couple of days.

The e-mail address that you see if your right click on my name and select
properties is correct. Probably should not have it that way but I do not
get too much spam.

--
Cary W. Shultz
Roanoke, VA 24014
Microsoft Active Directory MVP

http://www.activedirectory-win2000.com
http://www.grouppolicy-win2000.com
 

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