demoting a domain controller with exchange server installed

[Guest]

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.win2000.active_directory (More info?)

I have the following question:

How can I demote a domain controller running Exchange Server 2000 Enterprise
Edition without losing ANY data ? Our setup is as follows: 3 domain
controllers (one of which is our "needs to be demoted" domain controller).
replication is functional.
Operating system: Windows 2000 Server (and the one that needs to be demoted
is 2000 Advanced Server)
All domain controllers are for the same domain (in the same tree, same
forest ofcourse)
No sites are used.
The number of mailboxes is kinda huge so a complete reinstallation is NOT an
alternative. The number of client stations already in the domain is also very
large so a migration to a new domain is not wanted -> i'd have to have all
the clients running while deploying the migration agent that comes with the
Active Directory Migration Tool -> this would also imply a second
installation of Exchange and moving all the mailboxes (a couple of tens of
gigabytes)
forestprep and domainprep was successfull when Exchange was first installed
(a couple of years ago)
The actual question is: can something go wrong (i guess that it can, A LOT)
and if so what should i be careful about. i am quite proficient with IT so
don't hesitate in dumping technical info. i haven't done this until now
("demote" an exchange server) and am hoping for a pertinent advice. anyway i
intend on doing a sector by sector backup of all three servers before moving
forward with the actual demotion.

This is due to a complete redesign of our IT infrastructure.

Many thanks for ANY info

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.win2000.active_directory (More info?)

yikes, what will you do with the old mailboxes?

---
validemail55@dodgeit.com


Ardealul wrote:
> I have the following question:
>
> How can I demote a domain controller running Exchange Server 2000
Enterprise
> Edition without losing ANY data ? Our setup is as follows: 3 domain
> controllers (one of which is our "needs to be demoted" domain
controller).
> replication is functional.
> Operating system: Windows 2000 Server (and the one that needs to be
demoted
> is 2000 Advanced Server)
> All domain controllers are for the same domain (in the same tree,
same
> forest ofcourse)
> No sites are used.
> The number of mailboxes is kinda huge so a complete reinstallation is
NOT an
> alternative. The number of client stations already in the domain is
also very
> large so a migration to a new domain is not wanted -> i'd have to
have all
> the clients running while deploying the migration agent that comes
with the
> Active Directory Migration Tool -> this would also imply a second
> installation of Exchange and moving all the mailboxes (a couple of
tens of
> gigabytes)
> forestprep and domainprep was successfull when Exchange was first
installed
> (a couple of years ago)
> The actual question is: can something go wrong (i guess that it can,
A LOT)
> and if so what should i be careful about. i am quite proficient with
IT so
> don't hesitate in dumping technical info. i haven't done this until
now
> ("demote" an exchange server) and am hoping for a pertinent advice.
anyway i
> intend on doing a sector by sector backup of all three servers before
moving
> forward with the actual demotion.
>
> This is due to a complete redesign of our IT infrastructure.
>
> Many thanks for ANY info

 

[enkidu]

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.win2000.active_directory (More info?)

On Mon, 13 Dec 2004 13:39:14 -0800, "Ardealul"
<Ardealul@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote:

>I have the following question:
>
>How can I demote a domain controller running Exchange Server 2000 Enterprise
>Edition without losing ANY data ? Our setup is as follows: 3 domain
>controllers (one of which is our "needs to be demoted" domain controller).
>replication is functional.
>Operating system: Windows 2000 Server (and the one that needs to be demoted
>is 2000 Advanced Server)
>All domain controllers are for the same domain (in the same tree, same
>forest ofcourse)
>No sites are used.
>The number of mailboxes is kinda huge so a complete reinstallation is NOT an
>alternative.
>
Why not install Exchange on another machine and move all the mailboxes
to that machine. Run with two Exchange servers for a while. How many
is "kinda huge"? I think that such a migration of a few thousand
mailboxes isn't that huge an undertaking. Might take some time,
though, especially if there are a number of public folders too.

Cheers,

Cliff

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