E5.5 Migration Into AD Domain

[Fred Yarbrough]

We currently have a working Windows 2003 AD domain and the last remains of
our old NT 4.0 domain. Our Exchange 5.5 servers still reside in the old NT
4.0 domain and they use an NT 4.0 domain account for the Exchange service
account. All of our users have AD domain accounts and the Exchange 5.5
accounts point to these AD domain accounts.


I am thinking that I probably need to migrate the Exchange 5.5 servers over
into the Windows 2003 AD domain and get the Exchange service account to
using the equivalent AD domain account. If this is successful, I will let
this run for several weeks to make sure that things are working properly and
then I will begin to introduce Exchange 2003 servers into the site for the
move mailbox migration process.

My question is: Is there anything that I need to be concerned about when I
move the E5.5 servers from the NT 4.0 domain into the W2K3 AD domain? I
know that the Exchange services account will need to be remapped to the
equivalent AD domain account. I simply want to proceed slowly and
methodically with this process to avoid any unnecessary fire drills. Does
my plan sound ok?


Thanks,
Fred

[Mark Arnold [MVP]]

On Wed, 5 Jan 2005 11:33:18 -0600, "Fred Yarbrough"
<fcyarbrough@yahoo.com> wrote:

We currently have a working Windows 2003 AD domain and the last remains of
our old NT 4.0 domain. Our Exchange 5.5 servers still reside in the old NT
4.0 domain and they use an NT 4.0 domain account for the Exchange service
account. All of our users have AD domain accounts and the Exchange 5.5
accounts point to these AD domain accounts.


I am thinking that I probably need to migrate the Exchange 5.5 servers over
into the Windows 2003 AD domain and get the Exchange service account to
using the equivalent AD domain account. If this is successful, I will let
this run for several weeks to make sure that things are working properly and
then I will begin to introduce Exchange 2003 servers into the site for the
move mailbox migration process.

My question is: Is there anything that I need to be concerned about when I
move the E5.5 servers from the NT 4.0 domain into the W2K3 AD domain? I
know that the Exchange services account will need to be remapped to the
equivalent AD domain account. I simply want to proceed slowly and
methodically with this process to avoid any unnecessary fire drills. Does
my plan sound ok?


Thanks,
Fred

If I were you I would do a semi cheat. Upgrade the NT4 domain to W2K

and introduce that domain as a child domain in your existing forest
domain tree. Instantly all accounts are AD accounts within the forest.
You can use that as your basis to migrate the users to Exchange 2003.
You can use utilities to move existing accounts up the domain tree out
of the child and into the parent.

Just something to have a think about.

[Fred Yarbrough]

Thanks Mark, you made a good point. The only wrinkle there is that we have
several other legacy systems that are using a few NT 4.0 accounts. The
upgrade may screw them up so my upgrade may have to wait until I can wean
the legacy apps off of the old NT 4.0 domain.


Thanks,
Fred



"Mark Arnold [MVP]" <mark@mvps.org> wrote in message
news:4vhot0955c2nak05m87f50pr9b9u2n9hos@4ax.com...

On Wed, 5 Jan 2005 11:33:18 -0600, "Fred Yarbrough"
fcyarbrough@yahoo.com> wrote:


We currently have a working Windows 2003 AD domain and the last remains
of
our old NT 4.0 domain. Our Exchange 5.5 servers still reside in the old
NT
4.0 domain and they use an NT 4.0 domain account for the Exchange service
account. All of our users have AD domain accounts and the Exchange 5.5
accounts point to these AD domain accounts.


I am thinking that I probably need to migrate the Exchange 5.5 servers
over
into the Windows 2003 AD domain and get the Exchange service account to
using the equivalent AD domain account. If this is successful, I will
let
this run for several weeks to make sure that things are working properly
and
then I will begin to introduce Exchange 2003 servers into the site for
the
move mailbox migration process.

My question is: Is there anything that I need to be concerned about when
I
move the E5.5 servers from the NT 4.0 domain into the W2K3 AD domain? I
know that the Exchange services account will need to be remapped to the
equivalent AD domain account. I simply want to proceed slowly and
methodically with this process to avoid any unnecessary fire drills.
Does
my plan sound ok?


Thanks,
Fred

If I were you I would do a semi cheat. Upgrade the NT4 domain to W2K
and introduce that domain as a child domain in your existing forest
domain tree. Instantly all accounts are AD accounts within the forest.
You can use that as your basis to migrate the users to Exchange 2003.
You can use utilities to move existing accounts up the domain tree out
of the child and into the parent.

Just something to have a think about.

[Mark Arnold [MVP]]

On Wed, 5 Jan 2005 15:00:33 -0600, "Fred Yarbrough"
<fcyarbrough@yahoo.com> wrote:

Thanks Mark, you made a good point. The only wrinkle there is that we have
several other legacy systems that are using a few NT 4.0 accounts. The
upgrade may screw them up so my upgrade may have to wait until I can wean
the legacy apps off of the old NT 4.0 domain.


Thanks,
Fred


Assuming you don't convert to native I don't see a problem. The legacy

apps will still see what they think is a PDC, the PDCE.