Domain Controller Upgrades 2000-2003 - Best Methods?

[Scott McDonald]

Just looking for info as to the best method to do this in a live environment. Any and all input would be greatly appreciated. We're going to Exchange 2003 (from a non-exchange environment) in a windows2000 domain so we figure we should go ahead and upgrade the domain controllers to 2003 first and I wanted to get some input as far as best practices/methods of doing this, others experience in doing it etc so the more input the better.

Thanks!

 

[Scott McDonald]

I've read all the deployment guides on this but they didn't mention best practices in the sense of upgrade existing controllers or create new ones in the domain from scratch. I typically don't like the idea of upgrading, but if I introduced new ones then moved roles over I would have to do it on desktop machines, then reload the real servers on 2003 then promote those back in then move master roles back over and remove the desktop DC from the environment...really long lots of work method, but wouldn't it be cleaner than just upgrading the existing DC's? (2 total).