Exchange Migration Question - "Can I leave my users as NT Domain accounts?" (Part 2)

Part 2 = Let’s see if we can remove the old Exchange 5.5 Server now!

(If you haven’t read it already, Part 1 is posted here.)

So… after the mailbox move, I used the PFMigrate tool to move system folders and public folders.  Since my demo environment didn’t have any public folders, this was an easy process.  I did, however, want to make sure that any system folders were duplicated by using the command:

"pfmigrate.wsf /S:lon-dcexc55–01 /T:lon-dcexc-01 /A /N:ALL /F:c:ExchLogspfmigrate.log /SF"

where /S and /T are the source and target, /A means “add a replica”, and /N:ALL means work on ALL of them.  /F specifies where to put the resulting log file and what to call it.  /SF means operate on System Files.

Once I did that, I also used PFMigrate to Delete (/D) the folder replicas from the source server (lon-dcexc55–01).

“Go ahead! Delete the old server already!”

Okay… now I stopped Exchange Services on the 5.5 server, opened the 5.5 Administrator on the new server, and deleted the old server from the org.

“Were you still connecting to the new mailbox?”

Yep. In fact, I tested sending emails not only to myself, but also to the distribution lists that had been transferred.  All was good!

“What about upgrading your Exchange 2003 to “native” mode?

Not at first.  But after I deleted the Site Replication Service (under Tools Site Replication Services), I now was able to raise the Exchange functional level to native mode.  And yes, things were still working.

“What about the ADC? Can you remove the Connection Agreements and uninstall the ADC now?”

I found that after removing the Site Replication Service, the configuration CA was removed automatically.  I deleted the other two, and things still worked fine on my client.

So… basically I’ve proven that if necessary, you can continue use NT User accounts even after installing an Exchange 2003 server into your organization and removing the old one.

NOTE: The question you should all be thinking after completing this is..

“What happens when you want to create a new NT user account?”

Well… I tried that, too.  The User Manager asked me what Exchange Server I wanted to connect to for mailbox creation, and I told it the name of the new server – but it failed after that with a communications error.  I leave it as an exercise for you (or some feedback to this posting if you know the answer) as to what would allow this to work – whether it’s leaving the ADC up and configured, keeping the Site Replication Service in place and leaving your Exchange running in Mixed mode.

Fun stuff!  Hope that helps!

-Kevin

Any comments or questions?  Please click the “feedback” link immediately below.