We will be upgrading from Exchange 2003 to 2010 and as for a sequence, I was wondering if anyone had recommendations regarding the upgrading of Domain Controllers. We now have two Server 2003 SP2 DC's. Should we promote the DC role to Server 2008 R2 machines before we upgrade Exchange or after the Exchange conversion. Thanks for any recommendations, Steve Rowe

Hi Steve, The minimum requirement for Exchange 2010 is to have a domain that has 2003 domain functional level configured. So if that is the case it is not necessary to upgrade your DCs right away. But if your domain is currently not running in 2003 functional level you should first do that only if there are no 2000 DCs available within your domain. Are your DCs running the R2 version of 2003? R2 versions are supported until July 2015. My recommendation is to start planning upgrading your domain controllers to 2008 R2 or later (server 8 or 2012) Kind regards, Bart Timmermans Bart Timmermans | Technical Consultant at KPN Consulting Follow me @ My Blog | Linkedin | Twitter Please mark as Answer, if my post answers your Question. Vote as Helpful, if it is helpful to you.

Bart, thanks for the response! Our domain is in 2003 native mode, but neither DC's are R2. My director heard mention of some horror stories of orgs upgrading DC's to Server 2008 before upgrading Exchange 2003 to 2010. We will have to coexist for a short period of time, but will shut down our Exchange 2003 server as soon as we can. Thanks, Steve Rowe

Hi if you have domain and forest functional level at version 2003 you can install Exchange 2010. You can also install DC which will have OS: Win. Server 2008/R2, but it is possible work at 2003 domain/forest functional level on those type of servers. After you will do a migration to Ex.2010 and you will remove Ex.2003 you can upgrade your domain/forest functional level to 2008 or 2008 R2 -it depends what you requests, but if you will do upgrade to Windows Server 2008 R2 domain/forest functional level, so ALL your DCs must be running Windows Server 2008 R2!Petr Weiner

Hi if you have domain and forest functional level at version 2003 you can install Exchange 2010. You can also install DC which will have OS: Win. Server 2008/R2, but it is possible work at 2003 domain/forest functional level on those type of servers. After you will do a migration to Ex.2010 and you will remove Ex.2003 you can upgrade your domain/forest functional level to 2008 or 2008 R2 -it depends what you requests, but if you will do upgrade to Windows Server 2008 R2 domain/forest functional level, so ALL your DCs must be running Windows Server 2008 R2!Petr Weiner

Thanks Peter, our plan is to upgrade Exchange 2003 to 2010 and to upgrade our Domain Controllers from 2003 to 2008 R2. I just need to know the best sequence to perform the upgrade. I guess I'm trying to find out (best practice wise) if one is better than the other. Thanks, Steve Rowe

Thanks Peter, our plan is to upgrade Exchange 2003 to 2010 and to upgrade our Domain Controllers from 2003 to 2008 R2. I just need to know the best sequence to perform the upgrade. I guess I'm trying to find out (best practice wise) if one is better than the other. Thanks, Steve Rowe

I just did this. I had two 2003 R2 DCs. I introduced a Windows Server 2008 R2 into the domain (that the client wanted to replace one of those DCs). I had to make sure that before I raised the functional level of the "forest" and the "domain", that there were no pre-Windows 2000 DCs or NT 4.0/Win9x computers on the network. Windows 2000 workstations would still be able to log onto the network. Any pre-Windows 2000 workstations would not. One thing I strongly recommend is to run all of the baseline analyzers to clean up all of the errors in active directory, DNS, and your current Exchange 2003. FIX EVERYTHING! Before attempting to install Exchange 2010, I would promote the Windows Server 2008 R2 to a DC. Read and implement all of the pre-requisites for Exchange 2010 before attempting to install it. There is an Exchange 2010 pre-deployment tool which you should run after promoting the Server 2008 R2 which will point out a couple of things that needs to be done for Exchange 2010 when a 2008 R2 server has been promoted to a DC prior to installing Exchange 2010 on that server. Run tools like dcdiag, netdiag (not applicable on 2008 servers anymore), and the Microsoft IT Health Environment tool. Someone else had setup this network and they did a lot of not standard things that I didn't like. By running the Microsoft analyzers and the tools above, I found a lot of surprises that could have been nasty and made the installation of Exchange 2010 much more complicated than it had to be. Good luck! "Skid Rowe" wrote in message news:e4bc6e1b-c429-48fd-9a57-45298fc7d91a@communitybridge.codeplex.com... Thanks Peter, our plan is to upgrade Exchange 2003 to 2010 and to upgrade our Domain Controllers from 2003 to 2008 R2. I just need to know the best sequence to perform the upgrade. I guess I'm trying to find out (best practice wise) if one is better than the other. Thanks, Steve Rowe

I just did this. I had two 2003 R2 DCs. I introduced a Windows Server 2008 R2 into the domain (that the client wanted to replace one of those DCs). I had to make sure that before I raised the functional level of the "forest" and the "domain", that there were no pre-Windows 2000 DCs or NT 4.0/Win9x computers on the network. Windows 2000 workstations would still be able to log onto the network. Any pre-Windows 2000 workstations would not. One thing I strongly recommend is to run all of the baseline analyzers to clean up all of the errors in active directory, DNS, and your current Exchange 2003. FIX EVERYTHING! Before attempting to install Exchange 2010, I would promote the Windows Server 2008 R2 to a DC. Read and implement all of the pre-requisites for Exchange 2010 before attempting to install it. There is an Exchange 2010 pre-deployment tool which you should run after promoting the Server 2008 R2 which will point out a couple of things that needs to be done for Exchange 2010 when a 2008 R2 server has been promoted to a DC prior to installing Exchange 2010 on that server. Run tools like dcdiag, netdiag (not applicable on 2008 servers anymore), and the Microsoft IT Health Environment tool. Someone else had setup this network and they did a lot of not standard things that I didn't like. By running the Microsoft analyzers and the tools above, I found a lot of surprises that could have been nasty and made the installation of Exchange 2010 much more complicated than it had to be. Good luck! "Skid Rowe" wrote in message news:e4bc6e1b-c429-48fd-9a57-45298fc7d91a@communitybridge.codeplex.com... Thanks Peter, our plan is to upgrade Exchange 2003 to 2010 and to upgrade our Domain Controllers from 2003 to 2008 R2. I just need to know the best sequence to perform the upgrade. I guess I'm trying to find out (best practice wise) if one is better than the other. Thanks, Steve Rowe

Thank you Thomas - This is the information I've been looking for. I will consider upgrading our DC's to 2008R2 after running all of the utilities. Thanks for the great input!!Steve Rowe

Thank you Thomas - This is the information I've been looking for. I will consider upgrading our DC's to 2008R2 after running all of the utilities. Thanks for the great input!!Steve Rowe

Thomas, what are ramifications of Exchange 2003 functioning in a 2008R2 domain until Exchange 2010 users are completely converted? Thanks,Steve Rowe

Thomas, what are ramifications of Exchange 2003 functioning in a 2008R2 domain until Exchange 2010 users are completely converted? Thanks,Steve Rowe