Merging active directory + NT4 domain

I am part of of a large government organisation which has recentl
merged with another much smaller organisation. Our organisation is stil
running an NT4 domain with Exchange 5.5 - however the smalle
organisation already has an active directory installed, but n
centralised email system.

We are planning to set up a new Active Directory for the entire ne
organisation, however there is a very strong push to give the smalle
organisation access to Exchange before this takes place. Managements
current idea is to set-up a separate Exchange server in the Exchange 5.
site and then grant access to the smaller orgs AD via a domain trust.

I feel that they are going about this the wrong way and that we shoul
migrate/merge as follows:
1) upgrade the NT4 domain to AD (still running Ex5.5)
2) install an Ex2003 into the new AD
3) do an AD migration of the smaller org into the new AD and give thes
users accounts on the Ex2003 server
4) migrate the Ex5.5 users to Ex2003

Does anyone have any ideas/recommendations?

Thanks
Rya

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Meinolf
Fri Jul 11 06:50:56 PDT 2008

Hello Rhynovan,

See inline. Hopefully i mixed not to much in my description's. Also you should
think about to phone MS support to ask for some guidance, because you will
upgrade, NT4 to AD, and migrate 2 domains to one new domain, including Exchange
installation.

Best regards

Meinolf Weber
Disclaimer: This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers
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> I am part of of a large government organisation which has recently
> merged with another much smaller organisation. Our organisation is
> still running an NT4 domain with Exchange 5.5 - however the smaller
> organisation already has an active directory installed, but no
> centralised email system.

Do you have more then one NT4 DC or only one?

> We are planning to set up a new Active Directory for the entire new
> organisation, however there is a very strong push to give the smaller
> organisation access to Exchange before this takes place. Managements'
> current idea is to set-up a separate Exchange server in the Exchange
> 5.5 site and then grant access to the smaller orgs AD via a domain
> trust.

Think for the complete consolidation, this will be the easiest way, or maybe
use Outlook Web Access for the AD users to connect to your Exchange.

> I feel that they are going about this the wrong way and that we should
> migrate/merge as follows:
> 1) upgrade the NT4 domain to AD (still running Ex5.5)

Exchange on domain controllers is not recommended and exchange 5.5 will not
run on server 2003! Also you can not add Exchange 2003 to NT4 domain: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;822179

> 2) install an Ex2003 into the new AD

Always install exchange only as a member server in the new domain.

> 3) do an AD migration of the smaller org into the new AD and give
> these
> users accounts on the Ex2003 server

Well if you plan to upgrade the NT4 domain, i would split your tasks in more
that you describe. First install a second Exchange 5.5 in the NT4 domain,
maybe on w2000 server, and move all exchange tasks from the NT4 machine.
Check if Exchange is running for the users from the new Exchange, which shouldn't
be a problem, remove exchange from the NT4 DC, so that it is only a domain
controller.
Then start upgrading to Active directory. Best practices for the upgrade
of a NT 4 domain would include an installation of a temporary BDC, later
promoted to a PDC instead of in-place upgrading one of the production domain
controllers to enable fast and easy rollback in case the upgrade fails for
some reason.

If this goes fine you can start with upgrading exchange 5.5, see here: http://www.msexchange.org/tutorials/Migrating_Exchange_5_5_to_2003.html

http://www.microsoft.com/downloadS/details.aspx?FamilyID=38f816a4-fb6a-4cdb-991c-2d8ff73b5ce5&displaylang=en

> 4) migrate the Ex5.5 users to Ex2003
> Does anyone have any ideas/recommendations?
>
> Thanks
> Ryan
> http://forums.techarena.in
>

Rhynovan
Fri Jul 11 09:33:38 PDT 2008


Hi Meinolf
In response to your questions:
We have 2 DCs.
Exchange is not installed on either of the DCs but on 11 domain member
servers (8 x Win2K + 3 x NT4). (We currently have about 4TB of email
held on these servers together)
We have established a two way trust relationship between the domain and
the smaller orgs AD.
I had thought about using OWA - but the OWA on Exchange 5.5 isn't great
and the customers in the smaller org really want to use Outlook clients.
(We have only just managed to get them off Eudora!) They also really
want all the functionality that OL2003 gives them (sharing calendars,
Global Address Lists, etc.)
I had wondered if it would be possible (given the two way trust) to
simply create a mailbox on Exchange 5.5 and make an AD account the
"Primary Windows NT Account" for now.

There is still a lot of politics between the two organisations. We
don't yet have admin rights on each other's domains. So it is proving to
be very tricky testing a workable solution.

I still think that we should be looking to implement a consolidate AD
before we try and merge email systems though.

Thanks again
Ryan


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