Exchange 5.5 to Exchange 2003 Migration tips

NT4 Upgrade to Windows 2000/3

Consider changing the NT domain name if it contains a dot. This is not strictly necessary but is a good way to avoid problems.
You have a temporary workstation or server that can act be installed as a NT4 BDC.
NT4 drivers for the network card and for the SCSI controller of the temporary BDC.
Prepare SP4 or later integrated Windows 2000 Server CD for the installation of the domain controllers.
Run Windows Update to ensure latest security fixes are installed on the Windows 2000 servers as soon as they are online.

Installation of Exchange 2003 in an existing Active Directory forest

Make sure all domain controllers in the forest are Global Catalog servers and are running current service packs and patches.
Before beginning installation or migration make sure there are no existing Exchange organizations or ADC CAs have been created. The easiest way to check this is by installing Windows 2000/3 Support Tools and looking at the properties of the Administrators of the domain using the ADSIEdit tool. If one of them has the property "proxy addresses" then ADC or Exchange setup has been run before.

Exchange 5.5 Migration

Check if the Exchange organization has one of the following characters in its directory name:" ~'!#$%^*()_+=@" . These are not allowed so you have to use the Exchange 5.5 administrator to change the display name of the organization.

Exchange Migration plan for moving forward:

Perform Due Diligence on your network via Remote Terminal Service ( Next Week)
Identify existing components - users, groups, login variables
Document proposed AD structure
Project kickoff meeting (Friday)
Install Windows Server 2003 (Friday Night)
Install Active Directory (Friday Night)
Configure, Patch and Connect (Friday Night)
Review Event Log, resolve any errors (Friday Night)
Connect AD environment to existing Windows 2000 (Friday Night)
Identify existing printers (Saturday)
Identify existing components in Exchange (Saturday)
Build Exchange, configure, patch(Saturday)
Install and configure virus software,Spam solution and Fax Software(Saturday)
Configure OWA in DMZ(Saturday)
Verify Installation (Saturday)
Perform Mailbox Move (Saturday)
Install Outlook 2003 on all desktops. (Saturday - Sunday)
Review Event Log, resolve any errors (Sunday)
Setup Test workstation/perform testing (Sunday)
On-Site to handle any issues with the migration (Monday)

The above steps are only an estimate of work needed to be perform a successful migration. After we perform the Due Diligence Intercore will have a more definite outline in MS Project to fully detail the breadth of work needed to perform the migration . This Due Diligence will identify issues that we can resolve before the migration is performed.

Call us after you have reviewed these steps with Management and are ready to move forward to the next step.

888-603-6333 ext 89