Splitting Domain Controller & Exchange 2003 from a single server

[soniic2003]

Hello,

I'm looking at reorganizing and splitting services from my current
servers onto some new servers. I'm wondering what the best approach is
to do this.


THE CURRENT SCENARIO:
-----------------------
- I have 2 servers currently:
1) BDC - This is my "main" domain controller (ie has all the FSMO
roles, etc). It is also a GC, EXCHANGE 2003 server, File Server, VPN
server, and DNS server for active directory. There are NO exchange
service packs on the machine. Also, there are NO server 2003 (OS)
service packs on this machine either.

2) XENA - This is just a second domain controller for redundancy. It is
also a GC and DNS server for active directory. It is running SP1 for
server 2003.


THE PROBLEM:
------------
- I have three brand new servers coming. I would like to configure
them as follows:
1) DC01 - Main domain controller (ie all the FSMO roles), GC, DNS
2) DC02 - Domain controller for redundancy. GC and DNS aswell.
3) EXNG - This will be a member server running Exchange 2003 SP2.


NOTES:
a) I want the new servers running Server 2003 R2. The exchange server
must have SP2.
b) I need to keep the BDC server as just a member server because it
will still be my file server and VPN server.


THE PROPOSED SOLUTION:
----------------------
- What are the correct steps to do this? These are the steps I'm
thinking of taking:


1) Run ADREP /FORESTPREP and ADPREP /DOMAINPREP from disk 2 of Server
2003 R2. I will run this on BDC since its the schema master (it has
all the FSMO roles actually).

2) On the new DC01 server, install Server 2003 R2 and DNS. Join it to
the domain and DCPROMO it.
3) Transfer all the FSMO roles from BDC to DC01 (***will this effect
Exchange running on BDC in any way?)
4) On the new DC02 server, install Server 2003 R2 and DNS. Join it to
the domain and DCPROMO it.
5) Change my DHCP server to point the DNS for clients on my network to
DC01 and DC02.
6) Change static DNS entries on all member servers on my network to
DC01 and DC02.


7) On the new EXNG server, install Server 2003 R2 and Exchange 2003
SP2.
8) Transfer all mailboxes from BDC to the new EXNG server using the
wizard in sys manager (***does it matter that the OS and exchange SP
level is different???).
9) Follow the steps in KB Article #822931 to transfer the exchange
roles from the BDC to EXNG
(http://support.microsoft.com/kb/822931/en-us).

10) Run the network for a few days to make sure that all outlook
exchange clients get redirected to the new EXNG server (does Outlook
automatically make a permanent change in the client from BDC to EXNG
for the exchange server?). Also, need to run the network for a few
days so the DHCP leases will expire and renew with the new DNS servers
pointing to DC01 and DC02.
11) Now that things are running fine on the network, I'm ready to start
removing servers/services


12) Uninstall DNS from XENA, demote it to a member server (using
dcpromo), remove it from the domain, destroy it. (please see question
#5 below)
13) Uninstall DNS from BDC, uninstall exchange server from BDC, demote
it to a member server (using dcpromo). Reboot. (please see question #5
below)
14) Upgrade BDC to Server 2003 R2.


I guess at this point I should be done (?)


SOME QUESTIONS:
---------------
1) Does my steps above seem to be logical and correct? Are there any
pitfalls to watchout for? Any way I could do this better?
2) As per step #1, is this a "dangerous" operation? (i.e. Is there a
risk of anything going wrong when doing this?)
3) As per step #3, will this effect exchange which is running on BDC in
any way?
4) As per step #8 & #9 above, does it matter that I'm transferring
roles/mailboxes between exchange servers that are on different OS's and
SP levels of exchange (Server 2003 no SP vs. Server 2003 R2; and no
exchange SP vs. SP2) ??
5) As per step #12 & #13 above, I know that exchange server has some
places where it manually sets the Domain Controller that it uses (eg:
Recipient Update service). Do I have to manually make sure that it is
not pointing to BDC or XENA before I demote them? Or will exchange
know to automatically find another domain controller if its pointing to

one that gets demoted? Where else would I have to make similar changes

to re-point the domain controller in exchange (if its necessary)?


My apologies for the long post! Any advice would be greatly
appreciated.

Thank you very much

-ZD

 

[chriss3 [MVP]]

Hello,
Your steeps described below seems to be correct. One thing I recommend to
watch out for this that you keep the "BDC" (Running both Exchange and AD)
intact until that you have all your new servers inplace and have migrated
all the data such mailboxes and FSMO roles etc. Then uninstall Exchange from
the "BDC" and after that de-promote it from AD using DCPROMO if you are not
going to use that server as DC or Exchange anymore. Demote a Domain
Controller that also runs exchange cause a few issues to exchange that's
hard to solve.

--
Regards
Christoffer Andersson
Microsoft MVP - Directory Services


No email replies please - reply in the newsgroup

 

[Jorge de Almeida Pinto [MVP]]

1) it looks good. of course make sure to test your procedure in a test
environment!

2) if you already have w2k3 you do NOT need to run ADPREP /DOMAINPREP from
the R2 CD. Only ADPREP /FORESTPREP is enough. There are schema
incompatibilities if you have implemented SFU 2.0 in an earlier stage. Make
sure you test that first

3) nope

4) nope, not that I know of

5) if DSAccess is automagically configured it should switch automagically.
If I'm not mistaken change the DC/GC for the RUS before removing that DC/GC



--

Cheers,
(HOPEFULLY THIS INFORMATION HELPS YOU!)

# Jorge de Almeida Pinto # MVP Windows Server - Directory Services

BLOG --> http://blogs.dirteam.com/blogs/jorge/default.aspx

 

[soniic2003]

Hello Everybody,

Thank you very much for your responses.


I am part way through the migration and I have run into some MS
Exchange problems.


This is what is happening:


I've installed the second exchange server and applied SP2. I then
tried to move over a single mailbox to it (just to test). Obviously it

is my own mailbox (whats that about eating your own dog food....).
Anyways, I can send/receive email no problem, however, I am getting the

following error in outlook 2003 sp2 when I hit the send/receive button:



Task 'Microsoft Exchange Server' reported error (0x8004010F): 'The
operation failed. An object could not be found.'
If I look on the "task" tab, this error happens when "Saving
synchronization log".


I've read that this is due to the offline address book. I've tried
right-cliking and rebuilding the Default offline address book in
exchange sys administrator but this did not fix the problem.


Note that I can still send/receive email with no problems, however, I
still get that error popup when i hit the send/receive button.


Does anybody have any idea what this means? ONLY my mailbox is having
the issue since it was moved to the new exchange server.


Please advise, thank you very much.